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I have a 360×180 panoramic photo, and I'd like it to display on Facebook similarly to this example from Mark Zuckerberg.

I tried following Facebook's documentation, but my image is being interpreted as if it were full 360° spherical.

What metadata do I need to set to restrict the viewer so it only pans side-to-side, not up and down as well?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ What do you mean by "the size"? Do you mean what resolution is required? What are you starting from? \$\endgroup\$
    – mattdm
    Jul 28, 2016 at 7:09
  • \$\begingroup\$ Yes, I want to know resolution and size? Its not 360x360 but 360x180 degree photo? How to achieve such results \$\endgroup\$
    – Zack
    Jul 28, 2016 at 7:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ That link clearly says "The photo must have a 2:1 aspect ratio, with maximum file dimensions of 6000 x 3000 pixels". Can you be more specific about what you have tried and what is "not working as expected"? \$\endgroup\$
    – mattdm
    Jul 28, 2016 at 7:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ I followed the same size 6000x3000, you can rotate180-degree only in Mark's image, but when I try to upload its full 360-degree image. \$\endgroup\$
    – Zack
    Jul 28, 2016 at 7:57
  • \$\begingroup\$ Size isn't the issue, then. \$\endgroup\$
    – mattdm
    Jul 28, 2016 at 7:59

1 Answer 1

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Make sure that you have ProjectionType="cylindrical" rather than ProjectionType="equirectangular" in your EXIF. You must also specify the HFoV and VFoV (horizontal and vertical fields of view) for the image. The documentation you linked to has the following example exiftool command to define a cylindrical panorama:

# 120º h_fov, 86º v_fov exiftool -FullPanoWidthPixels=18000 -FullPanoHeightPixels=9000 -CroppedAreaLeftPixels=6000 -CroppedAreaTopPixels=2350 -CroppedAreaImageWidthPixels=6000 -CroppedAreaImageHeightPixels=4300 -ProjectionType=cylindrical file.jpg

A 360ºx180º equirectangular panorama is a full 360º spherical view that includes the top and bottom of the sphere, that's why it's interpreted as such by most viewers. There is no such thing as a 360ºx360º pano.

The panorama format that's limited to side-to-side pans are cylindrical panoramas, which typically don't have a 2:1 aspect ratio, but are usually quite a bit wider and shorter, say, 4:1 or 6:1 aspect ratio. The Mark Zuckerberg Facebook example you link to is a cylindrical pano.

A cylindrical pano usually looks like a long thin horizontal strip when viewed all at once. But more importantly, it is completely missing the zenith/nadir information, so you cannot tilt up to view the ceiling or down to view the floor.

Not all pano viewers can handle both equirectangulars and cylindricals. But if FaceBook's can, it's also probable that simply making sure your panorama does not have a 2:1 aspect ratio is all that's required.

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