Panotour - FAQ - Viewing the tour on a mobile
Contents
- 1 Viewing & Limitations
- 2 Troubleshooting on mobiles
- 2.1 Why can't my tour go fullscreen on my mobile?
- 2.2 Why can't I go fullscreen on iPhone ?
- 2.3 Why have some of the buttons of the tour's control bar disappeared on mobile and tablet devices ?
- 2.4 Gyroscope doesn't work in my iFrame
- 2.5 Why doesn't my transparent PNG appear on iPhone ?
- 2.6 Why won't my video show up on mobile ?
- 2.7 What are the limitations to viewing on mobile?
- 2.8 My tour is crashing
Viewing & Limitations
How can I view my tour on a mobile?
Our tours are meant to be viewed online.
To view your tour on a mobile, all you have to do is embed your tour on a website, and access that website from your mobile.
You can also access the direct link to your tour from a mobile, as soon as you have hosted it on your webserver.
Can I view my tour offline on a mobile ?
The tour needs a web server to work properly. The virtual tours Panotour creates are not intended for offline viewing.
That being said, there are some solutions:
- You can use . Though there are some limitations.
- You can also consider using consider using , or similar apps (Goodreader is another one).
- You can place your exported tour into a local network, accessible from a local ip like
http://192.168.0.1/folder/........
Are there any limitations to viewing a tour on a mobile?
Modern mobile devices can only view the HTML5 version of your tour, as they do not support Flash. As well as that, certain mobile operating systems bring their own limitations:
- iOS
- Video scenes need iPhones and iPads with iOS 8.0 or higher.
- Tour sounds that play automatically at the launch of your tour require a user action to start
- No volume change. Changing the volume of a sound is not allowed on iOS devices.
- Can not drag the panorama over a video or Livepano spot (iOS 7.x only, iOS 8.x solves this)
- PDF Viewer displays only the first page (iOS 8.x - OS issue)
- On iPhones only, LivePano and Video spots will be displayed into the sphere without any sound.
- PTP 2.5.3 - You can add a separate soundtrack that will be played only iPhones by editing the xml, see KrPano's documentation.
- PTP 2.5.4+ - You can add the soundtrack separately from the spots properties.
- On iPhones only, the display a video action will open fullscreen.
- Web content spots are removed on iOS due to an Apple limitation.
- Tours displayed in an iFrame on a domain different from the hosting domain will have the Gyroscope blocked, which is an Apple Limitation. This also removes the possibility of using VR Mode and fullscreen in this case.
- Android
- The gyroscope can be unreliable on some Android devices
- No specific OS
- Tour sounds require a user action to start
- Tour videos require a user action to start
- Only one sound or sound object ( video or Livepano ) can be played at one time. When new sounds or videos play, the new sound will play and the last sound played will automatically be stopped.
- The .flv and .f4v video formats are Flash video formats, and as such will not work in the HTML5 player.
- Mobile devices do not support Flash, they use the HTML5 player, any Flash features will not show on mobile. See What is NOT supported in the HTML5 Player?
- Many mobile devices do not support fullscreen in the HTML5 viewer. For more information see below.
- Also remember that mobile devices are nowhere near as powerful as computers, so bear that in mind when creating a tour with lots of content.
More information on KrPano's page on HTML5 compatibility.
Troubleshooting on mobiles
Why can't my tour go fullscreen on my mobile?
Fullscreen is not supported in the HTML5 viewer on most mobiles.
See this page to see if your browser/device is compatible with the fullscreen API in the HTML5 player: http://caniuse.com/#feat=fullscreen and activate "Mobile" in the search settings.
You can force the button to show up on your control bar, but it is not guaranteed to make the fullscreen work. See the related forum post: http://www.kolor.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=21831&hilit=fullscreen+mobile
Why can't I go fullscreen on iPhone ?
iOS itself doesn't support the HTML5 fullscreen API, so the only way to get a fullscreen mode is the Safari build-in landscape fullscreen mode.
On iPhone 6(S), you can choose between two display resolutions, standard and zoom:
- iPhone 6(S) need to be set to standard to enable the built-in fullscreen.
- iPhone 6(S) Plus need to be set to zoom mode to enable the built-in fullscreen.
- See how to : https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203073
Why have some of the buttons of the tour's control bar disappeared on mobile and tablet devices ?
For better experience, Panotour generates a code which removes useless and/or unsupported buttons of the control bar generated for mobile and tablet devices.
Gyroscope doesn't work in my iFrame
On iOS, tours displayed in an iFrame on a domain different from the hosting domain will have the Gyroscope and fullscreen blocked, which is an Apple restriction. This also removes the possibility of using VR Mode in this case.
Why doesn't my transparent PNG appear on iPhone ?
8 bits PNG aren't supported. Use only 24 bits PNG files.
Why won't my video show up on mobile ?
Certain formats are not able to be read by mobiles (.flv, .f4v) as they are Flash, and for others the encoding may not be compatible with your device.
It is best to try and re-encode your video for it to be compatible with mobiles. You can use Handbrake (which is open-source software, so it's free) to re-encode your video as a web/mobile compatible mp4 video.
What are the limitations to viewing on mobile?
See here.
My tour is crashing
Due to memory limits, some big tours can be difficult to display on mobile/tablet devices.
- Avoid using gigantic images for your galleries, buttons, display an image actions which will then only be resized in your viewer.
- Reduce the size of those images to their resized version to avoid saturating the device's memory.
- For example, instead of using a button image that 2500x1500px that is then resized to only be 50x30, use an image that is 50x30 directly. This is an extreme example but nonetheless common.
- You can also restart the device (as recommended in any mobile device's manual) to clear cached applications and memory, so that more can be used to view the tour.
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