fieldOfView announces the immediate availability of SPi-V

Schiedam, November 22nd, 2004
For immediate release

fieldOfView is proud to announce the public release and immediate availability of the highly anticipated first version of the SPiV engine. The SPi-V engine (short for Shockwave Panorama Viewer, pronounced 'spiffy') is fieldOfView's hardware accelerated panorama viewing engine. Attendees of the IQTVRA Summit in Sedona had a chance to work with a prerelease version, and feedback has been tremendously positive. As quoted from the VRMag review of the Summit:

By far the most talked about development at the Summit was Aldo Hoeben’s SPi-V Engine.
(...) Aldo’s seminars and workshops were jam packed with attendees.

Starting today, the SPi-V engine is available for licensing. Today also marks the official opening of SPi-V dev, the community website for SPi-V content developers.

Click the thumbnail to open the panorama A fullscreen panorama, showcasing SPi-V's smooth playback.

Click the thumbnail to open the panorama Showcase of two Adaptive Dynamic Range scenes, courtesy of Greg Downing and Mark D. Fink.

Click the thumbnail to open the panorama A timelapse panorama, just one of the creative posibilities of SPi-V. For more examples visit the demo gallery.

Since the first technology demos of the SPi-V engine were put online, there have been many requests for a licensable version. People loved the fullscreen, silky smooth performance offered by the hardware accelerated SPi-V engine. To accomodate these requests, a whole new version was developed with this performance in mind. But fieldOfView didn't stop there. Building on their own experience in the panoramic industry, fieldOfView set off to add a number of unique features to the engine. SPi-V now caters for a number of realworld panoramic photographer needs, far beyond smooth playback alone. Aldo Hoeben of fieldOfView explains "With SPi-V we aim to provide the best immersive experience possible, either fullscreen or integrated in a user interface or browser window. I think a feature such as our adaptive approach to high dynamic range display illustrates how we lay full control of the experience with the photographer and, while minimising authoring costs, deliver an impressively natural experience to a very wide audience.". The feature set of SPi-V enables the panoramic photographer to deliver effects in panoramic scenes previously only available to high end systems, and at low authoring costs.

The SPi-V engine is based on Macromedia's acclaimed Shockwave technology. "Using Shockwave for our viewer gives us certain advantages," says Hoeben, "since we didn't have to build our own technology from scratch. Shockwave has proven itself through the years as a robust multimedia platform, and the hardware accelerated 3d engine included in Director was jointly developed by Macromedia and Intel. People trust those names, for a good reason: they make stuff that works." But it's not just the robustness and and good name of Shockwave that is proving to be an advantage for SPi-V. Shockwave has been around for some years now, and has a substantial existing userbase. The SPi-V engine is not yet another viewer to download,, but instead leverages off what many people have already installed on their computer. "In a way, the SPi-V engine is like a Java applet, but instead of running on Java, it's running on Macromedia Shockwave."

The viewer can be used in a browser as well as standalone on Windows and MacOS based systems. When deployed offline, on CD- or DVD-ROM, the viewer can be made to run without requiring installation of system components. On Windows systems, the engine can be embedded in applications such as Microsoft Powerpoint, or any program that supports ActiveX components. Using the standalone viewer application, the viewer can even integrate itself into any running application. The viewer will also be available for use directly within Macromedia Director MX 2004 and newer.

fieldOfView has been involved in panoramic photography since 1996. Over the years, Aldo Hoeben of fieldOfView deployed several different viewing technologies, discovering the merits and limitations of each technology. With a steady development of mainstream computer graphics hardware and the arrival of broadband internet, the time to initiate new innovations in the field of panoramic imaging has come. For more information about fieldOfView or the SPi-V engine, please visit fieldofview.nl or contact Aldo Hoeben (info@fieldofview.nl)