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This 360 panorama is a view of Shadow Lake, California
VirtualParks.org FAQ
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
- Why are VirtualParks panoramas rectilinear?
A: While I've shot cubic panoramas, I tend to prefer the natural appearance of rectangular panoramas when printed or viewed online. The human eye has a bias towards horizontal viewing I think. The extra time to shoot vertically could be spent enjoying going further down the trail. - What happened to the maps that used to be here?
A: See this page - How much time does it take to build panoramas of this quality?
A: When shooting with film, each 360 panorama could take as much as 8-10 hours to scan, cleanup scans in Photoshop, stitch, clean up the stitch in Photoshop, and export to a flat image, then build a VR. Now with digital cameras ever-growing pixel count, a few hours can be saved scanning but if you want the highest quality, expect to spend a few hours getting a panorama built. The stitching process for 12-16 very sizable images is probably not any faster than it was years ago when no one scanned very large images because PCs couldn't handle the size. - Which stitcher do you use?
A: If it is a scene that seems promising, I try several stitchers to see which one handles the particular challenge of that place and time the best. I used to use QTVRAS but it has not been updated in over ten years.