QuickTime VR

A cutting edge virtual reality delivery platform for the Web and CD-ROM

by June Campbell (June_Campbell@mindlink.bc.ca)

A still from the QTVR movie below - The Audio Lab

Introduction

As the mouse moves across the monitor screen, the photographic images of Vancouver Film School's Multimedia Avid Lab comes into view, the location fluctuating in immediate response to the mouse's wanderings. Following the rodent's lead, the scene changes and we enter the hallway, zoom in, then emerge into yet-another student-populated classroom. The panorama opening up before me on screen moves and shifts in perfect sync with the wanderings of the cursor. We move through the school's recording studio (aka the Garage), then at the mouse's instruction, we view the downstairs location of the soon-to-be-opened Internet Cafe.

The Internet Cafe

The project being demonstrated was Quicktime VR, (QTVR) a fairly recent virtual reality delivery platform developed by Apple Computer Inc. The demonstrator was Greg Z. Charbonneau of Zephir Multimedia, a Vancouver-based multimedia firm. In his VFS days, Charbonneau was student leader of the team of ten multimedia students responsible for producing the project discussed above. The graphics displayed in this article are "stitched images" used with the permission of the copyright holder, Vancouver Film School.

Charbonneau explains that QTVR provides a highly interactive, panoramic view of a scene or an object. Individual movies, called "nodes" are linked together to allow the viewer to "travel" through a space, move closer, back up, stop to examine an object of interest, pick up the object, examine it from various angles, zoom in or zoom out, move along to another area or room and repeat any action at will. Text, sound, and animated movement may be incorporated.

For larger projects, panorama nodes and object nodes may be linked together forming multi-node movies which may be navigated using a mouse or other devise.

QTVR on the Web

Originally used to enhance CD-ROM productions, QTVR is now being incorporated into Internet Web sites, where it lends itself well to the display of scenes or objects. This vehicle quickly impressed me as being inherently suitable for the promotion of real estate, automobiles, tourist destinations, hotels, or for the promotion of catalogued objects such as those as used by museums, galleries, or by distributors of craft and gift items. To quote from one Internet site using QTVR, "if a picture's worth 1000 words, then a QTVR movie, incorporating images from a 360 degree angle should be worth 36,000 words...."

Vancouver Film School's AudioLab QTVR Movie (195K)

View a bigger version.

According to Charbonneau, QTVR differs from Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) in two major ways: first, the behind-the-scenes processes of developing the two are quite different, and secondly, Quicktime VR allows the use of photographic images as well as modelled images, whereas VRML utilizes modelled images exclusively. Other competing, but less well known technologies include RealVR by RealSpace and OLiVR (On-Line interactive Virtual Reality). Both of these can convert QTVR to their own format as well as author independently. "Right now, this is a Mac thing," Charbonneau comments. "Quicktime VR can only be developed on the Mac, using Apple's Quicktime VR Authoring Tools Suite Version 1." Version 1.0 sell for about $850.00 Canadian. Version 2.0 is expected to be released by fall. Luckily for PC users, QTVR movies can be viewed on the PC using the Player application, available for downloading at Apple's Web Site. For Internet users, Netscape plug-ins are now available, and Netscape 3 includes a plug-in for Quicktime VR movies.

Creation

Developing a QTVR movie is a five stage process, with each stage requiring specialized skills, techniques and resources. Basically, photographs are taken from all consecutive angles of a scene or object, the images are digitized, the digitized images are blended together to create a panorama, the panorama is compressed to a manageable size, and the file is then converted into Quicktime format.

The first, and critical stage is the photography. Charbonneau stresses that "the end result will only be as good as the photography that went into it." Panorama nodes require that 12-18 photographs be taken around a circle from a focal point, while object nodes may require as many as 55 photographs from all viewing angles.

