FAQ (Frequently asked Questions)

1. Why should I use virtual tours?
Virtual tours allow showing any place in the world so that the viewer gets the best possible idea of the place and feels like really being there. You can also add all sorts of extra information to your tours like floorplans, rotating objects, company’s information and so on, which makes it a great marketing tool.

2. In which areas can I use a virtual tour?
Virtual tours are perfect for real estate, tourism, museums, expositions, motor business, photo albums… But can be used in all other areas where there is a need of presenting something or some place.

3. Why should I use Digital Tech Frontier tools?


4. Does Digital Tech Frontier offer a discount for 'bulk' orders?
Yes. To find out more about this, please email your inquiry to sales@wecantakeyouthere.com " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false

5. How can I access my WeCanTakeYouThere account? How do I log-in (connect) to my control panel?
Simple: Go to the website http://www.WeCanTakeYouThere.com/Home , select your language and click on "Control Panel". Then fill in your user name and password in the fields.

6. Registration keys: What are they? How can I retrieve them?
When you install Digital Tech Frontier software, you will need a registration key to successfully activate your software and remove the watermarks. Once purchased, you will receive an email containing instructions on how to obtain the registration key. You will have your user name and password sent you in order to log in to your account (see point 5 above). Simply follow the instructions when you are in and you can always access the keys should you need them for re-installing your software on same computer. If you encounter any difficulties, please contact our support.

7. How can I make a panorama for my tour?


8. Can I stitch all kinds of images?


9. Can I import panoramas that I have already created in other stitching programs to be presented in VRDL virtual tours?
Absolutely. No matter which program was used to create your panoramic images (spherical or cylindrical, full 360 or partial), you can import them into Show and include them in your virtual tours. There are no restrictions on this as long as the panoramas are in JPG or BMP format.

10. My high quality panoramas appear blurry or pixelated in virtual tours. What do I have to for them to appear with higher quality in the tours?


11. What kind of advantages does publishing in the automatic mode have over publishing manually?


12. What is a partial and a full panorama?
A partial panorama is one that does not rotate a full 360° horizontally. The partial will simply 'bounce back' once it reaches the either end of the horizontal view. A full panorama however refers to a complete 360 degree horizontal revolution in a view. Please look at the demos in samples to see the difference for yourself.

13. What is the optimum file size for a panorama in a virtual tour?
Generally you should aim to keep each panorama around 100 KB if your audience will be using dial-up 56k modems. If you are targeting users with broadband Internet access, you can create panoramas that have a file size of as large as 250 KB without worrying about lengthy download times.

14. What is the difference between the 'Flat' and 'Immersive' viewers?
Immersive viewer corrects the optical distortion when the images are stitched together. This is especially useful when the photos are taken with a wide-angle lens. The immersive viewer also allows you to zoom in and out of the panorama. The Flat viewer generally gives a sharper image when compared to the Immersive viewer. Most of the time it comes down to personal taste … please look at the demos in samples to see the difference for yourself.

15. What is a SKIN? And how can I change their design?
Skin is the term used for the graphic interface that contains the virtual tour elements. It is usually made up of a graphic frame, different button icons such as zoom -in, zoom-out, info/help, audio, hotspot, and a drop down menu. Skins can have many different designs and come in a large library of forms and colours. You can change the Skins of your tours in two ways:
A) by selecting a different Skin from the Skin library. There are currently near to 100 different skins to choose from.
B) by designing and creating your own skins with SkinEditor, a powerful skin design and editing program with a broad range of creation tools and design options. (Now included in SHOW 3)

It is worth to mention that WeCanTakeYouThere Real Estate program employs an intelligent Skin selection function in the background which means when a user selects different tour elements, the program automatically present only the set of skins that can match the that particular tour. For example, if a tour contains no floor plan, then all skins with a floor plan pane will be excluded. This intelligent feature considerably simplifies the skin selection process.

