iPanorama – Adding a Compass

Still playing around with the iPanorama plugin for Word Press. When reading about the features on the web site I noticed it said there was a compass to help keep you headed in the right direction!Since I do mostly 360°’s of nature preserves and trails, I thought a compass would be nice. I never could find out how to make it work, and so wrote in the support forum to see what was the secret!

Turns out, it was turned on in the program, one of those many little things that get missed during a major update. No problem, the author soon restored it, and I was off to the races!

It was nice, but I thought it lacking, at least for what I wanted.

Figure 1: The default compass

As you can see, it was quite small, and being black and white was not easily noticeable. While some people may like the fact that it is unobtrusive, it wasn’t for me.

I wrote the plugin author and asked about if, and how it could be changed. He replied promptly that yes it could be easily done in the “Custom CSS” section. Unfortunately as much as I wish I was able to program, I can’t.

He was very accommodating and sent me some sample code. I tried it, and it works so good! And while I can’t write original code, I can often hack up what is there to tweak it to my tastes.

So, if you have an interest, and want to add, or change the compass. Here are my hopefully simple directions.

Figure 2: iPanorama Compass activation and offset.
  • (1) In the scene you want a compass to appear in first make sure it is enabled.
  • (2) In the settings, turn the “Compass” slider on.
    • Note that you must do this for each scene in which you want the compass to appear.
  • (3) There is a field for “North offset”. Nothing to do now, but you may want to come back here later. If your compass does not point north correctly change the degree offset here.
    • Tip: clicking on the compass points it due North. If the image is not showing North at the top rotate the image so North is “Up” then note the current angle and estimate the degree change needed.
  • Save the tour, then if you use the preview button you should see the default small arrow. Where it appears depends on the widget (Theme) you are using. It should look like Figure 1 above.

But you don’t want that plain old compass do you! First you need a good compass image. Then to change the default to your custom image, copy this code into the “Custom CSS” window:

Figure 3: Custom CSS code

(4) Make sure you enable styles!

(5) enter or paste the code and modify the URL for your compass image.

.ipnrm .ipnrm-widget .ipnrm-compass:before {
display:none;
}
.ipnrm .ipnrm-widget .ipnrm-compass:after {
display:none;
}
.ipnrm .ipnrm-widget .ipnrm-compass.ipnrm-active {
width:64px;
height:64px;
background-image:url();
background-size:contain;
}
?
Figure 4: The custom compass

You can further tweak the size using the “width” and “height” parameters.

It looks okay on a mobile phone also!
iPad with widget – Note location of compass
iPad with widget – Note location of compass

Ipanorama using Tour iframe URL+Name and URL+ID

This entry is part 2 of 9 in the series iPanorama

Above uses iframe with Tour ID: *iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.kasdorf.name/wordpress/ipanorama/virtualtour/2” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen* */iframe”*

iPanorama-using-iframe-Tour-ID
iPanorama-using-iframe-Tour-ID

Above uses iframe with Tour Name: *iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.kasdorf.name/wordpress/ipanorama/virtualtour/test-after-upgrade-to-pro” frameborder=”0″* * allowfullscreen /iframe

Replace the * with appropriate < or > I would suggest using caution with the use of the tour name in case you ever change it in the future I am not sure what will happen!

360 Pano Test using Short Code and Sceneid.

This entry is part 3 of 9 in the series iPanorama

First is a link using the default ipano id.

iPanorama-Shortcode-Scene-1
iPanorama-Shortcode-Scene-1

  You can use the same id, but append the Scene ID.

iPanorama-Shortcode-Scene-2
iPanorama-Shortcode-Scene-2

Using the shortcode for the tour (ipano id=”2″), appending the sceneid (for scene 2) above: ipano [id=”2″ sceneid=2e9372d9].

Note the small difference in the two scenes. In the first the Scene One button is highlighted, while in the second the Scene Two button is highlighted. (Highlit?)

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.kasdorf.name/wordpress/ipanorama/virtualtour/1?sceneid=f5120eec" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

iFrame Scene 1a

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.kasdorf.name/wordpress/ipanorama/virtualtour/1?sceneid=4d8f28b9" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

iFrame Scene 2a

Shortcode only Scene 1b

Shortcode only Scene 2b

Creating a Border and Specific Window Size

This entry is part 4 of 9 in the series iPanorama

This is just to try and figure out how to add parameters for height and width. Also add a border.

iframe src=”https://smlc.news/ipanorama/virtualtour/test-after-upgrade-to-pro” allowfullscreen=”false” width=”560″ height=”360″ style=”border:21px solid black;”></iframe>

Specify opening scene in iPanorama.

This entry is part 5 of 9 in the series iPanorama

Using iPanorama 360 to create virtual tours? Would you like to open a specific scene at times?

First, if you just want a specific scene to always open first, you can rearrange the scenes using the UP/Down arrows

But if you just want to look at a specific scene for whatever reason you can use the short code with the sceneid. Note that each scene has a unique ID… yes it’s obvious, or you couldn’t specify the scene! Just watch which scene is highlit before you grad the Scene ID!

You should end up with the following.

This one is the default opening scene #1.

This one is using the custom sceneid, and you can see the “Scene 2” is highlighted, and different than the default.

I could see a use for this. One thing you could do is to create a page with buttons, then link each button to a different scene. While there are built in “widgets” with different styles, you may want to try and create something to match your web page.

I thought you should be able to use the iframe+URL+ID+SceneID but so far I cannot make this work! iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.kasdorf.name/wordpress/ipanorama/virtualtour/test-after-upgrade-to-pro” sceneid=”2e9372d9″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe

Making 360° Tours

This entry is part 1 of 9 in the series iPanorama

I have been playing around with my drone, getting some aerial shots of the local nature preserve. LeFurge Woods Nature Preserve, on Prospect Road, just a ways North of Geddes, and South of Cherry Hill.

I find 360° “Globe” panoramas to be intriguing, and have since back when it was a challenge to stitch pictures together, then make a .mov file, and even to get a player that would work on a web site.

Now it is so much simpler, and the options to make and enhance them are great.

Following is a “Tour” I made to go from one part of the preserve to another using the links inside the panos. Some of the icons you hover over to see information, some you can also click on to see a picture. The “^” icons is a jump to another location. You can go back and forth. Great fun indeed!

Use the icon in the bottom right to go full screen for the experience! Use “esc” to close again.