

Hi-Res Panorama of the Sistine Chapel - ajaykam
http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

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whatrocks
Until this, I thought the only painting was on the ceiling. Wow, I need to
travel. Was just reading another thread about logo design, and then I look at
this..

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keiferski
_So if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art
book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life's work,
political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works,
right? But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine
Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful
ceiling; seen that._

Great movie that I just had to quote. I really hope to visit the chapel
someday, and this site only reinforces my desire.

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thijsterlouw
It's extremely busy in the chapel and you will have no time to smell anything.
The guards will also try to keep the masses moving along, so there is very
little left of the serene atmosphere you expect. That being said, it's still
very beautiful.

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prawn
Beat me to it. Italy is one of the most touristed countries in the world and
the Sistine Chapel is one of the most popular spots in the country.

If you have issues with crowded places, be prepared for this one as it is
nearly always packed with people. What you'll smell is probably primarily body
odour and what you'll hear is yabbering tourists, and guards telling people
off for taking photos.

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exch
Did anyone else chuckle at the copyright notice on the floor?

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civilian
The interface is clunky. I don't like how the format is "the farther you are
away from the point you started on, the more you accelerate." I prefer to have
my mouse cursor stuck to one location, which I can then move around.

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ajaykam
Yea agreed. I think you can do what you're asking for by clicking the 'm'
button on the bottom left hand corner.

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markszcz
Mouse over method seems to work the best and allowed me to see what I wanted
to see without the camera zipping in one direction because I moved the mouse a
little out of center.

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timerickson
I wish they would have mapped the images to a 3D rendition of the chapel. It's
not overly complex that it couldn't be done. It would fix the distortion
issues present when you're not staring at the artwork at 100% zoom.

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jamesbkel
Can't say I've spent much time on vatican.va and from a quick look at the
site, it's not obvious... is anyone aware of any similar work done by the
Vatican to make this sort of thing available online?

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bmccormack
Via <http://www.zenit.org/rssenglish-30009>, I learned that Villanova's
Communications department is responsible for the technology behind the images.
There are more links to 360 views at the bottom of that article, including
this one to see St. Peter's:
[http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_pietro/vr_tour/i...](http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_pietro/vr_tour/index-
en.html)

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rosstafarian
Beautiful. I was only a child when i was in rome (5-6 years old) it's things
like this that really make me want to visit again and see this

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patrickgzill
It is a little clunky, and you can see some stitching errors (or possibly
lighting errors if they lit it in sections), but wow.

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markszcz
Clunky or not, it still gives people who have never had a chance to see the
chapel in person a perspective of how much beautiful art and history there is
packed in this one little place.

Now on a side note, I must have came late in the day because I definetly do
not remember it being that bright in the chapel when I went.

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cool-RR
Use Ctrl and Shift to zoom in and out without the mouse.

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chunkyslink
Mute button please?

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Natsu
Try this:

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/stop-
autoplay...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/stop-autoplay/)

See also: <http://kb.mozillazine.org/Muting_browser>

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Kliment
Unfortunately flashblock and stop autoplay both prevent the viewer from
starting at all, and once you click to start, it plays the unmutable music.

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Natsu
There's a Flashmute extension on there too, but it's windows-only.

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hybrid11
wow