16. Can I create a panorama without a Skin?
Yes. Under your choose skin option, click empty skin.

17. Can I show my own 'info' screen in the Skins?
Yes. All you need to do is to create your own designs in any html editor program such as DreamWeaver or GoLive. For instance, you can use your own graphic and text elements showing any information in any language you want, and then save them as an HTML file. Next, in the publishing stage, after choosing the skin, you can assign that html file to be the page that shows up when the user selects the 'i' (info) button on the Skin. Your design with your elements will show in its own window.

18. What is the main difference between SHOW and Publisher?
The differences are that SHOW supports more features in the tours, for instance you can integrate interactive floor plans/maps, slideshows, video clips, company info: logotype, URL, Email button etc... than Publisher. Also the Show skins naturally contain areas for other elements in tours such as the floor plan and logotypes etc.

19. What kind of media can I add to my tours?
You can add panoramas, photo albums, rotating objects, floorplans, voiceover, background music, video and text to our virtual tours when you use SHOW 3.

20. How can I create rotating objects?
You can create a rotating object in SHOW 3 after you have taken a series of photos of the objects. You can find a detailed tutorial here: http://www.DigitalTechFrontier.com/dtf/downloads .

21. Which parameters in the virtual tours can be modified?
The following settings in the tours can be changed with user specified settings:
- Applet dimensions
- Rotation direction
- Rotation speed
- Rotation time out
- Viewer type (Flat or Immersive)
- Applet's HTML page background color.
- Info page content
Please refer to API guide to learn more about what and how other parameters can be changed.

22. Can I zoom in and out?
Yes, but only in the 'immersive' viewers. You can zoom in and out by using the respective buttons (magnifying glass icons) when available on skins. In the skinless viewers, do this by pressing the 'A' key on your keyboard to zoom in and the 'Z' key to zoom out.

23. Can I create a full 360°x180° virtual tour, which allows me to look up and down as well as left and right?
Yes. You can do this in several ways:
A) Create a spherical panorama from within the Stitcher using 2 or 3 circular fisheye images for stitching.
B) Make a cubic panorama by assembling 6 faces of a 'cube' created in CAD programs or with special photo techniques.
C) Import a ready-stitched 360°x180° panorama that has already been created in another stitching program.

24. Can I create my own interface for the virtual tours?
Yes. The interface, meaning the frame, buttons and other elements surrounding the viewer that the user sees and clicks on to control the tours, can be changed to your own specifications and designs using SkinEditor program. You can also select any of the many 'Skins' that are included in the Publisher/Show programs. There is an extensive and growing library of different Skin designs and they are free to download for registered users.

25. How can i remove the "powered by 3dvista.com" line in my tours?
Removing the "powered by 3dvista" line is now free. You can have 100% private branded viewers at no extra cost. You can select this option from the author/company area.

26. Can I insert a virtual tour created with SHOW or Publisher in Flash into my own Flash movie?
You can load the Flash tour viewers HTML in an IFRAME over your Flash. You can find a sample for doing this attached. The sample displays only one tour but can be modified for showing several tours using several IFRAMEs. The sample contains a loader swf (Loader.swf) with two buttons, one for showing the tour viewer (located in a different folder from the one where the loader is located) and one for hiding it. You'll have to upload the sample to your server, it won't work in local mode.

27. In which formats can I publish my Digital Tech Frontier virtual tours? Differences? PROs & CONs?
Choosing Show, you can opt to export your tours in a myriad of formats such as:
- Java:
Pro: faster downloads, cross-platform compatibility, controllable via JavaScript
Con: Relatively average quality, in some case needs a rather big plug-in to download
- EXE and CD-rom:
Pro: High quality, small and compact files (a single file for email EXE), runs off line
Con: only works on PC
- ActiveX:
Pro: Best quality, smallest plug-in size
Con: It only works on Internet Explorer and on PC
- Flash:
Pro: High quality audio and video, cross-platform compatibility, plug-in already installed on 97% of computers
Con: Immersive viewers have not as good quality as Java, ActiveX or QTVR yet.
- QTVR:
Pro: High quality, cross-platform compatible
Cons: Huge plug-in to download. Only for panos.

