panoramic
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GoPano Micro brings 360-degree video recording to the iPhone 4 (video)
We've seen still photos shot in the round, but wouldn't it be nice to snag some panoramic moving pictures every once in a while too? Well, the folks at EyeSee360 certainly think so, which is why they've given the iPhone 4 some 360-degree video recording capability with the GoPano Micro. Comprised of a plastic case for your handset, a detachable 360-degree lens, and a GoPano app, the system lets iPhone fanboys do a circular pan with the swipe of a finger. That put you in the moviemaking mood? Well, you can't get your hands on one just yet, but the venture has already reached its $20,000 funding goal, so those willing to invest $50 can head over to Kickstarter to reserve one of the first GoPano Micros off the production line. Before plunking down your hard-earned cash, however, check out all the full-circumference cinematic fun after the break.
World's largest indoor photograph shows off fancy old Czech library
If you think Google's seven-gigapixel renderings of world famous art museums are impressive, get a load of this: a guy named Jeffrey Martin just produced a record breaking panoramic photo of a reading room in Prague's Strahov monastery library, and it's got the internet giant's Art Project beat by more than 30,000 megapixels. Not that Google's pictures are anything to scoff at, but the 40-gigapixel, 360 degree, 283GB image is something of a digital masterwork. According to Wired, the photograph, taken in February on a GigaPanBot-mounted Canon 550D, is comprised of 2,947 unique images that took a computer program more than four days to stitch together. If you're a fan of 18th century European literature, Franz Anton Maulbertsch's trompe l'oeil paintings, or just ridiculously detailed digital photography, you can peep the image in its entirety at the source link.
One Shots: Almost to the end
When it comes to protracted battles, EVE Online may well have cornered that portion of the MMO market. With different corps fighting every day for sovereignty in different systems, you never quite know what you're going to stumble into. For those of us who don't go too far into dangerous territory, we have One Shots like the enormous panoramic shot sent in to us today by FalconX Blast, who writes in to explain: "[This] is a shot of the station in 6VDT in the Fountain region during day five of our 23/7 siege of the hostile system. We've maintained a constant rotation of 600-1000 pilots in system and destroyed every hostile tower, and only the station remains in enemy hands. Tomorrow morning is the enemy's last chance to save the system and its assets." Since I had to cut this screenshot up a bit to show some detail (otherwise it would have been 98 pixels tall when resized), I'm also making the enormously full-sized panorama shot available, if you're curious to see it in full detail. Ever wanted to share a cool moment from your day of MMO gaming with the world? Well, if you're in the mood to share, we're glad to help. Just snap a great screenshot and email it in to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here and give you credit for sending it in. %Gallery-112285%
360-degree panoramic photograph of London is the world's largest
360cities.net has just announced that its 360-degree, 80 gigapixel photograph of London is the largest of its kind in the world. The most extreme example we've seen to date of the gigapixel photography craze, this is one truly impressive photograph of London. The insanely high resolution shows off the details of many, many human beings walking the streets of the city, as well as showing off seriously gray skies. The photograph was shot over a three day period by Jeffrey Martin, and now eclipses previous major panoramic cityscapes such as those of Paris, Dresden, Budapest and Prague. Hit the source link to waste away a few hours searching for London's own Waldo -- Damon Albarn -- in the beautiful city streets.
Google offers up Liquid Galaxy blueprint, make a panoramic Google Earth of your own
Not everyone has the wherewithal to purchase eight 55-inch HDTVs and a dedicated Linux server for each, but if we just described your corporate budget, Google's got everything else you need. The company just open-sourced the code, scripts and even the physical blueprint for its massive Liquid Galaxy rig late last week, letting folks buzz Google Earth natively across loads of screens. If you're ready to build your own, you'll find all that good stuff at our source link; if you first need a refresher course on why it's worth the dough, there's a lovely video after the break.
