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Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR

businessinsider.com

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Re: Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR

#11

Post by dvdplm »

ascorbic wrote: post #4

I first saw QuickTime VR in around 1999, and was so blown away by it that I ended up building a whole business around it. I made software that stitched the images, assembled them into a QTVR movie and let you build Streetview-type tours hosted on our servers. It was great fun, though reverse-engineering the Apple Graphics codec used for the the clickable hotspots was a bit tedious. Eventually we abandoned QTVR, as it…

Me too! It was such amazing fun and we really believed we'd make it big time. We built "VR tours" to art cities in Italy. A few are still online: http://www.girareggio.it/ and http://www.comune.bologna.it/girabologna/ and sort of kinda working. We used a Seitz Roundshot 220VR camera to take all the photos. Probably the weirdest camera I have ever used, quite special. As you say, it soon became clear that Apple was not investing any effort in QTVR (or in QT in general tbh) and I remember struggling writing a QT C-extension for our PHP-based authoring env. Good times!

Re: Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR

#12

Post by bbrik »

azinman2 wrote: post #3
NTripleOne wrote: post #2

Personally, I'm happy to forget anything that has quicktime in the name...

Why? QuickTime is one of the best media stacks out there.

Quicktime still is the standard in professional video. Everybody uses QuickTime and Apple prores codecs.

Re: Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR

#13

Post by dingo_bat »

shiggerino wrote: post #7
dingo_bat wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that true? I've always associated Quicktime with lag and bugs. Also, one of the rare instances of non-driver software causing BSODs, which is quite a mean feat.

I can't even remember ever being able to seek in a Windows Media file without breaking the entire playback. Never had any problems like that with QuickTime.

>I can't even remember ever being able to seek in a Windows Media file without breaking the entire playback.

What's that got to do with Quicktime?

Re: Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR

#14

Post by agumonkey »

Keyframe wrote: post #8

Quicktime VR found its niche later on. There were camera attachments for 360 lens "simulations" where you could shoot a scene and have it in QTVR. There were postcards (physical with CDs) with those. I remember this though https://vimeo.com/97806117 which was more of a VR. We even had stereo glasses on workstations. There was also IO Glasses, later on, for PCs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbNUIwi5F6g This was mor…

'drawing is done with a thing called GL'

very historical

Re: Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR

#15

Post by agumonkey »

azinman2 wrote: post #3
NTripleOne wrote: post #2

Personally, I'm happy to forget anything that has quicktime in the name...

Why? QuickTime is one of the best media stacks out there.

As many, from the average 90s Windows user, QT was just an awkward penguin plugin. It "felt" outdated even in these days.

Re: Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR

#16

Post by ino »

Impressively stitched together, specially for the time. Even in 2008 it was a big effort to do it well in hugin. Photoshop also later improved their stitching tech and Microsoft research made ICE which was also nice.

In the demo, the ball of his mouse gets sticky. No amount of nostalgia can make ball mice look good.

Re: Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR

#17

Post by ino »

dingo_bat wrote: post #5
azinman2 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? QuickTime is one of the best media stacks out there.

Is that true? I've always associated Quicktime with lag and bugs. Also, one of the rare instances of non-driver software causing BSODs, which is quite a mean feat.

On PC I've always associated it with not being able to full screen a video and bad play/pause/rewind/FF controls.

Re: Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR

#18

Post by nasduia »

NTripleOne wrote: post #2

Personally, I'm happy to forget anything that has quicktime in the name...

All I remember is the spammy nag screens every time it was updated: "Why not buy Quicktime Pro?" and Apple's hideous brushed steel UI which often didn't quiet render correctly.

Re: Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR

#19

Post by ascorbic »

dingo_bat wrote: post #5
azinman2 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? QuickTime is one of the best media stacks out there.

Is that true? I've always associated Quicktime with lag and bugs. Also, one of the rare instances of non-driver software causing BSODs, which is quite a mean feat.

The player was crappy, but the actual framework was great. I believe the file format formed the basis of MPEG4.

Re: Apple's forgotten virtual-reality project QuickTime VR

#20

Post by ascorbic »

dvdplm wrote: post #11
ascorbic wrote: post #4

I first saw QuickTime VR in around 1999, and was so blown away by it that I ended up building a whole business around it. I made software that stitched the images, assembled them into a QTVR movie and let you build Streetview-type tours hosted on our servers. It was great fun, though reverse-engineering the Apple Graphics codec used for the the clickable hotspots was a bit tedious. Eventually we abandoned QTVR, as it…

Me too! It was such amazing fun and we really believed we'd make it big time. We built "VR tours" to art cities in Italy. A few are still online: http://www.girareggio.it/ and http://www.comune.bologna.it/girabologna/ and sort of kinda working. We used a Seitz Roundshot 220VR camera to take all the photos. Probably the weirdest camera I have ever used, quite special. As you say, it soon became clear that Apple was no…

When I first started I didn't even have a digital camera. I took the photos with a film camera, had them printed, then scanned them in! Quite a contrast with shooting a panorama on my phone now.
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