28. What is an Exe tour?
The Exe tour or emailable tour is a 'self-executable program' (also known as an 'exe-tour'). This means that the virtual tour is self contained within a single file which you can save and then attach to an email as you would with any other kind of email attachment. This is a great way to get users to see your tours directly via their email. It can contain all your panoramas as well as slide shows, videos clips, interactive floor plans and audio tracks.

29. What is the Hosting service?
"WeCanTakeYouThere Hosting" is a valuable service that provides a fast and easy way to market any kind of products with multimedia presentations such as properties, cars, etc via internet. This is a perfect mean for anyone with little or no knowledge about FTPs and technical hassles of the web hosting but who still want to show their tours on the website and get benefits of maximum exposure.

30. Do I have to use WeCanTakeYouThere hosting for my tours or can I host them in any server or webpage of my own choice?
It is up to you if use our hosting or not. It has been developed thinking of those customers who don't have technical knowledge that is needed to upload their tour to a server and who also don't want to pay to a third person who would do it for them. SHOW and Publisher create the tours in your computer and they can be uploaded to any server, website, be sent by e-mail or be copied to a CD-ROM. Our hosting is just one of the options.

31. What are the advantages of Hosting?
Here is a list over some of the advantages that our hosting service provides:
- Independence
- The customer can take charge of his/her tour hosting independently, and that with no technical know-how about things like FTP or hosting.
- Fast & Simple
- The hosting feature is integrated as an option in the Digital Tech Frontier software programs such as WeCanTakeYouThere Real-Estate. Once you become a registered user, you can begin publishing your tours from within the program. There is no need for third party programs. Everything is done by clicking on 'Hosting' button in the application. The rest is automated and you will get the links in seconds. Please refer to our Guided Tour for seeing how simple this process is.
- Easy Management
- Once you have uploaded your tours, you can manage them from any online computer via a custom control panel. The changes will take effect in real time.
- Easy Sharing
- You can share your virtual tours by simply sending 'links' via email or by inserting the links in any web page you desire.
- Economical
- The relative cost for achieving this level of exposure is very low. We are dedicated to offering affordable cost-effective alternatives to all our customers.

32. What are the advanced features of Hosting?
One distinguishing benefit of our hosting service is the higher degree of its advanced features that it provides. These include functions such as MLS info, contact info, on-demand brochures, emailing tours, map locator and custom web page design right from within the comfort of your web browser no matter where you are.

33. If I host the tours on my own server, can I still have the advanced features listed above?
This is simply not possible because in order to have all the programmed functions and features, your server needs special designed software installed on it to provide such capabilities and services. Such system takes years of development and investing. We have done this for you and that is what you gain by using our specialized hosting service.

34. Will my virtual tours work on other browsers such as Netscape or Firefox or Opera?
Yes, as long as the necessary plug-ins are installed on a particular browser, the tours of that format can be run: Flash, QTVR, Java, ActiveX, your tours in any of these formats can be run on all browsers and platforms provided that the browser is enabled with Flash, QuickTime, Java or ActiveX. When it comes to ActiveX, the Mac users are not able to view them since this a PC format only.

35. Can I show the Digital Tech Frontier virtual tours via a CD-ROM presentation?
Yes. To do this, just select the CD-format option in the publishing stage. Moreover, you can select the Email-format option in the publishing window and save the whole tour as a single file to your CD.

