CUBIC PANORAMA PLUGIN released! (beta)

[riccicedric]

Best news since the begining of the Year
I will try it tonight !!

Thanks a lot !

[Mystery]

I haven't had time yet to test it, but I will tonight - and I hope that it will work properly on my laptop. I'll let you know

[Von Knudenberg]

It is definitely something with Geforce 8800, or to be precise something with forceware version. I had forceware version 163.9... when this problem occured. Now I uninstalled drivers and installed much older version 96.98 and the problem doesn't seem to exist anymore. There is very little distortion when rotating cube now, but not those multiplying edges etc... I have thought that if this problem could be related with 8800 cards new shader technic? Maybe something with unified architecture. Here are some details about this technic:

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?type=expert&aid=319

I don't know much about these vertex shaders etc, but maybe there could be something related to this problem...

At least now it is possible to use this great plugin and test some scenes...

Wiping blood from bayonet,
Pete

[GM-Support]

Thanks Pete for the info.

Now, with this configuration, do you see any differences between the betas 1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 of the plugin? Do they all have the same "very little distortion when rotating cube" that you noticed?

[Von Knudenberg]

I tested every betas and this is what I noticed:

from 1 to 1.3 this same thing happens. I must now correct myself that this "distortion" might not be right word for this. It is more like flickering, or dispersion. It is quite small and I don't know if this is normal at this state with this plugin?

1.4 Gives that same tunnel-like effect that Imari stated before. And with 1.4 I can also see that same problem which occured before downgrading drivers.

-Pete

[Mystery]

I've tested the beta 1 (from the first post) version, and it has worked absolutely great and smoothly on my laptop.
I've got a very old Intel graphic card (Intel 8258/82855 GM/GME) which has no shader support etc. (and I don't even have the latest drivers because I can't install them on my laptop for some reason).

And now I'm really looking forward to using it - it will be much easier for me to create images for the cubic panorama plugin than it was the case for the cylindric plugin.

P.S. A big thanks to Imary providing the pano images for the testing!

[Candle]

the problem is it needs to work on other computers or all is lost if some can't play your game.
I tried it on my dell with the onboard video and it would not play.

[Mystery]

I know that, I was just giving feedback from my test results
I'm optimistic that until I get my game done, the problem will be fixed

Maybe the cause of the problems can be tracked down by comparing where it works and where not.
If I have the possibility I'm going to make a small test "game" and find some people to test it to give me feedback (incl. their system and graphic card info).

[Candle]

I was posting in gen , not at you. lol sorry didn't mean to make you think i was talking to you.

[Mystery]

Lol Candle, indeed it sounded as a reply to my post. Thanks for the clarification, and no worries

[indy2]

Hello ! Many thanks for this great piece of software !

I use this plug- in for test it .

But I have little problem :

in 3d cubic frames, the mouse movement is a little slow .

Is normal feature this?

my pc is notebook Amilo fujitsu-siemens , with 1 gb RAM , graphic card is ATI X300 , AMD 1,6 ghz.

thanks !

[Von Knudenberg]

Hi indy2,

I think it is not normal behaviour for this plugin. May I ask what version of Beta you are using? I had a little bit slow mouse movement with 1.4 version. All other versions gave just normal "as fast as you can rotate" movement.

-Pete

[nigec]

I was having problem where the images where coming out white 75% of the time.. but i didn't comment as it was possibly NVIDIA problems i get with Vista anyway
Anyway if any one else has display issues with NVIDIA cards on Vista machines, try thes hotfixes from NVIDIA website:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/windows_vi ... fixes.html
It seems to have solved the plugin problem and other issues i have with 3D software

[indy2]

oh, excuse me, my pc was in crash. I reboot my pc and all is ok.

I use the first version of ocx.dll . with other version I am problem of visualization.


another question : trasparent gif are supported? i think : no.


thanks !

[GM-Support]

Thanks for your feedback so far.

To recap (with the beta 1.0):

AncientRein: works fine
Candle: works fine
Dalton: not tested yet
GM-Support: works fine
Imari: serious problems, unsolved
indy2: works fine after one reboot
MarkSA: works fine
nigec: had serious problems with nvidia on Vista. Fixed by installing the nvidia hotfixes for vista.
riccicedric: not tested yet
Von Knudenberg: was having same problems as Imari. Fixed by reinstalling an older version of Forceware. Now experiencing slight flickering.

Thanks,
GM-Support

[Lyberodoggy]

It works fine on my pc too (I have a little frame loss but I think that it's due to my cpu which is causing many problems lately)
Configuration:
Cpu: Intel Pentium 4 3.06 GHz
Vga: Saphire Ati X1650 Pro (AGP edition)
Ram: Kingston DDR300 2dimm*1GB

[GM-Support]

Thanks.

