QuickTime VR adds interactivity to digital images: rather than a photographer or editor deciding on the composition or cropping of an image, the viewer is able, by clicking and dragging with the mouse, to look all the way around a 360-degree scene, or view an object from many angles. Zooming in and out is also often possible. There are three main categories of QTVR 'movies' (as they are termed):

Cubic (or Spherical) Panoramas

Unlike cylindrical panoramas, these allow the viewer to look both up to the zenith, and down to the nadir of a scene. Rather more complicated to produce, they can be effective for certain subjects, as in the example of the Pantheon here:

		Click to view QTVR [584K]
Equirectangular image, 360x180 degrees	QuickTime treats the image data as six cube faces (hence 'cubic')	However, for the viewer, there is no sense of the cubic mapping; rather, the illusion is created of a seamless, spherical environment.

Object Movies

QTVR object movies allow the viewer to 'manipulate' an object and view it from many angles. Like panoramas, they have the virtue of not imposing a single point of view.

Click to view QTVR [880K]