IVRPA Member Panorama Posting Instructions

[Sam Rohn]

Posting Panoramas

UPDATED March 21 2015

Log in, create new Panorama

You must be logged into this site as an IVRPA member to post panoramas

log in to this site, click on your name at top of page, choose “New Post” & choose “New Panorama” on the next page

Add Pano URL

add your panorama by pasting the URL into the Panorama URL box on right side of pano edit page, this will automagically embed the pano using panopress, this should be a URL ending in .html or similar or a slash “/” if no file extension

IMPORTANT
PLEASE do not embed panos from gigapan, 360cities, etc or other hosting sites that do not offer a full page embed with no ads etc, we are working on a solution for 360cities and others, stay tuned for details

Add Pano Title and Description

give your panorama a simple but descriptive title, up to 30 characters or so

please do not use any non alpha numeric characters aside from the dash “-” symbol in your title

add a description for your pano in the main edit box, you may also add other images and any text to this area as you wish

Add Pano Preview Image

use the featured image upload box to upload a 2×1 aspect thumbnail image for your panorama, this will be used in slideshows on front page displaying featured panos and as thumbnail preview in other pages and should be 1600px wide and 800px tall (2×1 aspect), wordpress will resize this image as needed for smaller thumbnails etc

this preview image is not required to be an equirectangular projection, but it should be “panoramic” and not contain any graphics, logos, text, etc, other than a small discrete watermark in lower right corner which is acceptable, look at the slideshow on the front page to see what kind of image will look good here

IMPORTANT
Preview image MUST be 1600 px x 800 px, smaller images will be upscaled and look fuzzy on larger screens
Preview image MUST be .jpg, NO .png or other file formats please
File size should be under 400kb or so for a jpg of these dimensions, jpg at 70% quality in lightroom or photoshop “save for web” should give good results
Preview image should contain NO graphics or text, other than a small discreet watermark in lower right corner

Publish your Panorama

click on the publish button

thats it !

please post any questions as reply to this topic

sam

[Chris Witzani]

Very cool new website! I encounter one small problem: the publish button is greyed-out and inactive. I can only save a draft.

[Chris Witzani]

Ah, I see, forgot to “Set featured image”. Now Publish button is active and all fine.

[Heiner Straesser]

How can I post a panorama when the URL looks like this:
http://www.derpanoramafotograf.com/DE/projects/fskrpano.php?pano=150102-342

Heiner Straesser - derPanoramafotograf.com

[Sam Rohn]

hi heiner

that is a full page website, NOT only a pano, we should avoid embedding a full website here as it will take over our pages…

proper full page pano will look like this, NO navivgation elements taking user to other page o pano site in same window, but pop up link in new window to author page would be fine

thanks :)

sam

[Heiner Straesser]

What is a full page website?
If I understand it right, my programmer has to rewrite my homepage, just to fulfill the needs of IVRPA. If the IVRPA doesn’t want to host gigabites of panoramas, why not small previews with a link to the pano?

Heiner Straesser - derPanoramafotograf.com

[Sam Rohn]

hi heiner

no, you do not need to rewrite your home page :)

all you need to do is create a single page pano or tour using krpano droplets or pano2vr or panotour etc, and embed that link here

many people make panos that way and then embed on their own site via a similar method,

the problem with embedding an entire website is that the links will take user to other pages on that site in the embed area, and then we end up with a mess…

i will try to make the instructions more clear as we go, let me know if you have any questions

thanks :)

sam

[Clay Morehead]

Pano preview works fine, but setting featured image fails. It works on my other WP sites. Here’s a screen grab

Attachments:

1. 

   ivrpa-preview-error.jpg
   

Clay

[Bob Masters]

Hi Sam
I’m still having problems setting the featured image, I get the message in the attachment below. The pano I’m trying to set is 1600 x 800. I have to admit I have no idea what the error message is on about e.g php.ini etc. Also everything is in draft mode as the publish button is grayed out and inactive.
Should my profile page look like the attachment here or should I have one of my own panoramas along the top?