36. My tours don't show up on Windows 2003 servers. How can I resolve this?
The IIS (Internet Information Services) include a Web Server that allows your customers to view your web page contents.
The Windows 2003 Web Server only allows (by default) download of files with known extensions (referred to as MIME TYPES). These extensions don't include the ones required by Digital Tech Frontier web viewers (.cfg, .skz, .rba, etc).
Here is an explanation of how to add the Digital Tech Frontier MIME types to your Windows 2003 Web Server:
1 - Go to Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2.- In the tree view to the left of the IIS Manager Window go to "Websites". Right-button click and select "Properties"
3.- Select the "Http Headers" tab and click on "MIME types" button.
4.- To add a new MIME type click on new in the window that you get.
5.- In the extension field enter the ones that you need to add (with dot included). In the MIME type field enter a description for the extension as described below:

You have to add the following new extensions:
Extension MIME Type
--------------- -----------------
.cfg
.skz
.rba
.ski
.rbv
.bra
.mp3 MP3

37. I uploaded the virtual tour to my server but am presented with the message in the applet 'Error loading 3DVista viewer'. What can I do to resolve this?

This might only occur due to several things. First, make sure that all the elements of the virtual tour were successfully uploaded and are in the same directory. The four elements are:
I) an .HTML file
II) a .jar file (for JAVA format)
III) a .cfg file
IV) a folder that contains the Panorama images
V) a folder that contains the skin file
VI) a folder that contains the help files

If all of these elements are uploaded and are in the same folder but you still get an error message, there may be a security issue on your server which can prevent the tours to show. If this is the case, we recommend that you contact your web-hosting company directly in order to resolve the issue.

38. How can WeCanTakeYouThere help me with marketing?
WeCanTakeYouThere offers you several possibilities to give your tours the best possible exposure. You can host your tours in our WeCanTakeyouThere portal or get your own version of the portal and match it to your company’s style. You can get the widget and use it any website, social network, blog or wiki and reach an impressive amount of people and you can also display your tours through an iPhone so your clients could see your tours wherever they are.

39. What is CORE engine and how does it work?
CORE engine can be integrated seamlessly to any website so that the users of the website could create virtual tours right from there. It is especially useful for FSBO portals but can also serve for any other site that wants to offer its users more possibilities. If you want to see an example of CORE, take a look at www.WeCanTakeYouThere.com/Home

40. What do I have to do to add CORE to my page?
CORE comes in either free or paid version. If you are interested in adding CORE to your

