ReadMe file for Piranesi 4.0.2 September 2005 This text file describes the changes between Piranesi 4.0 and Piranesi 4.0.2. The Piranesi 4.0.2 patch may be applied to either Piranesi 4.0 or Piranesi 4.0.1. There is no need to apply the Piranesi 4.0.1 patch first. If you see an error message saying that Setup could not find file Piranesi.msi, please choose Cancel and exit the patch, insert your Piranesi Program CD in the drive then run the patch again. Summary of Changes at Piranesi 4.0.2 ============================= Support for SketchUp 5 components has been added. The material colours for SketchUp components are now imported correctly when material "DEFAULT" is used. We have corrected some problems displaying shadows from 3D cutouts. Exporting to JPG using the RGB colour space has been fixed. Previously, only YCbCr and Greyscale worked correctly. Summary of Changes at Piranesi 4.0.1 ============================= Support for adding 'hotspots' to panorama EPix files has been added, see below for details. We have improved the speed of tweaking multiple cutouts, and pressing Escape now works more effectively to interrupt tweaking. Copying styles using the Style Browser will now copy the URL, if one exists. The Style Library Builder now sets the size of textures and cutouts correctly, for all types of units. Previously, it worked correctly only when units was set to millimetres. We have corrected a problem with the positioning of cutouts that are imported into different EPix files. We have sharpened the anti-aliasing on non-frontal cutouts. A number of minor problems have also been fixed. Applying the Patch ============== 1. In rare cases after applying the patch, Piranesi will no longer open raster files for Piranesi library styles and ask if you would like to find the file. If this happens, answer No to this prompt, then go to Preferences on the File menu and select the Aliases tab. Select "Piranesi Library" from the list and press Browse to locate the style libraries folder. If you installed the textures to disk, this will typically be "C:\Program Files\Informatix\Piranesi 4.0\Style Libraries". If you access them from CD, it will be "D:\Style Libraries" or similar. Finally, press the Set button, and press OK. Piranesi styles should now work again but if you have any problems, please contact us. This problem may also occur with the "Real World Textures" library. 2. You may see an error message "Setup could not find a file on the specified path or disk" This occurs if any files installed by Piranesi have been deleted without using Add/Remove Program. The patch will attempt to repair the installation by restoring any missing files from the Piranesi CDs. This applies to installed data library files as well as the Piranesi software. If this occurs. choose Cancel and exit the patch, then run the patch again. You may be asked to insert the Piranesi Data CD. Panorama Hotspots =============== You can add 'hotspots' to Piranesi panorama scenes (.EPP files). If you export a panorama to QuickTime Panorama Movie (MOV) file format, the hotspots will be included. In a QuickTime movie, a hotspot is an area of the image that contains a hyperlink. (A hyperlink is a jump from one file to another file in a Web browser.) When the file is exported to a QuickTime Panorama file, clicking a hotspot on the main movie image will open the linked file. You can link to any file the browser can display. You can add up to 254 hotspots to a panorama scene. To export a scene to MOV format, you must have QuickTime installed on your computer. Defining Hotspot Materials -------------------------------------- Hotspots in a Piranesi panorama scene are defined by setting properties on materials. The names of any materials with hotspots defined are shown blue and underlined in the Material tab of the Information palette. You can change the Hotspot properties for a material by clicking the Link button on the Material tab of the Information Palette. This mounts the Edit Material Hotspot URL dialog. Note that the Link button is not available with standard EPix files. The Edit Material Hotspot dialog has two text boxes: URL link text This box shows the URL of the file to link to the selected material. To link a file, type the URL in the box, or click Browse and select the file. The link can be a full http address, a file link to a local network file, or a relative path. If you are specifying a file URL, the path to the file is absolute and so must be defined on all machines which are to view the movie file. File URLs can be used only inside the local area network. If you are specifying a relative path, the path must be relative to the exported movie file. You might find it easiest to create the EPP and movie files in one folder before moving the movie files to their final destination. Displayed title of hotspot Optional alternative text to display for the linked material. This text is displayed in the QuickTime Player when you hover over the hotspot. If blank, the URL link text is shown instead. If required, type the alternative text in the box. The Clear button clears the linked URL and any associated optional text. When you have specified the details for the hotspot, click OK. Defining the Hotspots ------------------------------- Any areas using a material with a hotspot URL set will become hotspots in the exported QuickTime movie file. The 'Set Material only' option of the construct action will allow you to change the material for any area you want to use as a hotspot, if necessary. Exporting the Movie ---------------------------- When you export the panorama EPix file to QuickTime movie format, hotspots are automatically created wherever materials with hotspot URLs are used. If the URLs for your hotspots contain non-ascii characters, the interpretation of these characters depends on whether the movie is displayed in a browser or the QuickTime player, and whether it is viewed on a local filing system or a Web server. We therefore offer two export options for QuickTime movies that contain hotspots. QuickTime panorama - this uses the current Windows encoding for the URLs. QuickTime panorama with UTF-8 links - this uses a Unicode encoding. You should test the panorama in its intended environment to see which option you need. If you only use ascii in your links, then these two options will behave the same. Contacting us =========== http://www.piranesi.co.uk info@piranesi.co.uk Trademarks ========= Piranesi is a registered trademark of Informatix Inc. Piranesi is the subject of the following patent and patent applications: US-6226000 EP-0870284 JP-A-5-511749 QuickTime is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. SketchUp is a trademark of @Last Software, Inc