PanoTools NG:
FPP advancing
blueslander 2011-Apr-30 11:50:35
Hi all.
I would like to invite everyone to have a play with the new FPP editor and have their say about it. (Latest release RC6 released a few hours ago)
The following link to an online project in which the new editor is built in:
http://flashpanoramas.com/1/Examples/FPP_Test_BM/
Firstly: The project in case has music turned on by default. The music component is found in the bottom left corner, and the sound can be turned off or a different radio station can be selected (listed by genres).
To get a few ideas about what you can do with it, you can have a look at this video screen grab:
http://www.screenr.com/PUw
What you will find in this new version, is the ability to draw polygon hotspots, use animated gif images, use png images with transparency detection (transparent areas will not react to mouse clicks if the transparency detection is turned on). Previous inaccurate timing issues have been fixed, and transitions and other timed events fire on correct time. Hotspots in panos are Flash 10 optimized (no wavy lines created).
A built in xml editor with a simple validation check for the xml. Color coding for the text in the file.
Undo/Redo built in.
Find/Replace built in.
Save xml feature.
Changes update in real time.
Automatic organizing of the xml text to an "easy to read" format (this is however something that some people may find to be intrusive, if they are used to write their code in a dis-organized way where lines of code can be several meters long).
The entire xml code, or parts thereof, can be selected and replaced or deleted through delete or copy/paste.
The interface is available in the following languages with a single click of a button:
Dutch
English
Finnish
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Norwegian
Portuguese
Russian
Serbian
Spanish
Turkish
Croatian
Any other language is welcome to this list, and translation files can be provided upon request, or downloaded from here:
http://flashificator.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2950&p=10303...
An extensive docking system is built into the application, allowing users to set up their own workspace with the different tool boxes as they feel best fits their needs. Next beta will provide the ability for users to save their preferences and workspaces.
It is possible to set up "design view" (Edit>Panorama size...) where a panorama is destined to be for example 619 pixels wide and 300 pixels high... this size can be set as the pano viewing area, and design elements can be added to that view.
Reloading the browser window after making changes to the xml will not result in loss of changes made to the xml file (one has to click OUTSIDE the xml file to enforce saving of the changes. Once the xml file is as it should be, one can click "File>Save" and save the xml file to a location of one's choice.
The numeric stepper components used in the application are home made, and probably the best creation of it's kind on global scale. These can be interacted with with in various ways for different results:
Click and type/paste in the desired value
Click and drag the mouse in the component for fast realtime changes
Click and drag the mouse in the component while pressing ALT for slower adjustment.
Click and drag the mouse in the component while pressing ALT+CTRL for slower/more precise adjustment.
Click and drag the mouse in the component while pressing ALT+CTRL+SHIFT for super slow/precise adjustment.
Creation of groups and adding hotspots to one or more groups is extremely easy... just a click, and it's done. The contents of a group can be seen by hovering the mouse over a group entry. The contents will appear at the top of the screen. Hovering the mouse over hotspots in the hotspot list, will show the corresponding hotspot in the center of the screen, for easy visual recognition. Applying the same functions, filters to multiple hotspots is very easy, simply by including the desired hotspots in a group, and add for example a glow or resize effect... or anything else to the group in question.
You can use the ALT key on the keyboard in combination with a click on a hotspot in the project to highlight the corresponding hotspot in the xml file and in the hotspot list for easy access to it's properties.
There are relevant links built into the top menubar, leading to forums, tutorial (only in English as of right now, but that will hopefully change over time), bug reporting, updates, shop, contact other links, and lastly, but not least, a link to the Plugin Detector. This is a very useful feature to check if a project is up to date on all plugins or not. If a plugin is out of date, it will show a "Newer version available" icon, and a download link is provided to the latest version. This is still not fully built out with all available FPP plugins, but given a little more time, it will be completed.
This is the beginning of the new beginning for FPP. The foundation for further future work has been done, and future additions can be incorporated into this framework without big problems. The next generation of Flashificator will be built on top of this, making it the professional top end utility for FPP, along with Pano Cocoon.
The programmer has made a FPP specific Webkit player (what is wrongly called "HTML5" player by many), and depending on a few factors, it will be further built on, or another solution will be chosen to accompany FPP into the iDevice special needs division (that's a joke, not an encouragement to cuss at me :) ). Yes, there will be provided iDevice support for FPP without any additional cost for registered/paying FPP users in the nearest future.
The programmer has also made the worlds first panorama dedicated player based on the experimental Molehill code release (?... at least as far as we know, no one else has made a player based on Molehill yet.) This one was made a couple of weeks ago, and Personally I can't wait for the final release of Flash 11, where the Molehill technology will be the driving force. The smoothness is absolutely amazing, and puts anything/everything else to shame in comparison (on capable computers). There are a few issues with it though, but it is only the first experimental API release by Adobe, so there are bound to be issues, that will hopefully be resolved before the first official release of Flash 11.
Not everyone agrees with the path I chose to put FPP on, but I am convinced it is the right path, and much better than putting focus on trying to copy-cat things that other players have already... not saying that certain features will not be worked on as time and opportunities become available, but focus has been put on making things easier for new users who enter this field of photography and panorama creation. From the past 3+ years I know from experience that a LOT of non-English speakers are interested in making panoramas, but their options are extremely limited due to the fact that not high end panorama software has provided the option of having multiple languages as a natural option. That has now been provided, and my hope is that this will give many more people access to make high quality panoramas in the times ahead, along with easier way of doing things with complete interface for every little thing there is (Flashificator next generation - on top of this build).
I have heard from people that they would like this or that feature that exists in other programs, and that they are not interested in any additional languages or golden handles on what they already know... their views are completely valid and I understand their views, but I am thinking beyond the needs/wishes of the existing clients, trying to meet the needs of new generations of panorama creators who may be non coders and/or non English speakers, who would not have had the same options without the new generation of FPP/FFC and other things coming.
This was a long post, but hopefully it is considered to be "on topic" and relevant. The things you will see in the new editor have taken the past 10 months for my programmer to make, and more needs to be done, but this was the hard part.
Please feel free to try out what there is now, ask questions about what the future holds, express your opinions and so on... either here... if accepted as being on topic and abiding the rules... or in the FPP or FFC forums... or anywhere else for that matter.
Thank you for your attention,
Trausti Hraunfj?r?