[Mystery]

GM, you forgot me

Mystery: works fine


Btw GM, would it help if I let a 3D scene test by several players, and get feedback from them if it works, and what their specifications are?
If so, what information should I gather from them about their system?

[GM-Support]

GM, you forgot me
Mystery: works fine

Ops. You are right. Thanks for reminding!

would it help if I let a 3D scene test by several players, and get feedback from them if it works, and what their specifications are?
If so, what information should I gather from them about their system?

That would certainly help everybody.
About the information to gather, I find most relevant the OS (XP or Vista) and the graphic card brand, model, and memory. But other info may be useful too, I am not sure.

[Mystery]

Okay, you should get a PM in a few days about the collected information. Hopefully it will help to figure out the cause for the different performances.

[Candle]

Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600)
3.00 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
16 kilobyte primary memory cache
2048 kilobyte secondary memory cache

2048 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'A0' has 1024 MB
Slot 'A1' has 1024 MB

NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE
Driver 6.14.11.6218
6/29/2007

[nigec]

Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ (2312 MHz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista
DirectX version: 10.0
GPU processor: GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
ForceWare version: 169.25
Total available graphics memory: 319 MB
Dedicated video memory: 128 MB
System video memory: 0 MB
Shared system memory: 191 MB
Video BIOS version: 5.61.32.20.01
1gig ram

I threw a few rooms together with no problems and i#m using the first beta version

one thing.. will it be possible not to have the cursor locked while panning so you have some free movement?

[Lyberodoggy]

I think not because there would be no way to turn the camera around then... Or maybe if they could use a key like right click to bind the camera with the cursor while it is pressed down.

[riccicedric]

Hi !

Just have tested the cubic panorama plugin, I have a lot of overlapping images problems when the camera turn, lots of images freeze during the camera movement.
Same problems with all the beta versions.
I'm using a Geforce 8600M GT on a Macbook pro under bootcamp (leopard) with win xp pro.

PS: No problem with my computer at the office with Win xp pro and my old ATI Radeon X1300.

[Candle]

There is some problems with some of the Geforce cards.
Hope can get a fix soon.

[Von Knudenberg]

Hi, riccicedric,

I'm quite sure you have same problem as (at least) I and Imari had/have which is related to driver version of your Geforce and maybe something related to shaders. If you want to test and downgrade Forceware version (as I did) I think you should get somewhat normal behaviour for plugin. I downgraded as far as version 96.98 from 163.9. Of course this isn't best or desired way, but so far only way to fix this (for me anyway) and get it playable.

-Pete

[GM-Support]

to Imari and riccicedric: do you also encounter the same kind of problems if you play the sample game included in the AM package called "360 degree panorama without scripting"?

To Imari: as far as those problems are concerned, do you see a difference between the said sample game included in AM, and the game "The Landing"? (they both use the cylindrical panorama plugin, but with different settings)

Thanks,
GM-Support

[Imari]

Yes, I do now have problems with the 360 degree demo project! It pulls and smears along the edge as I cross the join in the image. I tried The Landing again, and in that game the problem is similar, though it seems to become much worse when trying to click on the buttons on the console. Perhaps it's the multiple clicking on such a concentrated area, but the screen breaks up into small pieces, which overlap one another. I can even cause some of the planes to stretch and then pop back into place... like rubber. Very odd.

I do think it must be the newer NVidia drivers. If you really need me to, I'll uninstall and reinstall the current drivers and try to find older ones as Von Knudenberg did, but all of my other graphic programs are working well, and I hate to mess with it unless I have to.

Let me know.

My computer specs are -
Intel D975X BX2 MB
Quad Core Q6600
2.40 GHz, 3.25 GB RAM
NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX; driver version - 6.14.11.6921
Windows XP Pro SP2

[GM-Support]

Thanks for the info.

If you really need me to, I'll uninstall and reinstall the current drivers and try to find older ones as Von Knudenberg did, but all of my other graphic programs are working well, and I hate to mess with it unless I have to.
Let me know.

Don't worry, it's not necessary. On the contrary, it is better that we keep trying to fix the problem by modifying the plugin, so that other people won't experience the problem.


Thanks again.

[Imari]

GM,

I just reinstalled AM and then the cubic panorama plug-in on my old computer and it runs beautifully. Von Knudenberg's GeForce 8800 worked after rolling back the video driver, probably indicating a problem with the driver. However, I am using the same NVidia driver on both my GeForce 6600 GT and my GeForce 8800 GTX... puzzling.

My old computer's specs are -
Asus A7V333 MB
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
1.67GHz, 2 GB RAM
NVidia GeForce 6600 GT; driver version - 6.14.11.6921 Note: this is the same driver as I'm using on my new computer.
Windows XP Pro SP2