androidgoogle-play-servicesphotosphere

Default to "compass" (gyroscope) mode when viewing a photosphere


I want to use the photosphere viewer from the PanoramaAPI in my application. The code that I am using is the "panorama" sample code from the Google Play Services samples. The default mode allows manual zooming and panning, but some devices also allow a mode called "compass mode" that uses the gyroscope to navigate the panorama. However, it is necessary to manually activate it by pressing the icon on the bottom left.

Is it possible to make that mode the default one when it is available? The PanoramaAPI doesn't seem to allow much flexibility so if it is impossible, are there alternatives?

NB: This question seems to be a duplicate of this one, but it wasn't answered with useful information and was asked almost 2 years ago so maybe things have changed meanwhile.


Solution

  • After further investigation I think it is unfortunately impossible to do what I wanted. The PanoramaAPI belongs to the proprietary Google APIs (Google Mobile Services or GMS) which are not part of the Android open source project. So this viewer is in fact closed source, and it does not seem to be possible to have any control over it beyond what is possible in this sample once that the intent is started.