Despite more than twenty years photographic experience, Charbonneau needed to learn new approaches for this type of photography. First, a special tripod rig is required, as the camera must be completely level for all shots. A 35 mm camera with a lens wider than 28 mm is best, and the camera should be set vertically instead of horizontally on the tripod. The wider the view, the less photographs that have to be taken. Exposure is another key element. Blending together later will be difficult unless identical exposure is used for all views, and lighting must be adjusted accordingly.

The second stage of the process involves the digitization of the images. This may be accomplished through having the developed prints pressed onto photo CDs or diskettes, or through scanning the negatives directly into the computer. If prints are used, care must be taken to ensure that they are processed at the same exposure.

Stage three, the stitching stage, is done in the Macintosh Programmers Workshop (MPW), where the images are "stitched" together using scripts supplied by Apple. Retouching may be required at this stage. According to Charbonneau, the learning curve for using this software is quite steep. The software's interface is not the graphical user interface (GUI ) that Mac users have become accustomed to seeing, but more resembles the command-line interface reminiscent of DOS or UNIX applications. "There's a lot of trying out commands and seeing how they work and what the software does."

In stage four, the dicing stage (or Digital Image Compression), the stitched files are compressed to make the movies more easily usable. After compression, photographically based movies are typically from 300-600 Kbytes in size while graphically based movies usually range from 30-40 Kbytes.

In the final stage, the file is converted into a Quicktime format. (.moov for Mac or .mov for PC platforms) and is ready for use in CD-ROM, Internet, or other applications. A QTVR movie may also be incorporated into a regular Quicktime movie as well. The standard compression algorithms available for digital video (Cinepak, Animation, JPEG, etc.) can all be used by the QTVR authoring tools.

Cons

The downside? Well, for developers, there's the skill issue. First, the photographs must be very high quality and produced according to QTVR's specific requirements. Secondly, using the software is not a simple matter.

And of course, PC developers will have to wait for a similar product to come out for their platform.

Next, the time factor. QTVR movies are not put together in an afternoon. A successful QTVR project is the end result of planning and careful attention to detail. Skill and creativity count as well. All of which leads us to the cost of the product. Given the skill levels required, the time involved, and the cost of the equipment and software needed, QTVR is not a budget item, and probably does not fall within the advertising budget of your average "mom and pop" enterprise.

For the Net surfer with a slow connection, the file size (and downloading time) may discourage casual browsing, at least until the bandwidth situation improves.

Pros

First, there's a big WOW factor here. This product is impressive! And it'll be doubly impressive with the new features coming available in Quicktime VR 2.0. To mention but one, "hotspots" will include URL information. Net surfers will be able to click on a hotspot in a vacation resort panorama, for example, and go directly to a HTML page or frame describing booking procedures, rates, travel information, etc.

For kiosks and CD-ROMs (particularly game development), it'll clearly be an attractive enhancement to other technologies.

For the Internet, although the download time will probably discourage "tire-kickers," the media-rich content of sites incorporating QTVR will most certainly attract the serious shopper or serious information seeker. The time spent at the site will likely increase accordingly.

My overall verdict: keep an eye on this technology. It's going places.

* * * * *

Credits for QTVR Movie

Project Mentor (Faculty) - Mike Tippett
Project Manager - Greg Z. Charbonneau
Director of Photography - Sean Jordan
Production Manager & QTVR Website Director - Nicole Goodman
Lighting and Gaffing - Chris Jones
                     - Brad Scarlett
                     - Patrick Nepomuceno
                     - Ted Eickmeier
                     - Chris Baudat

For more information

Greg Z. Charbonneau may be contacted at Zephir Productions by e-mailing gzc@axionet.com. QTVR information or demos may be found at the following URLs:

• http://www.apple.com/quicktime/
• http://www.apple.com/quicktime/authoring/vronweb.html
• http://www.st-ours.com/

June Campbell is a graduate of Vancouver Film School Multimedia Production Program and the owner of Nightcats Multimedia Productions.