Florin Miu 2001 

    4. Creating Panorama Worlds

In order the 16 images to be loaded by the cult player at runtime we need to create cult worlds which contain the 16 images as textures. 

To create the worlds first open p.max file in 3d Max.

p.max contains just a rectangle, Rectangle01, which is hidden (when the world is loaded we don't want to see the rectangle, we just want to read the texture pixels).

Open material editor. Rectangle01 has a material named image, which is the first in the material editor.

The image material has a texture applied to the Diffuse Color map (one of the p_1.bmp ... p_16.bmp).

Press the Map #1 button to open the map rollout.

Now you have to load each of the p_1.bmp, ... , p_16.bmp and export as cult file.

The following steps will be repeated for each bitmap.

• Press the Bitmap button and choose p_1.bmp. Now the material contains p_1.bmp as image for the Diffuse Color map.
• Choose File/Export  from the menu and select Cult3D Designer in the Save as Type combo.
• Go to the location where your panorama project resides and type p_1 in the File Name field, then press Save.
  The Cult3D Exporter window will open.
• Expand the textures node and select p_1 texture.
   
• From the Image Compression options select Wavelet and then choose 75 for Wavelet Image Quality parameter.
• Press the APPLY button.
• Press the Save button.

Now you have a cult3d file (p_1.c3d) which will be used to build the p_1.co world.

Repeat the steps above for each p_2.bmp, ..., p_16.bmp file.

You will end by having 16 c3d files.

Ok, now you can close 3d max (you don't have to save p.max).

Open Cult3D Designer. 

The following steps will be repeated for each p_1.c3d, ... , p_16.c3d you just created.

• From the menu choose File/New Project command.
• From the menu choose File/ Add Cult3D Designer File command and select p_1.c3d file.
  Now the Designer project contains the p_1 texture.
  
• Choose the File/Save Internet File menu command and go to the location where your panorama project resides.
  Type p_1.co in the file name field and press Save. The Save Settings dialog is displayed. In this dialog press the Save button.
  You just created a world containing a piece from the panorama image.

Repeat the steps above for each p_2.c3d, ... , p_16.c3d file.

Now you have all 16 worlds containing all pieces of the panorama. Notice that you must name them p_1.co, p_2.co, ... , p_16.co and place them in the same directory with panorama.co,  in order the main scene (panorama.co) to find and load them.

You may open panorama.htm in browser. The panorama.co scene will be loaded by the cult player, then the panorama image will receive the images from the worlds as they are loaded.

Your panorama its finished.

Navigation

With the left mouse button you may rotate the panorama. With the right mouse button you may go closer to panorama and in this case the left mouse button may be used to move up/down too (this is enabled only after all worlds have been loaded).

After all worlds have been loaded the panorama begins slow left rotation. You may toggle rotation on/off by pressing R.

Moving closer to panorama is Java controlled and you cannot go to close or pass through the cylinder. Moving up/down is also controlled by Java and you cannot go to high or too low and see the cylinder edges.

This is true if the aspect ratio of the scene in the html page is 2. The original panorama.htm displays a 512x256 panorama. You are not constraint to these values but you must keep the aspect ratio 2 (512/256 = 2). For example you may set the dimensions 400x200 or 700x350.

If the aspect ratio is not 2 then the camera may see the cylinder edges (aspect ratio < 2)  or see only the a portion of the image (aspect ratio > 2).

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