World of WarCrafts: WoW art for your computer
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself; contact our tips line (attention: World of WarCrafts) with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations. If you spend a lot of time at your computer -- and what WoW devotee doesn't? -- you've probably got a soft spot for game-related wallpapers. This week, we've got trio of computer art we bet will have you booting up to a whole new look. World of Wallpapers has been putting out simple yet stunning WoW wallpapers for some time now. The problem isn't finding one you like; the problem is picking a single favorite for your desktop. (Personally, I'm planning to solve that problem with a slideshow screensaver of my top picks.) Go wide with these panoramic views of the wide world -- literally -- of Azeroth. Creator Cybear has been hard at work creating panoramic views of areas that will be changing come Cataclysm. (As of this writing, he had yet to settle on a final host for the files; please be patient should the bandwidth be temporarily exceeded. They're worth checking back for!) While we're on the subject of artwork, if you use Firefox as your web browser, head over to GetPersonas.com and check out the growing collection of WoW personas, which add artwork to your web browser's borders and function areas. We'd been waiting to mention these until more were available, but a tip from reader Akussa (thanks!) showed that the selection is coming along nicely. World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself by e-mailing lisa (at) wow (dot) com with your not-for-profit WoW-inspired creations.
One Shots: Quiet night in Old Tarantia
It's been a while since someone has sent in a panoramic screenshot from a game, but we're glad to have a chance to showcase another lovely large image for you. This one comes to us from Zypher in Age of Conan and is quite enormous -- and richly detailed -- at its full size. Since there wasn't much of a note to go along with this other than to let us know it was a "nice view of Old Tarantia", we're going to flesh it out with a bit of back-story, courtesy of the excellent AoCWiki entry: Old Tarantia sits at the end of a huge bridge that leads to the rest of the bustling city, divided elsewhere by high walls and guarded gates. It uses its own docks and has a massive gate sitting on the Road of Kings. All are patrolled regularly, and watched for dangerous visitors. It is the root of the city itself, where the rest of the capital grew outward from, and is the base of the royal palace of King Conan himself. The shining towers of the palace rise high into the sky, overlooking the rest of the city and, some might say, the rest of Aquilonia. Are you leveling through the treacherous lands of Hyboria? If so, we'd love to see some screenshots from you. If not, that's okay -- we can use all the One Shots we can get, from any MMO! Just email those to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here for everyone to enjoy and give you the credit. %Gallery-9798%
Super-panoramic showdown for Mac
There are several photo-stitchers available for Mac (and several for iPhone as well), and most do a stellar job for stitching together 3-4 images into a panoramic image. However, I recently completed a project that required stitching together hundreds of images into some very large panoramas of several locations around beautiful Peoria, Illinois. What I found is that some of the programs which do admirable work on small stitching jobs performed very poorly on larger-scale panoramas. I tried several programs with varying results, and you can check out my showdown below.
One Shots: City of Trees panorama
Springtime blooms lush and green, as new growth replaces the barren trees and plains of winter. In the meantime, if you want to enjoy a land, rich with luscious foliage and beauty, you could do far worse than playing Lord of the Rings Online. Today's One Shots is a panoramic treat that has been sent in to us by Pontifax Stanis, and really needs to be seen full-size to be appreciated for all it's detail. Pontifax writes in: As promised some days ago, herewith goes a rather large picture made from a collection of shots, a good way to show the magnificent landscapes in Lord of the Rings Online. Caras Galadhon is the Fortress in the Trees (or City of Trees), the magic place for the Galadhrim Elves in LotRO. Somehow Turbine has managed to recreate the Tolkien atmosphere within the game, with light changes playing an important part into the mixture. I've been wandering the land, like an Ansel Adams from hobbit era, taking pictures wherever I go. This is one of the panoramas you get within the Galadhrim realm. Try to keep the music on while in the area and just let your senses take you into the magic. It's worth the time you spend there. Have you tried your hand at making panoramics of a particular area in your favorite game? If so, we'd love to see them. All you have to do is attach them to an email and write up a quick blurb on what we're seeing, then email it to us at oneshots AT massively.com. %Gallery-9798%
How to get multi-monitors to work well with World of Warcraft
Did you ever want to see what Azeroth would look like if you could push all of those toolbars to some other screen? Amanda Rivera over at our sister site, WoW Insider, did. She's recently conquered getting your computer to display World of Warcraft on one screen and your toolbars on the other, giving you a clear picture of the beauty of Azeroth without all of those clumsy bars.The only downside to this technique is that the game can really only be rendered on one monitor and not across two full monitors. Rendering across two monitors causes your character, who would be standing in the middle of the two monitors, to be annoyingly split across both of them. Now, if you only had the expensive gaming rig to support those three monitors.