Thanks in advance

Bob

Attachments:

1. 

   error.jpg
   

[Clay Morehead]

Sam
Still getting the error that Bob Masters is getting with an image 1600 by 800 as the featured image.
However …
If I reduce the featured image to 500 x 500 pixels, it does work. I know that’s not what you want however, but perhaps it’s a clue to resolving the problem.

Clay

[Sam Rohn]

hmm, i examined one of bob’s files earlier that luc showed me, only problem i could tell was that it was 1.2mb for a 1600px jpg, which is way too large for such a file, after running it through lightroom export (jpg, 70% quality setting) it got down to 155k, which is more reasonable size…

otherwise, i have not had any problems uploading all the files her myself, can you let me know what app and settings you are exporting with ?

thanks

sam

[Sam Rohn]

hmm, i have done some more research on the “please upload something more substantial” error in wordpress and recommended solutions, our php memory limit is fine which is a common cause, but nothing i could see that would apply here…

and most users are having no problems, and it is only intermittent with you guys ?

can you post some more info, web browser and version, app used to export jpg and settings, file size etc ?

thanks

sam

[Heiner Straesser]

Hi Sam,
thank you very much for your help. Now it works fine.

Heiner

Heiner Straesser - derPanoramafotograf.com

[Bob Masters]

Hi Sam

I uploaded the ‘featured image/preview image’ at 1600 x 800, but this time with a file size of 537 Kb ..works perfectly. Perhaps it would be an idea to mention this in the blue box ‘Important’ at the top
of this page?

Also, I noticed the button on the left hand side: Media -> Add New -> Upload New Media ..there is a
maximum upload file size of 64 MB, is this the total of all media that can be uploaded by each member or a limit on one file? Apologies for my ignorance on this one.

Bob

[Clay Morehead]

Got it Sam.
No problems now, ‘cept I now have to provide worthy content.

Clay

[Sam Rohn]

btw @bobmasters, 2 of your panos do not have correct aspect preview image, this breaks the front page slideshow which expects 2×1 aspect images, and also messes up display on pano gallery page and sidebar etc

but you can embed whatever other alt aspect preview you like on the pano page itself, and i will be documenting features for member galleries and header images and all sorts of other fun stuff too, but i am impressed at how much people have already figured out with almost no instructions from me at all :)

sam

[Bob Masters]

Do you want me to take those 2 panos down Sam? ..or maybe I just add a black bar above and below to give them the correct aspect ratio?

I would like to keep them on my profile page, if you can think of another work around pls let me know.

Bob

[Bob Masters]

Ok I’ve put the two panos back up now with black strip top and bottom so it gives a 2×1 aspect ratio.

[Sam Rohn]

hmm, the problem now is that the letterboxing makes the front page slideshow look not quite right with some slides vs the normal full images…

i think it is best for now if we try to keep to some sort of standards here, panos like yours that are full 360° HFOV and 3×1 or 4×1 etc can be used as normal page header images (still working on some things there, stay tuned), and can also be embedded in articles etc, and i will be adding more gallery features for other sorts of panorama portfolios etc as we go

eventually, i will also set up a way to filter slideshow and sidebar etc so only selected panos display in these areas, but i have not had time for that yet…

i am really still figuring out these details and trying to decide what works best for everyone here, so please feel free to offer any feedback etc, and things will be evolving as we go, but there will probably always be some compromises with a site like this that has over 300 co-authors, finding a solution that works for everyone is rarely easy :)

thanks

sam

Attachments:

1. 

   Screen-Shot-2015-03-26-at-12.38.47-AM.png
   

2. 

   Screen-Shot-2015-03-26-at-12.39.00-AM.png
   

[henky christianto]

Hello Sam,

I still don’t get the instruction correctly. Do you mean I can’t just upload one pano file such as QTVR (or SWF), but need to create one full page (i.e. in other website), is that right?

