Panorama generation problem

[Tom Krowka]

Anybody having a panorama problem? ArchiCad is freezing up when the panorama view gets to the bottom of the 3d window. I'm using one camera, then selecting panorama in the create VR scene command, Lightworks engine, size propotionally to the 3d window. When it freezes up AC I have to end AC program thru task manager and then restart AC. It is not freezing up the whole computer, as I am able to still use other programs while AC is frozen.

"Creating VR scene" dialogue box with the time bar usually says I have about 20 minutes left, then hangs up at that point with the photorender window filled with the first 1/3 of the panoram. It looks as if the rendering gets to the bottom of the photorender window and stops. If I click on the window, try to scroll, or click on any toolbar, the hourglass comes up in place of the arrow at the cursor and then it says "Not Responding" across the top.

Worked fine in AC8.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Hi Tom,

I hadn't tested panoramas with LW until I saw your post. Worked fine for me ... including a mirror material that I had put in by accident.

The image is compressed at the end of generation, so I'm guessing that the problem is your choice of compression engine and settings. For a panorama, you should use JPEG compression, since it is just a still image, not a movie. What did you have selected for your compression? Try again with JPEG and see what happens.

Karl

[Tom Krowka]

I have been using cinepak. I think I got that information from the tutorial that came with version 8 when I bought it.

I will try the jpeg.

The file extension is .mov after it runs the panorama. Wouldn't that make it a movie. Plus, there is no place to save as "a different name". They all come out as 1-1 movie.mov. Am I missing something?

[Karl Ottenstein]

Tom wrote:
The file extension is .mov after it runs the panorama. Wouldn't that make it a movie.

Alas, no. QuickTime uses .mov for its files...which include movies (sequences of frames) and VR panoramas (a single, specially generated image).

When you complete the rendering of your VR, the image that you see on your screen (scroll around to see it all) is what QT reads to allow you to look around inside a space. You'll notice that the ends would line up with one another if wrapped.

Single image = use jpeg. The other compressors are animations. But, as several over the years have suggested here as a tip: you might be better saving even an animation as a sequence of uncompressed stills, and then use QT Pro to generate the movie from the stills. That allows you to render only once, and then experiment with compression schemes to get one that is satisfactory in terms of space/quality, and/or to render once and from the same images produce one animation for web viewing and another for higher quality viewing from a CD, e.g..

Have fun,
Karl

[Tom Krowka]

Fun? Fun? That's work. I want to get it done asap, then go have fun.

I guess I'll stick with the .mov for now. I try to learn only one program at a time. Saves on the stress factor, and actually lets me get a return on my AC investment and time.


As always, thanks for the info.