One Shots: On Beacon's Perch
Ah, to escape to cold, frosty mountains! For many of us it's the dead heat of summer, so snow looks especially inviting. Today's One Shots comes to us from Reggie A, who stumbled across this area in Guild Wars while out exploring and made an incredible mini-panorama from three screenshots of the area. We'll let him fill you in on the specifics: I was running my new Elementalist in Guild Wars to Lion's Arch when I noticed a path I had never taken before. At the top of the peak one can look down and see almost all of Beacon's Perch, so with the help of 3 screenshots and some minor Photoshop work, I put together this minor panorama of the view. Beacon's Perch marks the starting point for the famous -- or infamous -- Droks Run; a task suited only to the incredibly skilled or the insane. Considering the area was flooded with people I don't know how I managed to get the shot without a single person in it!Have you tried your hand at making panoramics of a particular area in your favorite game? If so, we'd love to see them. All you have to do is attach them to an email and write up a quick blurb on what we're seeing, then email it to us at oneshots AT massively.com. Easy, no?%Gallery-9798%
One Shots: Not a warm summer screen
As many of us enjoy very warm weather for the upcoming holiday weekend, we thought we'd flash back to a cold holiday of yesteryear. Today's Guild Wars One Shots screen comes to us from Eugaet, who created this during the 2005 Guild Wars holiday event. Eugaet writes: I had planned on creating panoramas for every location in the game, including 'holiday' versions...but I ended up not having much time to devote to the project. Even so, they're still lovely panoramas to look at -- especially the full-size version!If you're heading out in your favorite virtual lands to enjoy the celebrations, snap some screenshots of what you and your friends are doing. We'd love to show off some of the things going on this weekend, but we need your help! So snag those screenshots and send them to us at oneshots AT massively.com along with a quick blurb as to what we're seeing. %Gallery-9798%
One Shots: The sky is on fire
Today we bring you the follow-up panorama to the last one that we got from eugaet. Today's Guild Wars One Shots is from a few years ago according to eugaet, who said that the above shows off a view of post-sear Ascalon City in Guild Wars. While we can't show it full-size in the column, we can offer it for anyone who wants to see this image in all its glory -- be sure to check out the full-sized panorama!Do you have any interesting screenshots from quite some time ago that show what your favorite game used to look like? Have there been lots of graphical changes since then? If so, we'd love to see what they look like. Just send those to us here at oneshots AT massively.com. We're looking for lots of screenshots from any MMOG out there, so don't be shy!%Gallery-9798%
One Shots: By the cliffs
Today's One Shots is the final of three gorgeous panoramic screenshots that were compiled and sent in to us by Adrian (Asarja) from Romania. This image is also from Guild Wars: Nightfall, and as before we know very little other than that. If you check out the full-size screenshot, you'll see lots of little scaffolds near what appears to be a cliff, ruined ships, a dockyard, and a bridge in the background. It is a really lovely area.Do you have any panoramas you've created in your favorite game? Perhaps you just know a lovely spot to hang out in? Whatever the case, we'd love to see your screenshots! Mail them, along with a short description of the image, to us here at oneshots AT massively.com and relax. We'll do the rest.%Gallery-9798%
One Shots: Motu Teya panorama
Today's One Shots comes to us courtesy of a person that many Second Life folks know and love -- Torley! Originally he contacted us to tell us he really enjoyed looking at the One Shots gallery, but he also linked in his own awesome gallery of panoramic Second Life shots in the mail. We couldn't resist featuring some of his gorgeous panoramic screenshots here! Of this one (which you really should see full-size to appreciate) Torley said, "Bruce Patton is so nice, he came up with this project and... it made a dream of Philip's come true in Second Life -- golf!"Do you have some great panoramic screenshots that you made from your favorite game or virtual world? Perhaps you caught a fantastic sunset that just made everything look fantastic. Whatever your story or screen, we want to see them! Send them to us here at oneshots AT massively.com, along with whatever information you'd like to give us about them.%Gallery-9798%
