Review: 360 Pan Viewer Pro

Price: $59.95
Authors: FlashLoaded
Score: 10/10

Overview: 360PanViewerPro is a solid application producing great results with little effort.

PROS:

• Light weight—.swf file with just the component is 9.96KB
• Easy to use
• No actionscript needed
• Good documentation
• Runs on Flash 7 and with extra features when published for Flash 8
• Xml driven option

CONS:

• No support for Flash 6

About 360PanViewerPro:

360PanViewerPro is the best components (and most practical) I’ve seen to date. In the ActionScript.org tutorials, there is a lengthy guide on how to script a virtual tour (in Flash 4). Within 3 minutes of installing the component, I was able to recreate the entire tutorial with no ActionScript, producing unbelievable results.

The basic idea of the component is to “loop” a picture creating a 360 degree view of an image (see example here). The component offers a wide variety of flexible options that are easily customizable via the Component Inspector and since the component runs on Flash 8, it is able to distort (or displacement) the edges creating a pragmatic 360 view. The amount of distortion is completely up to the developer and ranges from none to ridiculous (to be specific).

The component comes with complete documentation accessible through flashloaded.com (found here) and is easy to follow, showing all aspects of the component.

The amount of time saved using this component far outweighs it small price of $59.95. Within minutes I as able to create great effects, which are easily adjustable, that would have taken me hours to script. This item is a great tool in anyone’s belt.