NextPreviousHomeQuestions re: 360 bixorama web viewer

samson | 3 years ago | 5 comments | 665 views

First, as this is my first-ever post here, I must thank Michiel for creating and maintaining one of my favourite applications of all time! Thank you!!

My question regards the bix web player and its ability to track orientation on phones and tablets. My little demo at vanlieshout.com... shows a 360 picture which pans when scrolled but has not tracked orientation on an android phone, android tablet or ipad, other than default browser rotation. The same goes for the bix demo on the outer-space site. Are there specific requirements?

An observation on another bix test at vanlieshout.com... using an .mp4 (38mb) as the skybox (which works great within blufftitler, btw) shows this working on Microsoft Edge but not Chrome or Firefox. Any thoughts?


vanlieshout.com...

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Set parameter 6 of the Bixorama function, as called in the body onload in the HTML file, to true to turn on orientation tracking.

I don't know how to make Chrome and Firefox play MP4 files in WebGL. There's a lot of discussion about this on fora. Maybe there's a trick. Or maybe we have to wait until they fix it in a future version.

michiel, 3 years ago


Thank you. The code now reads onload="Bixorama('BixoramaCanvas','crbeachview.jpg',0,0,90,true,false)" , and orientation-tracking works!

Here's what now works best - get Firefox for Android and the fullscreen 1.0 add-on - instant standalone viewer with tracking. For my pages I will probably code them to auto-redirect to another page after a minute or two like a slideshow, and attempt to add some audio.

Also, I re-rendered the video as .webm (4 x the size at 142 MB!) and it now plays in Firefox on my PC, but not Chrome. In FF on my phone there is a green screen but it is tracking. Next I'll try .ogg ...

samson, 3 years ago

I did some testing and found out that orientation tracking on Android/Firefox works perfectly. Android/Chrome however refuses to work.

Technical documents say that orientation tracking in your browser is still "experimental technology" so I guess that's the price we have to pay for cutting edge technology. We'll let you know when we've found a workaround. And if you discover that a new version of Chrome has fixed the issue, let us now!

michiel, 3 years ago


On the chance someone else finds this interesting check out this 3 page test at vanlieshout.com... with floating nav button, static pix and sound, and 12 second looping blufftitler animation on third page. Some browsers may not like autoplay sound and will need adjusting.

vanlieshout.com...

samson, 3 years ago

Great test!

Orientation tracking works on Android/Firefox.

And the 360° video on Windows/Edge. Nice surprise to see EZ flying around!

michiel, 3 years ago


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