One Shots: Desert temple panorama
When we saw this mail come in, we were blown away. You see, Adrian (or Asarja) creates lovely panoramic screenshots from compiled screens in Guild Wars. We already knew Guild Wars was a beautiful game, but seeing the panoramic shots is really quite impressive, giving you an idea of just how lovely that world can be! (And lucky for all of us, Adrian sent along a couple more that we'll be featuring in upcoming days, too!) If you really want to see this in all its impressive glory, be sure to check out the full-size version.Do you like to combine screenshots into panoramas? If so, we'd dearly love to see them. We've featured them before, and welcome anyone else who'd like to try their hand at it! Just send your screens to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com. We'll be looking forward to seeing more!%Gallery-9798%
TWISTER: goggle-free 3D rotating panoramic display
In a device eerily akin to teleportation machines seen in major motion pictures (seriously, check it after the break), the Telexistence Wide-angle Immersive STEReoscope aims to "immerse viewers in a 3D video environment" sans those pesky goggles. Developed by a team at the University of Toyko, TWISTER is being hailed as the "world's first full-color 360-degree 3D display that does not require viewers to wear special glasses," and it's finally coming together after a decade of work. Within the cylindrical, rotating device, you'll find some 50,000 LEDs that give off the illusion of a three-dimensional object without any ocular aids. Moreover, the team is already looking into the possibility of adding 3D videophone technology to spruce up video telephony, but we'd be totally content with a couple rounds of Halo in this thing.[Via PinkTentacle]
Gigapan robot snaps panoramic views, assembles results
We're absolutely certain there's a vast array of naturally gifted photographers out there that don't need a robot to do a man's job, but for those of us who can't hold our elbows perfectly still and snap a dozen or so photographs in a panoramic pattern without ruining the entire shot, Gigapan's got you covered. The robotic shooting platform was developed by Carnegie Mellon University and the NASA Ames Intelligent Robot Group, and can manhandle almost any digital camera in order to capture a wide-angle view of any particular scene without the breaks we humans often inject. The robot will click away depending on a timer and the number of snapshots that users program in, resulting in a very high resolution, widescreen image of a crime scene, vacation overlook, or your entire basement wall of Transformers posters. Moreover, the team has developed accompanying software to "piece together" the resulting images, leaving a nearly flawless reproduction of a panoramic view with an immensely increased level of detail. Expected to cost "around $200 or less," the Gigapan could be in civilian hands as early as next month, after which we'll have to start an entirely new photo contest devoted to cramming as many miles as possible into a single, uber-wide shot, but for now, be sure to click on through for a small taste of what this monkey can do.[Via Primidi]
Apple Store panoramic
This will probably be my last post about Apple's new Fifth Avenue store, but I'm not making any promises. The Cult of Mac points us to this very cool Quicktime panormic image of the store on opening night. It is very cool.
Panoramic Shots of Azeroth
While this site appears to have been around for a while (and without updates for a while), this is the first time I've bumped into it. The site includes a number of screenshots from across Azeroth, stitched together into large, panoramic views which are quite impressive. (For some idea of how the process works, there's a bit of explanation here - though I'd be curious about more detail.) If you're in the market for a new and interesting Warcraft-related wallpaper, this isn't a bad place to start.
