CubicNavigator 1.2

CubicNavigator is a browser for VR panoramas. It can retrieve many popular VR formats from the web or your hard drive and display them using hardware accelerated OpenGL for viewing in a window or fullscreen.

Where it is unable to display a VR, or you choose to change the view, CubicNavigator will display a standard web page which instead uses the QuickTime plugin or a Java applet to display the panorama. You can toggle these ways of viewing the same VR material.

OpenGL for fluid, smooth panoramas

CubicNavigator features an OpenGL-based VR rendering mode which updates the VR view at the same refresh rate as your monitor. The result is an extremely smooth experience when moving a panorama around. If you've ever wondered what viewing a VR could be like without the ripples, now you can see.

The VR viewing mode is an extensive recreation of the QuickTime VR environment - cubic/cylinder, multinodes, hotspots, file loading, etc - but using OpenGL instead of a software based renderer. It puts the powerful capabilities of modern graphics cards to work to show panoramic VR in the smoothest way possible.

Web Pages & VR - the best of both worlds

These days, there is a huge amount of spectacular VR content on the web. Usually it is embedded in web pages using either the QuickTime plugin, which offers arguably the highest quality, or some form of Java applet such as the popular PTViewer, which offers the greatest audience reach. The VR panorama usually then sits in the middle of a web page.

CubicNavigator can display it this way too, the way your normal browser such as Safari or Firefox would show it. But you can also take the same VR content and toggle into the high performance VR mode, where OpenGL acceleration kicks in to really bring the VR alive.

Once in the VR view, you can go into fullscreen mode which lets you see and interact with pure VR - no menu bars, window surrounds or browser controls to distract your view. Even a humble medium-resolution VR taken from a web page, filling the screen of a 20" or larger cinema display and updating as fast as the monitor does, is truly a sight to behold!

Slideshows - kick back and enjoy the view

As well as letting you interactively browse, CubicNavigator features a Slideshow mode which lets you queue up selections and have the VR media automatically pan itself around.

You can choose things such as the pattern used to move the VR and the speed it does it at, as well as determining what is shown on the display, such as names and keywords of the location.

Slideshows can also be accompanied by music, chosen in an almost identical way to iPhoto slideshows.

And if you're familiar with iPhoto, you'll have no trouble getting started with VR slideshows.

Recording - pan around, have it remembered

CubicNavigator features an easy to use recording module which lets you make a self-running tour simply by recording the moves you make to pan around a scene, and then playing them back.

These recordings can be saved to disk for later use, or played back through the Slideshow mode for unattended "kiosk" style presentations.

Versatility - open many VR doors

Though it has a fondness for QuickTime VR, CubicNavigator is pretty much "VR format agnostic" - you find a VR medium and it will read it (and if it doesn't right now, it soon will).

The formats currently supported include QuickTime VR .movs, both the older versions 1 (1995) and 2 (1997) cylindrical types as well as the newer cubic type, PTViewer Java applets that use equirectangular images, PhotoVista tours, Bamboo applets, the Shockwave-based SPi-V format, ImmerVision G2 Java viewer applets, as well as plain JPEG or TIFF images representing spherical/equirectangular, cylindrical or cubic panorama projections.

Why view these formats with CubicNavigator instead of their native viewers?

Well, for a start, jump back a paragraph or two where we talk about the fluid, smooth panorama viewing when using hardware acclerated OpenGL.

Then there is the precise control offered by a QuickTime VR-style mouse tracking mechanism or the rapid darting around offered by "positional" mouse tracking, which can be used to great effect when in fullscreen mode as a sort of Quake-like action game interface, letting you move around the panorama without having to click & drag.

There's also the benefit of using VRs in slideshows, recording walkthroughs, or even such mundane uses as viewing a whole bunch of recently stitched equirectangular images in two seconds flat, no conversion required.

VR and more

Every browser needs bookmarks, and CubicNavigator has comprehensive facilities for creating bookmarks, which can be searched using any text or keywords you choose.

The default installation also comes with a set of predefined bookmarks, which contain URL links to some of the most spectacular and scenic VR on the web from groundbreaking projects such as Panoramas.dk and the World Wide Panorama. (These default bookmark are all tagged by their locations and photographers, so try searching for a country or state or the name of your favorite VR photographer.)

CubicNavigator also offers a large number of customizations: change the size of labels displayed over hotspots or keywords giving information about the panorama, choose giant cursors that can be seen at the back of a room during a presentation, or change colors in realtime to select just the right mood.

You can also control CubicNavigator from other programs through its AppleScript dictionary or Apple Remote on an infrared equipped Mac, rapidly change nodes through QuickAccess buttons, view maps in 3D when a tour has a suitable map, and show hotspots, labels and keywords as overlays above the panorama.

For a closer look, view the QuickStart video.   [4:30 mins] [6.1 MB]

Requirements

• Mac OS X 10.3 Panther or later
• Reasonably recent graphics card
• 32MB of Video RAM or higher
• CubicNavigator is a Universal Binary, compatible with both PowerPC and Intel based Macs

Price

• Single-user license:   $10 USD
 
To purchase:  Go to the pricelist

Online Tutorials

QuickStart Tutorial:  View QuickStart Tutorial

Online Tutorials:  Index of all tutorials and videos

Downloads   (free 30-day trial)

Download:  CubicNavigator 1.2  [6.2 MB]
              or Mirror #1

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