Table of Contents
Panorama Block
The Panorama block allows you to view a 360 degree environment, such as a room or an outdoor scene. That's useful if you want to bring your audience to a place they can't visit in person. It's based on a 360 degree spherical image, sometimes referred to as an equirectangular image. The image provides the panoramic view from the vantage point of the camera used to shoot it. You can navigate around by natural gestures, such as swipe and pinch-to-zoom. Buttons can be added to the inside of this sphere, acting as hot-spots to move to other locations, play content, or interact with the environment in any other way supported by Blocks.
Watch this video to see some examples, and a brief overview of how to produce such a panoramic experience.
Requirements
The Panorama block requires Blocks 4.3 or later. Furthermore, this is a premium block type, which is an optional add-on to your Blocks license. Display spots will show a placeholder instead of the panorama image if this option isn't included in your license.
Installation
To try out this on your own, start with the general setup guide to recreate this application using this Blocks root.
- Add a separate browser window (or a PIXILAB Player) pointed to your Blocks server.
- Assign it to the display spot shown in the list.
- The panorama block appears on the display spot.
- Swipe (or drag with the mouse) to navigate.
- Click one of the regular or pulsating buttons to trigger acitons.
- In the "room" scene, click on the main cabinet to enter into a "secret area".
Obtaining Panoramic Images
The Panorama block requires a 360 degree equirectangular image with a 2:1 aspect ratio (i.e., twice as wide as it is tall). There are numerous on-line collections of equirectangular images to try out, such as these:
Keep in mind that such images may have copyright restrictions.
To make such images, either use a specialized camera, such as those mentioned here:
Or use an app for your phone, such as the free Google Streetview or other specialized apps: