PixtraTour Diagnostics 

PixtraTour Applet is the plugin to show the tour scene in a tour page created by Pixtra TourMaster, PanoStitcher, or OmniStitcher.  To run Applet, your browser needs to install Java virtual machine (JVM), also called JRE (Java Runtime Environment).  Most browsers already have this standard technology pre-installed.  Problems and solutions viewing a Pixtra tour page are listed here (actually the solutions are applicable for any Java applet plugin).  The most likely reason you come here is the low Java memory issue.

• Nothing shows in the viewer area

• Only a small icon “X” shows in the viewer area

• Tour page loading gets stuck at "Loading Images..." graphics with a low Java memory warning dialog

• No sound (even though sound button in tour control bar indicates available)

Symptom: Nothing shows in the viewer area

Cause: The following table shows the used web browser and if Java is supported

Browser: Version:    Java:

 If  "Java: disabled" is shown in the box:  Browser does not have JVM installed.

Solution: Verify Java Installation of your browser (or directly Install Java 1.6 now).

 

Symptom: Only a small icon “X” shows in the viewer area

Cause: PixtraTour.jar file is missing from the server

Solution: contact the tour page author  

Symptom: Tour page loading gets stuck at "Loading Images..." graphics with low Java memory warning dialog:

Applet PixtraTour - low Java memory warning

Available browser Java memory is too low to show the tour (with the page stuck at "Loading Images...").

- Please close other browser windows/tabs running tour pages. Then reload this page (For some browsers

with page caching, you might need to close all browser windows and reload); And/Or (the permanent solution)

- Please increase the browser Java max memory size from the current 66MB to 300MB (Then re-start browser)

For detailed instruction, click the help (?) button in the tour page control bar.  

Cause: JVM does not have enough free memory to run the tour

Solution: For each browser type, JVM is configured a max memory size it can use for all opened windows/tabs of the browser combined (which is typically 64MB by default), even if your computer has a lot of system RAM (eg: 1GB). This size normally allows only 1-2 PixtraTour pages shown concurrently. 

1)    Close other browser windows/tabs running tour pages (then reload this page):

The closing would free memory for the current tour.  But for browsers doing page caching such as FireFox, closing a browser window still would not free memory right away.  Then you need to close all browser windows and reload.  This is tedious and impractical.  If the current Java max memory size is less than 150MB and you want to view multiple tours in the same time, the permanent solution is to

2)    Increase the browser Java max memory size from the current xxMB to 300MB (Then re-start browser):

  Enter "-Xmx300M" to change Browser Java memory limit (for each JVM version)

To increase browser Java applet memory limit

(If you you use IE6 or earlier and you could not find Java Control Panel, check here)

On Windows:

1. Open Java Control Panel:

   From Windows Control Panel:  Click "Start" at screen  lower-left corner and choose Control Panel. Click  "Java Plug-in" . 

   From Java logo on Windows task bar (if a browser window has Applet plugin):  Right-click Java logo and choose Open Control Panel

2. Select the Advanced tab.

3. In the box labeled "Java Runtime Parameters", add (for memory limit 300MB)

         -Xmx300M

4. Close Java Control Panel, and restart the browser if running.

On Macintosh OSX:

1. Open Java Control Panel:  In Finder run the "Applications/Utilities/Java/Java <java-version> Plugin Settings" command.

2. In the box labeled "Java Runtime Parameters", add (for memory limit 300MB)

         -Xmx300M

3. Click Apply.

4. Close the control panel, and restart the browser if running.

On UNIX/Solaris/Linux:

1. Open Java Control Panel:  Run the script <java-dir>/jre/bin/ControlPanel.

2. Select the Advanced tab.

3. In the box labeled "Java Runtime Parameters", add (for memory limit 300MB)

         -Xmx300M

4. Close Java Control Panel, and restart the browser if running.

 

IE 6: check active JVM
Above setup assumes your browser uses JVM from Sun.  If the browser is IE 6 or earlier the active JVM might be Microsft VM. Then to increase the applet memory limit you need to use Sun JVM:

1. Go to browser Tools | Internet Options | Advanced.

   

   IE6 has both Microsoft VM and Sun JVM. The later is checked (used for applets)

2. If Sun JVM is already installed:

   In Settings: Scroll down the list. 

   If you see

     Java (Sun)

        [x] Use JRE 1.6.0_3 for <applet> (requires restart)

   This means your browser uses Sun JVM 1.6. Check it if not already.

   If you see

     Microsoft VM

      [x] Java console enabled (requires restart)

   This means your browser uses Microsoft JVM. Uncheck it if not already.

3. If Sun JVM is not installed:

   In Settings: Scroll down the list. If you do not see

     Java (Sun)

        [ ] Use JRE 1.6.0_3 for <applet> (requires restart)

   This means your browser uses Microsoft JVM. Uncheck it and install Java 1.6 now.

4. Re-start browser and Increase browser Java applet memory limit

Symptom: No sound (even though sound button in tour control bar indicates available)

Cause: Browser does not have the plugin that plays the sound file format

Solution: Download sound player plugin

When the tour page is loaded and there is no plugin to play the sound, the browser will prompt you to download a plugin (such as QuickTime player for .mid/.midi sound file in FireFox).  Follow the instruction to install the plugin.