I am writing about the sorry state of Quicktime VR, and its slow but
steady depreciation by Apple. They just seem to have lost interest.
This is all the more galling since Apple effectively invented
interactive photography and in the past have been its greatest
promoters, as shown by the very name of this list.
There are several strands to this story, but I am particularly upset
by the breaking of HTML hotspots in Quicktime 7.4. This is not some
fancy add on to Quicktime, but core technology and vital to many
users. This acknowledged bug should have been fixed immediately or at
least in 7.4.1, but we are still waiting. While this is an actual
bug, we have meanwhile seen the steady withdrawal of Quicktime
interactive possibilities with the withdrawal of Flash tracks and
loss of Livestage Pro. As an example it was possible in Quicktime 5
to have multiple audio tracks in audio panoramas. There is now no
currently available software to enable this. The last Technical Q & A
for Apple Developers dealing with wired actions is dated 2001 and
Make Cubic is no longer available on their site. Once upon a time
object movies streamed in sensibly, now nothing happens until the
whole movie has downloaded - even on Apple's own examples. While it
is easier than ever to make panoramas doesn't this feel like 1 step
forward, 2 steps back?
In terms of the bigger picture it is evident Flash is taking over,
allowing a more fluid interaction and many scripting possibilities
(including multiple audio tracks). That Apple is allowing this to
happen when they are evidently involved in a codec battle with Flash
is strange. In addition with the promotion of Core Video and Open GL
in their applications I find it both regrettable and surprising that
their own technology (e.g. Keynote, Motion, Quartz Composer) cannot
deal with panoramas. To see the possibilities you only have to look
at Open GL panorama players such as Cubic Navigator, and I do not
believe it would be so difficult to integrate this technology into
Quicktime. So come on Apple don't neglect the technology you helped
invent! It would look great on the iphone...
Yours hoping
-------------------
Douglas Cape
Director of Photography Z360
http://www.z360.com
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
QuickTime-VR mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/quicktime-vr/email@hidden
