Topics

A brand new release!

For me as developer it's a major milestone, what started as an idea is now really becoming a fully functional application for the Gear VR. With this release the development stage is moving from alpha to beta. A big thank you to everyone who has reported bugs and shared ideas and suggestions, please keep it coming!

With the current addition of the VR keyboard to add your own online tours (finally), the majority of the final (menu) functionality is now present. Development will soon focus on adding more features inside the tours themselves: adding support for links to other tours, polygonal hotspots, image hotspots, video, surround audio.

I hope you like this release, and looking forward to your feedback, ideas and bugreports!

http://www.vrtourviewer.com/forum/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=8

Changelog:

- added: VR keyboard, use the + sign in menu to add your own online tours, added tours are stored in 'Viewed'
- added: functionality to add/remove favorites and viewed tours
- added: show reason when tour from storage is found but can't load

Todo:
- add more functionality to panoramas: link to other tour, image hotspot, video, surround audio
- add functionality to modify titles/subtitles of favorite and storage tours
- allow more than 9 tours in each menu section, currently no more than 9 can be displayed
- add ability to parse html files to find the the xml file, so easy urls (to index.html files) can be used to add tours
  for example: use vrtourviewer.com/pano/demo instead of vrtourviewer.com/pano/demo/demo.xml

There's a new version available: VR Tourviewer 0.2 Build 46

Changelog:

Beta 0.2 build 46
- app should now be using the right path for external SD card on S7/S7 Edge. Tours can then be stored on the external SD card in: Android/data/com.vrtourviewer.vrtourviewer/files/VRTourviewer
This folder should exist after running build 46 at least once, and should contain the file 'log.txt'. Feel free to use subfolders to organize tours.

Beta 0.2 build 45
- several bugfixes
- better debug messages for storage location determination on S7/S7 Edge
- application errors are collected with Loggly (external logging service) for more efficient bughunting

Use the VR Tourviewer app for GearVR to immerse yourself in complete 360 degrees panoramic tours created with the excellent Pano2VR tour creation software from Garden Gnome.

VR Tourviewer supports monoscopic and stereoscopic 360 degrees panoramas, and can load online tours from the web, or load them from your device's sdcard. Point hotspots, audio and lensflares are supported.



VR Tourviewer is currently still under development. You can download the free beta version here.

Best regards,

Ruud van Reenen

Here's finally the new release of the completely redesigned VR Tourviewer app.
I hope you like it!

http://www.vrtourviewer.com/forum/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=6

Changelog:
- complete redesign of menu system
- added 'Favorite' tours, this now only shows your own url that was available in the previous versions of the app
- added 'Featured' tours
- added 'Storage' tours, indexing up to 9 tours from a folder 'VRTourviewer' on the sdcard
- added debug log in menu, click the logo at the bottom to show/hide log
- code optimization and added error handling

Todo:
- Add 'Viewed' tours, for viewing history and adding your own online tours using an in-app VR keyboard (prio 1).
- Add functionality in 'Viewed', 'Favorites' and 'Storage' menus, to allow marking/removing favorites, or renaming titles
- The small buttons (bin, star, lock, cogwheel) below the preview images don't work yet

As you can see I've added 'Featured' tours to publicly showcase tours. Would you like your tour(s) to be featured?
Send an email with the url to the xml-file, the title and author to: featured@vrtourviewer.com
Only tours that have been exported with Pano2VR according to the VR Tourviewer guidelines will be considered for placement on the Featured page.

As always, any and all comments, questions, ideas and bugreports are more than welcome!

Best regards, Ruud

[Menu]

After a hiatus of almost 2 months I'm finally able to work on development of this app again. Time for a progress update:

Menu
I've made some big changes to the menu system, the menu will now be the first you see when starting the app. I've attached a screenshot of how it looks. It allows you to browse previously visited tours, bookmark/browse favorite tours, browse featured online tours and browse locally stored (sdcard) tours.
I'm implementing a VR keyboard so it will be possible to add your own URLs in the app.



Tours will be displayed using an image from the start node of a tour (tile0url from the xml file), or from a file with the same url as the xml file, but with the jpg extension. I'm considering adding a way to 'lock' the app to only use specific tours, for exhibition use. The only way to exit that lock would be to provide a password using the VR keyboard.

Current status
Currently the majority of the 'Storage' part of the menu is working. I'm trying to finish the Storage item this weekend and will release an update when it's done.

Earlier mentioned feature additions have been delayed due to the necessity to fix a proper menu first, and will be added and released when the menu is completely functional.

Pricing
I've also decided on the pricing for the app when it's finished. Normal price will be around € 50. Beta-testers that have provided helpful feedback will get a 50% discount.

A custom branded version can be ordered too, it will be limited to offline tours (from sdcard) and will have your business logo as Android menu icon and your logo in the app itself. This is especially interesting if you want to showcase your tours during an exhibition or deliver them to a client.

Price for a custom branded version will be € 250.
This is including a custom logo, splash screen, hotspot colors, and a custom menu area panorama. Other customizations aren't included in this price. A custom branded version includes a license for use on two devices, additional licenses are € 75 each.

Here's a short list of features that are currently being added:

- 360 video support
- directional audio, all supported types in Pano2VR 5.1
- hotspot link to another tour (this will allow you to create one 'main' or 'index' tour to select which tour to show)

If there are any features you'd like to have priority, feel free to post them here.

[Device:]

When reporting an issue or when you need assistance with the software, please include the following information:

Device: Quest 1 or 2, Oculus Go, Oculus Rift, Gear VR, Pico G2 4K or Neo 2 (eye), Cardboard, Windows pc, MacOS pc
VR Tourviewer and/or VR Tourviewer Remote version number: in the startup splash screen or in VR Tourviewer Settings.

Please describe the bug as detailed as possible to make it easier to try and replicate the problem.
If possible please send a tour showing the issue with WeTransfer to info@vrtourviewer.com and refer to your forum post here.

VR Tourviewer version 0.1 build 27 can be downloaded here.

Changelog:
- added: support for monoscopic tours
- added: supports a single local tour in a folder 'VRTourviewer' (case sensitive) on sdcard. Needs a pano.xml file in the root of that folder
- changed: menu layout
- changed: some code optimization
- changed: detection of a stereoscopic tour is now based on a 'stereo' tag in User Data in Pano2VR before outputting
- fixed: sometimes hotspots were unresponsive
- fixed: some code optimization