page, contact us, so we could choose the best option for you

Photo Techniques

Basic Concepts

HFOV and VFOV (Field of view) - HFOV is a term used to specify the horizontal field of view (in degrees) in an image. - VFOV is a term used to specify the vertical field of view (in degrees) in an image. The wider the lens that is used for photography, the higher the VFOV and HFOV its pictures will have. Also, shooting with vertical camera position will yield higher VFOV in the resulting panorama. Notice that "Picture Angle" that is mentioned in lens manufacturers specifications refer to the diagonal angle of the image   About Nodal Point and Parallax The Nodal Point concept is common to both Multi-shot and Fisheye panoramic imaging techniques. The NP (nodal point) is a term used to refer to the point in a lens where light converges before focusing on CCD. When taking photos for a panorama, you need to align the axis of rotation such that it runs as close as possible through the nodal point of the camera lens. This can be achieved by using an adjustable tripod head which will allow camera position adjustment. Doing so ensures better stitch results since you will avoid the problem with parallax. Parallax is the visible shifting that occurs between foreground objects relative to background objects when point of view is changed. A good way of determining the nodal point of your lens is described here: http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~bernard ... nodal.html   Overlaps and Rotators In multi-shot one-row imaging, it is recommended to maintain a minimum of 15% up to 30% overlap between the adjacent pictures. There is essentially no particular need to have an expensive rotator with indent discs or exact rotation degrees. A regular tripod head that allows for free lateral rotation can get the job done. Just make sure you maintain about 15-30% overlap between the picture and keep the camera level from first to last shot. Locking exposure and focus are also essential in the process.   Outdoor vs Indoor Shooting When it comes to taking multiple pictures for making a panorama, there are a number of issues to take into consideration for indoor versus outdoor situations: Nodal point adjustment Rotating the camera around the nodal point of its lens is more important when it comes to indoor shots compared to shots in outdoors. Handheld shooting is therefore not recommended for indoor cases. Wide-angle and Zoom lenses Wide-angle lenses are preferred to use for shooting indoors. The cover a higher vertical field and can capture "more" of the rooms. Zoom lenses are more interesting in outdoors for shooting landscapes. Ambient lighting The indoor lighting is usually more controllable than outdoor lighting. At the same time, it is a good idea to adjust the white balance in the camera to suit the situation. Try to set and lock the exposure for the first shot at a position with the average amount of light and avoid the brightest or the darkest area for this first shot. In contrast, the outdoor lighting is in most cases uncontrollable and the changes may dictate an adjusted approach. For instance, if you shoot in a party cloudy partly sunny day, what you should consider is the fact that the sun may be visible in one shot with the environment under sunny light and in the next shot(s) the wind has brought the clouds blocking the sun leaving environment with dim grey light. This poses a serious problem since such changes in the lighting conditions and white balance will inadvertently affect the end results. Depth of field Having a large depth of field is a must when shooting outdoors but is not equally important for indoor shots.. Objects both far and near will be in focus and appear equally sharp.   Resizing and Cropping Resizing It is possible to resize your source images upon import to Stitcher (with the exception of one-shot images as they need to retain original pixel values to avoid quality loss in the unwrapped panorama). The advantage of resizing the source images when for instance importing a series of shot for multi-shot one-row stitching is the increase in processing speed and faster stitching work. Should you decide to maintain original image size and resize the end panorama at a later stage, it is possible to do so when importing the panoramas in Show programs. Cropping When a panorama is generated in Stitcher, it is possible to crop it both from top and bottom as well as from the sides. Simply drag the dashed-line borders to the desired positions and crop. The dimension and the HFOV of the cropped panorama will be recorded in image data and will be later used by Publisher and Show to set correct values for the image parameters such as pitch value.   Panorama Types There are 2 types of panoramas that can be created: Partial and Full-360. The process of stitching, especially the manual adjustments, will also vary depending on what type is selected. In full-360, matching the first and last images is needed and therefore the manual adjustments like rotating of the images are more limited. Partial: The result is not a full horizontal 360-degree panorama, and therefore when playing in the viewer it won’t be continuous revolution, but will bounce when reaching each ends of the image. Full-360: The result is a complete horizontal 360-degree panorama and it will play in a continuous loop and a set direction when shown in the viewer.

 

Using The Fisheye Lenses

* There are two types of fisheye lenses, Circular fisheye lenses that capture approx. 180 degrees in all directions and Full-frame fisheye lenses that capture an image with 180 degrees picture angle diagonally across the image. * Circular fisheye lenses tend to have light fall-off at the edges which makes their images soft and unshrap in the peripheries. Therefore choosing 3 images for creating a panoramic image is better than just a back-to-front pair of 2 images. Spherical panoramas created by 3 images will look much better compared to the ones made by just 2. The softness and color changes in the joining sections is very hard to avoid when using just 2 pairs. * Full-frame fisheye lenses produce a better image quality and use the full CCD area to record image data. Also, since usually more than 3 pictures must be taken to create a spherical panorama, consequently the image quality as a whole will increase and the end resulting panorama will retain more details. * Full-frame fisheye lenses can also be used as an ultra wide-angle lens to produce cylindrical panoramas with good quality. (multi-shot technique). * Since a full 360 degree panorama is created with minimum of 2 or 3 circular fisheye shots, it becomes important to take into consideration the movement in the environment in between the shots. It is recommended to avoid moving parts which could happen in the edges and appear partially in the adjacent pictures. * It is important to keep the exposure in between the shots locked to avoid white balance and focus changes for the shots that will be stitched later on. * Try to devide the light in between the shots as evenly as possible. In case of 2 shots, positioning the system such that the light source falls between the two pictures will be a good idea. In case of 3 images, placing the ilght in one od the 3 shots could be better.