Virtual Tours (VR Movies) of selected sections of
Carriacou, Grenada in the Southern Caribbean of the West Indies
This section of LCM is rather new as of
March 29, 2002. It presents interactive (VR or 'virtual reality') movies to help visitors get a better visual feel of the
beautiful island, of Carriacou, Grenada in the southern Caribbean of the West
Indies.
NOTE
(You must have a Virtual Machine
installed
on your computer in able to view the VR movies!)
Years ago Microsoft sold their operating systems with their
"Virtual machine" (i.e., VM) installed, or it made it available on
their support website for people who wanted to download and install it as desired. However, there has been
legal disputes between Sun and
Microsoft over the Microsoft's version of the
Virtual Machine. As a result, beginning in 2002 or 2003, Microsoft has not been
making their VM available with their operating systems or for download
through their website. However, a court settlement provides for people to
continue to use Microsoft's VM until December 31, 2007 according to
Microsoft Java
Virtual Machine Support.
I have tried Sun's version and initially found it to cause the
movies on LCM to be jerky in movement if you could pan (move around in
the image). At other
times I could not pan at all. Thus, I went back to Microsoft's version until Sun
comes up with a version that works as well. But, obviously, those are only my
observations.
Thankfully, and as of October 4, 2004, there is not only the
Sun's version available for download, but also Microsoft's version located on
various websites around the world. I have supplied links below for those who
wish to or need to download the version of their choice.
Furthermore, both versions are free for the download!
To begin, you should probably check to see if you have a version
of VM already installed. Use this link to do so:
Check Your
Microsoft Virtual Machine Version Installation
How to install a java "Virtual Machine"
on your computer if you need it.
Microsoft's version (good until December 31, 2007) can be
downloaded here as of October 4, 2004.
Sun's version can be downloaded by using one of the two
following links:
Lastly, if the links for the Microsoft version above does not
work, I suggest that you use
Google's marvelous search engine to look for other sites by using the
keywords "Microsoft Virtual Machine".
The Webmaster
October 4, 2004
LCM's Virtual Tours
of Selected
Points on Carriacou, Grenada
I have supplied thumbnail images of
each interactive Virtual Tour page. When you click on one, you will go to that page
and the image will began to load. Most pages will take about one minute to load
if you have a good 56K connection. A few may take from one to two minutes at
56K. You should not not need any plug-ins or
external programs to view these images other than that mentioned above.
NOTE: You must at least
have either Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher or Netscape Explorer 4.0
or higher to view
the below images. I would not recommend trying it if you have another browser unless
you know it can handle Java code and has "Virtual Machine" capabilities.
If you have any problems viewing any of these
movies
please e·mail me.
The Webmaster
* NOTE: If you
would like to be able to created your own VR Movies for free, click here or go
to the bottom of this page to learn more.
I hope to add more images later on, so please check back
often to see what is new!
All VR Movies were created with the
free version of PixMaker Lite
software by PixAround. The free version
is no longer offered as of November 2001, but it can still be found on various
websites for download. The file to search for is 'PixMakerLite.exe' and is 3854
KB in size. Among other places, as of April 2002, it could be downloaded at
WinSite Specialty Archives
here or
here. It could also be downloaded by a link on the bottom of this
page on
Robin Beck's website. Once installed, it
must be registered over the NET, which could still be done in April of 2002.
To make each movie takes four simple
steps. First, take a series of digital images panning from left to right and
overlapping about 30%. Second, import them into the PixMaker application via its
'Snap' command. Third, align and 'Stitch' them together. If the automatic
aligning and 'Stitch' step does not get them just right, you can manually
align the images before it stitches them together. Forth, the application
enables you to publish it as PixAround image, a self contained and executable
postcard, or a basic webpage complete with Java scripting. Give it a try! The
price is right! PixAround also offers the full version at a price. They also
have a PixScreen Lite viewer that is
free to download. Check out their website to learn more.
Visitors have viewed this page since
April 1, 2004
(NOTE: All preexisting page counters were
reset to
zero when my server crashed in March of 2004.
It took until April 1, 2004 to get them working again.)
Copyright © 2000 Last Chance Ministries. All rights reserved.
Revised: June 13, 2006.
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