PanoModules Lite: A Beginner’s Guide

PanoModules Lite: A Beginner’s GuidePanoModules Lite is a lightweight toolkit designed to simplify creation and deployment of interactive panoramic experiences. Built for developers, designers, and content creators who need a fast way to assemble immersive scenes without heavy resource requirements, PanoModules Lite focuses on intuitive workflows, modular components, and performance-friendly features. This guide introduces the core concepts, shows how to get started, and offers practical tips to build your first panorama-based project.

What is PanoModules Lite?

PanoModules Lite is a streamlined collection of modules for building interactive panoramas. It provides a subset of features from the full PanoModules suite, focusing on essentials: panorama display, hotspots, basic interactions, and lightweight media embedding. The goal is to lower the barrier to entry so newcomers can prototype and publish immersive experiences quickly.

Key use cases:

• Virtual tours for real estate, hospitality, and education
• Product visualization and 360° showcases
• Simple VR experiences for web and mobile
• Prototyping ideas before committing to a more feature-rich toolkit

Core Components & Features

PanoModules Lite centers around a few modular building blocks. Understanding these will help you design effective panoramas.

• Panorama renderer: Efficiently maps equirectangular images onto a spherical or cubic projection for 360° viewing.
• Hotspots: Clickable or gaze-activated markers that open text, images, videos, or links.
• Navigation controls: Touch, mouse, and optional gyro support for device orientation.
• Scenes / Node graph: Simple scene linking to jump between different panoramic images.
• Media embeds: Lightweight support for images and video; usually via optimized thumbnails and lazy loading.
• Customizable UI: Basic skinning options—colors, icons, and minimal layout settings.

Installation & Setup

PanoModules Lite is typically distributed as a JavaScript package and a set of assets. The exact installation steps depend on your environment (plain HTML, frameworks like React/Vue, or CMS integrations). Below is a basic setup for a static HTML page.

1. Include the library (local files or CDN):

   <link rel="stylesheet" href="panomodules-lite.css"> <script src="panomodules-lite.js"></script> 

2. Add a container for the panorama:

   <div id="pano-container" style="width:100%;height:600px;"></div> 

3. Initialize with a single equirectangular image:

   const pano = new PanoModulesLite('#pano-container', { image: 'assets/panorama.jpg', projection: 'equirectangular', controls: { mouse: true, touch: true, gyro: true } }); pano.init(); 

4. Add a hotspot programmatically:

   pano.addHotspot({ id: 'info1', yaw: 1.2, // horizontal angle in radians pitch: 0.1, // vertical angle in radians content: { type: 'text', text: 'Welcome to this room.' } }); 

Building Your First Project — Step by Step

1. Plan your content: choose 1–5 panoramic images and decide where hotspots should appear.
2. Prepare assets: optimize equirectangular images (recommended max 4096px wide for Lite), thumbnails for linked media, and small icon sprites for hotspots.
3. Create the HTML skeleton and include the PanoModules Lite files.
4. Initialize the viewer and add basic controls (zoom limits, auto-rotate, initial yaw/pitch).
5. Add hotspots and scene links. Keep interactions simple: text, image popups, or a link to another panorama.
6. Test on desktop and mobile. Adjust field-of-view and control sensitivity for touch devices.
7. Publish: export static files or integrate into your web app.

Best Practices for Performance

• Compress panoramas with modern formats (WebP/AVIF where supported) and limit dimensions—use 2048–4096 px widths depending on quality needs.
• Lazy-load secondary panoramas and large media assets only when the user navigates to their scene.
• Use sprite sheets for icons and combine small assets to reduce HTTP requests.
• Prefer lightweight video codecs and stream videos through optimized players rather than embedding huge files.
• Disable gyro controls for older devices if they cause jitter.

Common Features You’ll Want to Add Later

As you grow more comfortable, you may want features beyond Lite:

• Spatial audio (positional sound tied to hotspots)
• Advanced hotspot types (embedded HTML, forms, interactive 3D objects)
• Multi-resolution tiled panoramas for very high-res scenes
• Analytics and heatmaps to track user interactions
• CMS integrations for dynamic content updates

Migrating from Lite to the full PanoModules suite—or another advanced viewer—becomes straightforward if you structure scenes and content cleanly and store hotspots in JSON or a CMS.

Example JSON Hotspot Schema

Store hotspots and scene links in JSON so the viewer can load them dynamically:

{   "scene": "lobby",   "image": "lobby_2048.jpg",   "hotspots": [     {       "id": "door1",       "yaw": 0.5,       "pitch": -0.1,       "type": "scene-link",       "target": "gallery"     },     {       "id": "infoDesk",       "yaw": -1.0,       "pitch": 0.0,       "type": "info",       "title": "Reception Desk",       "text": "Open 9am–5pm"     }   ] } 

Troubleshooting Tips

• Panorama looks stretched: make sure image is true equirectangular (2:1 ratio).
• Hotspots misplaced: check yaw/pitch values and ensure they’re in radians if the API expects radians.
• Poor mobile performance: lower resolution or disable demanding features like continuous auto-rotate or complex shaders.
• Video won’t play on mobile: check autoplay restrictions and consider user-triggered playback.

Resources & Learning Path

• Start with one panorama and a couple of hotspots. Iterate on interactions rather than adding many complex features at once.
• Use browser dev tools to profile performance and network usage.
• Search for sample projects or templates that match your use case (real estate, museums, education) to learn layout and UX patterns.

PanoModules Lite helps you move from concept to a working 360° experience quickly by focusing on essential features and performance. With careful asset preparation and a few hotspots, you can publish an engaging virtual tour that works well across devices.