Participating in the World Wide Panorama
Dimensions and File Sizes

We don't want to stifle your creativity, but we do have to specify dimension limits so we can fit all the panoramas on the same size pages, and maximum file sizes, to keep download times (and server bandwidth) under control.

The easiest way to participate is to provide a single, high-resolution JPEG image in "spherical" aka "equirectangular" format and to define the initial and thumbnail view via the web interface. Our server will then convert this "master" file into the necessary data files for both Flash player and QTVR.
We recommend a source image size between 6000x3000 pixels and 8000x4000 pixels. The filesize is currently limited to 7 MBytes.
If you want more detailed control, you can provide the standard and fullscreen QTVR versions.

The standard size panoramas, in particular, should be of modest size, to be accessible to as many viewers as possible.

We recommend your standard size panorama be viewed at 570 pixels wide (570 by 320 for example). The maximum width that will be accepted for a standard size is 700 pixels.

It should be possible to produce a standard size panorama with a file size of less than 700 kb. Consider this your goal when optimizing. The maximum file size that will be accepted for a standard panorama is 1024 kb.

We have found that when creating standard version cubic panoramas, a QTVR with cube faces of 1024 pixels (equirectangular source of 3216x1608 pixels) and a compression of Photo-JPEG at 30-40% (QuickTime scale) gives very good results.

We would also like to host a "full-screen" version of your panorama. It will pop up in a separate window. Site visitors have found fullscreens to be much more engaging than smaller versions.

When creating a full-screen be aware that it will be viewed at 1000 to 1200 pixels wide, sometimes more. File size, however, is still an issue - careful optimization is critical.

Your full-screen panorama can be produced to be viewed at any size - it will resize when opened.

It should be possible to produce a full-screen size panorama with a file size of less than 3 mb. Take this as a goal. The maximum file size that will be accepted for a full-screen panorama is 5 mb.

We have found that when creating fullscreen cubic panoramas, a QTVR with cube faces of 1908 pixels (equirectangular source of 6000x3000 pixels) and a compression of Photo-JPEG at 30-40% (QuickTime scale) gives very good results. Using tiled cube faces can significantly increase playback performance. For the 1908 pixels example, a 3x3 to 5x5 tiling setup usually works well.