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Virtual Reality Panoramas from the Washington Cascades |
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360 degree virtual reality files from peaks in the central Cascade Range of Washington |
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Mt. Daniel from Mac Peak |
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What's on This Site: |
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Here you will find high resolution 360 degree panoramas from the Cascade Range in Washington State in QTVR (QuickTime Virtual Reality) format. I hope they will give you a feeling for the views from a number of summits. QTVR files allow you to navigate right - left , up - down, and zoom in and out using the mouse and keyboard. You can pan around the entire horizon, zooming in and out when you want, almost as if you were standing on the summit looking at different features. Although the raw .mov files will play with Apple QuickTime using the QuickTime browser plug-in, the quality is, dare I say it, poor at least on the Windows platform. However when played with the new DevalVR browser plug-in they are quite unique I think. Enough so that I would discourage the use of QT for the purpose unless you use a Mac. The latest files, which include an accurate compass, require the DevalVR plug-in. There is a workaround for Mac users and others who cannot install the DevalVR plug-in on the help page. Note: Jan 09: please use the latest version of the Deval VR plug-in; there was a bug in a previous version that locked the zoom . How this all began: The first panoramas from Cascade peaks I did were just for me. They were field guides with peak labels included to compensate for the fact that I can't remember names; at times even my own. Friends at the USFS Cle Elum Ranger District encouraged me to make a few pans for the two remaining fire lookouts in the district, and then one thing lead to another. Better cameras for the purpose, and vastly improved software. Similar to the early panoramas I did for the fire lookouts, all the labeled pans I've done include the name or point number, elevation and for named features, the range and bearing to a high degree of accuracy. Some of the panos have as many as 300 or more IDs. However, other than this example from Mt. Roosevelt (~17 mb, .pdf format), and this example from Cadet Peak (~17 mb, .pdf format), I currently do not have plans to put the other labeled panoramas on the web. The labeled Cadet pan is one of the most complicated I’ve done; there are more than 160 IDs in the north view alone. Needless to say, producing pans like these takes a long time. See the notes at the end of the .pdf file for more information. OK, so what actually is here? The 360 degree labeled panoramas start with rather large tiff files (100 to 200 mb or more) which are subsequently labeled. The same source for the tiff files also generates the QTVR format (.mov extension). The file size is *much* smaller, and is suitable for posting on the web. That's what’s here. Who is this stuff for? An excellent question! Too bad I don't know the answer. One of my goals has been to document the Cle Elum Ranger District north of I-90 from a large number of vantage points within and along the boundary of the district. Along with the labeled panoramas from each of these locations, these images may be a useful tool for some. At a minimum, I'll try to make this a convenient resource for my friends in the FS. Just the nuts and bolts, no superfluous verbiage — like what I've just written. I've left the jpeg quality level very high at the expense of long downloads at least for now so that nearly all the detail in the original images is preserved. The more recent pans can be zoomed in up to 5 times (the limit of the DevalVR viewer) before the image degrades significantly. The result using a large monitor is well worth it. The images in full screen mode on a 24 inch monitor are amazing to me. Before you start: I highly recommend installing the DevalVR viewer either before viewing one of the panoramas or by just clicking on the link to one and then following the DevalVR link on the page that appears. When you click on a link to one of the pans your computer may simply install the browser plug-in or ask permission to do so. Just wait a bit while the process takes place. Alternately you can go to the DevalVR website and install the plug-in from there. For a few of the pans I’ve provided an alternate link that will use the QuickTime viewer just so you can see what this is all about. On the windows OS however, the sky has terrible banding, and the display is jerky. The DevalVR viewer is still in early stages of development, but the results so far are fantastic. The examples and links on the DevalVR page to sites using the viewer are amazing. Once the DevalVR viewer loads the image file, click the little slide out control at the left lower corner and try the full screen button. If you have a decent size monitor you'll get the full effect. The escape key returns you to the window view. Try the magnifier too; it's very slick. The new compass feature is a big help; thanks Fiero! If you can’t view the VR files: I’ve added a few caveats on the help page here. Larry Robinson, January 5, 2009 Link to the VR files A clickable map for the Cle Elum Ranger District |
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Last update: January 5, 2009 |
