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11 Comments

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Panoramaist: HTO Park

By Tony Makepeace

Starting today, contributor Tony Makepeace will take us for some spins around our city with his fantastic VR panoramas. You can look up, down, side to side, in and out—pretty much every direction but back at yourself, which would be kind of creepy. Say hello to Panoramaist: the Toronto shoe-gazer’s worst enemy.
panoramaistharbourfront.jpg
Click the preview image above to launch the QuickTime VR panorama in a separate full-screen browser window. Panoramaist (and no, we don’t get tired of saying its name) is best viewed on a faster computer.

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Comments

  • Jkai

    That is incredibly cool. I played around with it for a good ten minutes

  • Karen Whaley

    I squealed with delight when I looked down at my feet and saw some kind of Torontoist manhole cover.

  • Kevin Bracken

    I love that place :) It made an excellent end point for our parade earlier this month!

  • David Elliott

    Quite impressive. Will we see more of these on a regular basis or can we see more at a website by the photographer?

  • David Topping

    Tony Makepeace’s site is here, and Panoramaist will hopefully be a regular feature here.

  • guest

    Very interesting. A little bit surreal.
    (Feeling a little dizzy)
    What happened to my cursor, though?
    This better not have installed something on my computer.
    I cannot get rid of the bullseye attached to the mouse pointer.
    If this is a virus, I am livid.
    Cheers

  • David Topping

    Uh, well, it’s not a virus (and if it was, a virus that changes your cursor and does nothing else would be the lamest virus ever).
    If you’re experiencing problems with your cursor, you probably launched the link in the same window (instead of in a separate one). If you still experience problems after closing the window or tab that the program is in, try exiting your browser and launching it again; the cursor should go back to normal.

  • guest

    That WOULD be so lame!
    It just caused me to recall the dreaded Comet Cursor thing, where your cursor leaves not only a trail on your screen but is also some kind of adware. Next thing you know, that annoying smiley window keeps appearing in a new window. Pretty innocuous really, but who knows what else it is up to.
    I was just concerned because it carried over to other, already opened, tabs and even to a new instance of the browser that I had then opened. (In Firefox, BTW)
    You are absolutely correct in saying that everything returns to normal upon closure and re-launching.
    Having had to re-install Windows too many times, I just had a moment of panic.
    I knew I could trust Torontoist.
    On another note, the spellcheck flags “Torontoist”
    A truly useful feature- that live spelling checker- Can the dictionary be edited to include Torontoist?
    Don’t mean to nitpick – just sharing.
    Love the site.

  • David Topping

    The live spell-checker in the text box is a Firefox property, not a Gothamist one. If you want to add Torontoist to the dictionary, you’ll have to either wait until we become the next Google or or just right-click the word in the text box and select “Add to Dictionary.”

  • guest

    Very interesting. Thank you.
    I never could figure out why some comments featured such obvious mistakes, repeatedly.
    I guess IE’s checker is not live.
    The live aspect is quite useful.
    Now, if only it could help prevent double posting. Thanks for the clarification.
    Will there be more panoramas to come?
    I would like to see the Guild Inn imaged in this format.
    The sculpture garden contains many of the ornate stone facades from buildings in Toronto’s Financial District which were razed to make way for the skyscrapers we have today.
    The shuttered Inn and Hotel just add to the ghost-town feel of this fantastic park property, acquired by the Toronto Parks (and Forestry) Department when Scarborough was amalgamated with Toronto.
    Actually, the front yard might make a good panorama too.
    The Bluffs below would make three, and perhaps justify the visit, though I guess it would be all water and sky on the one side.

  • guest

    Very nice – I look foreward to see more!
    I recall that some years ago there where many of such VR Toronto Panoramas – sadly they simply disappeared… who knows why