Q: Is it possible to use stereoscopic preview images?
A: The area occupied by Stereoscope Applet can not be resized. So it is not possible to
switch between the different views without having large empty spaces.
On the other hand I wanted to reduce download time as much as possible. For a
stereoscopic preview image I would have to use a JPS file or something like this.
Then the applet would have to calculate the stereo view. This would take too much
time if a lot of applets are integrated on one single page.
So if you want to use a stereoscopic preview image you have to generate it
yourself (or with the help of the applet!) as a simple JPEG or GIF file
and use this image for the "prevImage" parameter.
Q: What kind of image formats can be read?
A: All images can be either in the GIF or JPEG image format.
The extension of the file does not matter.
I do not recommend the use of progressive JPEG formats.
Q: What is this strange JPS format?
A: In a JPS file a complete stereo image is stored. It is an ordinary JPEG file
with the right image at the left and the left image at the right side
(arranged for crossed viewing!). You can open, edit and save JPS files with
every image editor which is capable to handle JPEG images.
If you use JPS files on your site you should ask your Internet service
provider to add the following MIME-type:
image/x-jps
Q: I have problems with very large images
A: Some Internet Browsers (especially Netscape 4.x) have big problems using very
large images in Java Applets.
I would recommend not to use images bigger than 1152x864 pixel resp. 2304x864 pixels
for JPS files. The file size does not matter.
Q: How to use a JPS image with the applet?
A: In this case you only use the "stereoImage" parameter and take away the
"leftImage" and "rightImage" parameters.
Example:
<PARAM NAME=stereoImage VALUE="stereo.jps">
A correct JPS image has the right view left and the left view right!
Nevertheless there are some tools which produce parallel arranged JPS files.
The ELSA and ASUS capture tools are doing so! That Stereoscope Applet can
display such images correctly you have to add the following line to your APPLET
TAG:
<PARAM name=parallelJPS value=on>
Q: How to use two separate (left and right) images with the applet?
A: In this case you only use the "leftImage" and "rightImage" parameter and take
away the "stereoImage" parameter. Both images must have exactly the same
width and height!
Example:
<PARAM NAME=leftImage VALUE="left.jpg">
<PARAM NAME=rightImage VALUE="right.jpg">
Q: Is it possible to have the stereoscope.jar file and the image files on
different servers?
A: No! Java has some security restrictions which make this impossible! The images
must be in the same or in deeper directories in relation to the
stereoscope.jar
file.
Q: What is the strange file with the JAR extension in the Stereoscope.zip archive?
A: This is the Java ARchive format, which was introduced with Java 1.1. All
classes are compressed in this file and transmission over the Internet is
therefore much faster!
You do not have to uncompress it, only start your browser on the example.html!