Regards,
Henky

[Sam Rohn]

hi henky

that is correct, no uploads of qtvr or swf, which do not allow viewing on mobile devices or multi res or virtual tours or 360° video or etc or other modern features, both are obsolete formats nowadays, html5 is the current standard for 360° VR panoramic content

also, the majority of feedback during testing phase was concerning mobile layout and accessibility etc, mobile device make up about 10% of traffic so far

our new system allows members to embed their own content hosted on their own server or elsewhere, and allows them to post any sort or panoramic VR content, gigapixel panos, 360° video, virtual tours, etc etc

please let us know if you have any other questions or suggestions

thanks :)

sam

[WalkInto]

Hi Sam,

Could you please enable Panorama Posting access for our account? We would love to contribute to your gallery by adding a few featured WalkInto here every week.

thank you
Boni Gopalan

walkinto.in
Streetview With a Story.

[Sam Rohn]

hi boni

sorry about that, there was an error in site permission settings

sponsor members ability to post panoramas was accidentally switched off, this has now been fixed

please report any other errors or unexpected behavior you may come across, bug reports on this site are always very welcome :)

thanks

sam

[WalkInto]

Thank you for taking care of it. Just added one. Worked great.

https://ivrpa.org/panorama/gbr-helicopters-flight-to-middle-cay-the-great-barrier-reef-paul-toogood/

walkinto.in
Streetview With a Story.

[Sam Rohn]

one other thing to note is that panorama titles should never include the name of the member or author or photographer or host etc, member name is always displayed alongside pano anyhow, and other info could be included in the pano post body, but not in the title please

thanks :)

sam

[WalkInto]

Hello Sam,

We noticed that you have fixed the titles of our recent panorama posts. Now, there is a context here for our nomenclature and hope you can help us with an alternative that works. Since the WalkInto tours added here is not really createb by ‘WalkInto’ but by one of our users, we think it makes sense to add the attribution in the title. What would you recommend?

thanks

Team WalkInto

walkinto.in
Streetview With a Story.

[Sam Rohn]

hi boni

sorry i have not really documented this or any advance notice etc

the way this site is set up, the name of the IVRPA member who posted the pano will alway be displayed alongside it anyway, so adding the member name in the title would be redundant and display post author name (ivrpa member who posted) 2x, and if everyone did this, all pano titles would all be unnecessarily long…

anyway…

proper pano title should be like this, just a simple description, name of location or similar

Panorama Title

and will display on the site like this

Panorama Title – IVRPA Member Name

a pano titled like this

Panorama Title | Photographer Name | IVRPA Member Name

would display like this

Panorama Title | Photographer Name | IVRPA Member Name – IVRPA Member Name

and in this case, your pano photographers are not necessarily IVRPA members themselves, so including their names directly in pano titles does not seem appropriate ?

however, you may include any info or credit you like in the pano post body itself, photographer name, what type of camera was used, names of architect or designer or talent etc, who made lunch that day, or pretty much anything else you like :)

also note that you may (probably should) give your uploaded images more descriptive file names, like panorama-title-photographer-name-walkinto.jpg, this will not display anywhere on this site but does help SEO etc

we also plan to roll out proper news, reviews, and tutorial posts for sponsors and members soon, but we need to sort out some details and devise and post an “editorial policy” etc so as to avoid any confusion here

anyway, please let us know if you have any thoughts or feedback etc on the above, we are always open to suggestions as to making our members and sponsors happy :)

thanks

sam

[Sam Rohn]

also, all members should avoid uploading heavily pixilated and posterized images like below, these images will display very poorly when shown on front page slideshow, end eventually panoramas with this sort of low quality preview will be filtered out of front page featured pano slideshow altogether, but will still show on member gallery page

note the very heavy banding in the sky and ground, as well as heavy pixelation on graphic elements etc

also note that panorama previews should not contain strong graphics as explained at top of this topic page

thanks

sam

[WalkInto]

Hi Sam, do you still have a 50kb size limit for thumbnail images? we were forced to reduce the quality to fit in the 50kb restriction.

EDIT: Ahh! See that it’s 500kb. My bad. Was wondering.

walkinto.in
Streetview With a Story.

[Sam Rohn]

howdy

500k is not a hard limit, but should be more than sufficient for pano previews or any other image uploaded to this site

i have found that most of my own panos at 1600×800 end up at about 250k or so after 70% quality jpg save in lightroom or photoshop from master image

when you replace these images please delete the old ones, this will help keep things orderly in th admin area

thanks :)

sam

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