At a glance

QuickTime VR Authoring Studio is a new professional software application based on QuickTime VR technology that allows web designers and multimedia authors to quickly and easily create QuickTime VR panoramas and objects. QuickTime VR Authoring Studio completely replaces existing difficult-to-use QuickTime VR tools which were based on MPW (Macintosh Programmers Workbench), a scripting-based application.

QuickTime VR Authoring Studio incorporates professional features like project manager, scene maker and object maker which are intended to simplify the production process of a QuickTime VR panorama movie. Unlike other VR authoring tools, QuickTime VR Authoring Studio helps create multi-node QuickTime movies containing objects and panoramas.

QuickTime VR is the acknowledged standard for creating and viewing photo-realistic environments (panoramas) and real-world objects on Mac OS and Windows computers. Users interact with QuickTime VR content with a complete 360 degree perspective and control their viewpoint through the mouse, keyboard, trackpad, or trackball. Using the QuickTime VR Authoring Studio, panoramas and objects are automatically "stitched together" from digitized photographs or 3D renderings to create a realistic visual perspective.


Key Features and Benefits

Feature	Benefit
Mac OS graphical user interface	Anyone familiar with the Mac OS interface can use QuickTime VR Authoring Studio
Simple drag-and-drop authoring	Simply drag images from your desktop to the Stitcher window and the program is ready to create a panorama
Support for QuickTime compression algorithms	Optimize QuickTime VR panoramasfor web playback by reducing them to as little as 50 kilobytes with standard QuickTime compressors such as JPEG
No special photographic equipment required	Use anything from a simple point-and-shoot camera to a professional SLR or digital camera. No need for expensive panoramic cameras or fish eye lenses
Support for object animation	Bring objects alive by animating multiple frames at a given viewpoint
Direct image capture	Grab 360-degree views of objects using a standard video camera and any Mac OS-based computer that has video input
Map support	Lay out VR scenes on a map that lets you visualize the links between nodes and objects
Integrated hot-spot editing	Create hot-spot links directly on the content. Edit hot-spot shapes easily
Support for a variety of linked media	Link other QuickTime VR content, URLs, and author-defined data to hot spots within panoramas and objects. Linked items can be stored locally or retrieved over the web
File and image management	Tracks all the content required for even large multimedia projects
Production management	Lets you change content created at any step  in the production process. QuickTime VR Authoring Studio then rebuilds the scene to accommodate the updated files
Playback wherever QuickTime is supported	View virtual-reality content created with QuickTime VR Authoring Studio by using any application capable of playing QuickTime, or on the web using the QuickTime Plug-in browser

System requirements:

• Mac OS-based computer with a PowerPC processor
  
• 16 MB of available RAM
  
• Mac OS 7.5 through Mac OS 9.2, or the Mac OS X Classic environment.
  
• 20 MB of hard disk space
  
• CD-ROM drive
  
• Monitor that supports at least thousands of colors
  
• Video input capability (required for object movies only)