| Wes Ritchey May 15, 2001 
|  | MGI Photovista Virtual Tour is a three program software bundle which allows the user to create panoramas, 3D objects and full blown virtual tours using photographs. I first came across this MGI software when I was bidding on a museum website and looking for something different and unique to offer them. A virtual tour seemed to be the perfect solution to a visual art gallery on line. Since that time, I have used the panorama on several sites for educational and informational purposes. I can also see where the e-commerce benefits could be enormous, giving customers the ability to view 100% of any product they are about to buy. Photovista is the program which does the panoramas and I find it to be the simplest, most complete of any software of it's kind. Offering your choice of a 270 degree or a 360 degree view of a room or scene. Getting started is a simple as reading through the lens suggestions, (Suggestions for number of photos for a panorama for most major digital cameras and lenses are included in the software). Once you decide the number of photos, simply mount your camera on a tripod and spin around the room clicking. From there, simply start the Photovista program, select your images, your particular camera and begin a preliminary "stitch". This preliminary stitch gives you a good idea of what your panorama will look like. If you are satisfied, simply do a complete stitch for your final version. Photovista will even publish the HTML for you to copy and paste to the appropriate point of your website. Photovista
 Photovista Panorama Examples The Photovista 3D Objects works in much the same way as the panorama, stitching together a series of still photos to create a 3D object. Simply take photos of your object from the same height and angle from all 360 degrees. Photovista 3D Objects can handle up to 180 photos, (one for every two degrees), giving you as much detail and rotation as you want. Then add your photos into the new project and click on the preview button to get a working copy of what your 3D image will look like in it's rotation. Then export your project out into HTML. 3D Objects supports all of the standard photo formats, (jpg, gif, bmp, FlashPix), as well as avi and mov movie files. 3D Objects also gives you plenty of options for adjusting, changing and customizing your projects. Several masking options are available for your projects. You can remove all or part of your background and display it on a web page background or replace it with a background of your choice. Additional options allow the user to adjust rotation angle, automatic spinning, height, width and reverse rotation. It's very easy to see how these projects could dramatically add to your web or e-commerce site. Photovista 3D Objects
 Photovista 3D Objects Examples Unlike the first two programs, which can be used as stand alone products, Photovista Virtual Tour Maker is designed to work with both panoramas and 3D objects as well as web pages to give users the ability to link objects and panoramas into a fluid tour. Essentially, the Virtual Tour Maker links together your panoramas, 3D objects and web pages through links, or "hot spots" as they are referred to in the program. These hot spots allow users to jump from one panorama to the next, viewing 3D objects along the way, giving the illusion of a seamless tour from one room/location to the next. Photovista Virtual Tour Maker
 Photovista Virtual Tour Examples Despite being very slick, almost revolutionary software for working with photo images, I did find a few things which make me a little wary of the $249.00 price tag. Upon installing this full program to my PC which previously had a "trial" downloaded version of Photovista, the new Photovista program refused to install. This is an issue which I still haven't gotten resolved. If you have a trial version of this software, my advice is to delete it completely from your hard drive before attempting to install the new software. This leads me to the second problem I encountered with this software package, support. There is no e-mail support for this package, only user to user help forums and a toll number open from 9-5. For me, not only paying the tolls were problematic (International rates apply), but also the hours of operation. It's difficult to call for support help if you are at a primary job during the same hours the help line is open. I found the help forums both a bit clumsy and not very user friendly. Finally, even with a good, clean install, I got a few "glitches" in the programs. When adding photos into a panorama or 3D object, I was unable to use the options "Select All Photos" or in some cases even "Select Photos". Photos for projects had to be individually dragged and dropped into the project. Not a large problem, but at a retail price of $249.00, I expect a higher performance level. Even with those glitches, I still would highly recommend this program for anyone working with photos and looking to give their site a great new feature. The programs are very easy to use and with just a little time and effort, truly fantastic effects can be created. MGI Photovista Virtual Tour
System Requirements:
Windows 95 (or higher)
166 Mhz processor (PII or higher recommended)
32 MB RAM (64 MB recommended)
120 MB hard disk space
Hi-Color display (16 bit or higher recommended)
800X600 resolution (1024X768 recommended)
MSIE/Netscape 4.01 or higher
$249.00 MFSR Copyright 2001, Wes Ritchey, All Rights Reserved | 