The fullscreen panorama standard began when Hans Nyberg launched panoramas.dk in 2002 using Apple’s QuickTime plugin, the only high quality fullscreen viewer available at the time. Aldo Hoeben broadened the market with his “spiffy” Spi-V Engine, an accelerated graphics engine using Macromedia’s Shockwave plugin, a couple years later. Today, after two years spent developing a Java-based viewer, ImmerVision is releasing the PURE Player PRO for Java, a high quality fullscreen viewer that doesn’t require a plugin. The Company is also releasing an updated version of its PURE Player for Java

Most readers are aware of the conundrum of using a high quality viewer that first requires the installation of a plugin: plugins offer top quality but pose a usability issue. The vast majority of both PC and Mac users already have Java on their computer, but until ImmerVision’s release today, there was no high quality fullscreen Java viewer on the market.

When VRMag's Editorial Director Marco Trezzini first saw ImmerVision’s butterfly sample he was impressed ("blown away" would be more precise). In his overseer role at VRWAY, he immediately saw the potential of using the PRO’s advanced interactivity for VRWAY’s various publications. For example, stationary objects become activated upon user movement, as in the butterfly pano further down this page (move your mouse over a stationary butterfly and it starts flying). In another example from VRWAY’s Duomo project, a virtual tour map overlays the pano and is downsized with a click – easy and intuitive. There are myriad uses for this overlay other than maps: descriptive information, pricing details for a hotel property, links to online reservations, etc.

Mathieu Villegas, ImmerVision’s VP of Technology and the architect of ImmerVision viewing technology, provides more details on the PURE Players in the interview below, along with several demonstrations of the product, which ImmerVision put together specifically for VRMag readers.

Before we get into the details of the PURE Player for Java, can you give us a bit of history on the G2 Java player?

The first ImmerVision Java viewer we launched at the end of 2000 was quite powerful with a good performance, special effects, lens-flare, etc. Strong off this first successful technical experience, we have worked to understand the highest expectation of VR photographers and started an open communication with several of them.

The real development of the PURE Player PRO for Java started nearly two years ago. We chose an XML base file format. XML is easy to use and “human-readable”. That is one of the conditions to build an open file format that everybody can use.

The first experimental version’s purpose was to optimize the display of several types of panoramas (sphere, cube, cylinder, and flat). After we achieved our performance expectations, we started a long optimization process of our code in order to exploit all the capabilities of modern JVM, but with the high challenge of keeping the player compatible with old JVM. The result was a powerful player able to display fullscreen panoramas on small computers, with commonly used JVM from Java 1.1 to 1.6.

Due to the results, many people thought and still think that it is a 3D accelerated player, but it is not!

An important choice of architecture was also made. We decided to separate the interface file from the panorama files. With this architecture it is possible and is very easy to create, distribute and change the interface; and any panorama can be used with any interface very easily without having to change a panorama file, or modify a big part of a web page.

In the case that JVM doesn’t have enough memory to open a very high resolution image the ImmerVision PURE Player for Java and PURE Player PRO for Java will be able to open it and display it at the best quality possible.

But the main improvement is the embedded scripting language allowing you to dynamically change panoramas or the interface regarding cyclic, player (panorama loaded, leaved, etc.) or user events (mouse or keyboard events).

In addition, some advanced functionalities like special effects and transitions have already been developed. ImmerVision will soon provide tools to exploit them and to profile the applet in order to minimize its size depending on the functionalities needed for publication.

After two years of experimental G2 viewers, we are proud to launch today the first official release of the PURE Player PRO for Java.

Let’s move on to the Pure Player Pro for Java; what are its main features?

As of today, detailed information can be found directly on ImmerVision’s website. You can also register in order to receive news and we invite you to join the ImmerVision forum, where you will find tons of questions and answers.

The PURE Player PRO for Java offers endless possibilities for viewing panoramic content and pushes the limits of a total immersive experience on the web -- all without the necessity of installing a plug-in. Dedicated to multimedia, PURE Player PRO for Java has an integral ability to recognize and incorporate a large number of media (including photographs, animation, maps and directional sound bytes) as additions to panoramic images. PURE Player PRO for Java has a totally configurable GUI that lets you create and manage a user interface with a variety of possible widgets such as images, tactile zones, buttons, interrupters, etc. - it’s wide open to creative uses. And a simple yet evolved scripting language allows interaction between the content elements in order to generate any desired scenario.

Functionality:

Panoramas
Open IVP xml files, IVP packaged files or IVP crypted files
Manage all projection formats: cubical, spherical, cylindrical or flat
Manipulate the display of panoramic image portions
Control panoramic image rotations (create vertical panoramas)
Handle objects at run time
Manage keyboard and mouse interruptions
Launch script actions

Security
PURE Player PRO for Java displays packaged encrypted IVP files and will support several encryption types (simple, temporal and localized)

Virtual tours
Manage different tactile zone types - point, rectangle and polygon
Actions: open new panoramic image, initiate JavaScript command, open HTML page
Control GPS coordinates and Northern point designation
Manage automatic paths - pan, tilt and variations
Manage maps: GPS, compass

Lighting effects
Add dynamic lens flare lighting effects
Display dynamic "dazzle" effects

Multimedia
Play ambient and directional sounds
Display still and animated pictures
Manage transitions betweens panoramas
Display special effects on panoramas

Graphic user interface
Widgets: pictures, buttons, switches, active areas, text areas, rectangles
Handle objects at run time
Manage keyboard and mouse interruptions
Launch script actions

Scripting language
Easy and known syntax (closed to Javascript)
Actions: full interaction with the panorama, the GUI and the viewer
Standard library: mathematical functions, string functions, type conversion, timing management

I strongly recommend users read the documentation and test the unique scripting capabilities of our PURE Player PRO for Java. It is one of the main differences between the PURE Player for Java and the PRO version.

Users will discover some nice samples of what it is possible to do on the “butterfly” demo, below.

And VRWAY’s panos of Milan’s Duomo, Hotel Principe di Savoia, and the video game Oblivion.

Your readers will also discover a real “shoot them up” game we have done using only the ImmerVision PURE Player PRO for Java and its scripting language. As we are not photographers, artists or video game developers, I am sure that the best examples will come soon from our users.

ImmerVision’s PURE Players technology for Java is one of the most advanced imaging technologies for this platform. We have pushed the limits of size and speed and you can now compare the performance of our solutions to other popular ones based on plugins.

PURE Player PRO for Java is much more than a simple graphical interface where you can only change the look and feel attributes, its full potential is yet to be explored!

What are the licensing conditions for your Pure Player Pro for Java?

PURE Player PRO for Java is free for personal and professional standard use. More details on the license grant and restrictions can be found on our website.

So it will be possible for photographers to use PURE Player PRO for Java to create, publish and sell virtual tours to their customers?

Yes.

What can we expect next from ImmerVision?

Regarding upcoming applications, we will release the PURE Tools in a few weeks. We will launch this family of specialized tools with a starter toolkit, and periodically we will offer new tools to improve the productivity of panorama enthusiasts and professionals.

We are looking forward to discussing this further with VRMag at the official launch of the PURE Tools.