Contents
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What’s in the box?
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Virtual Gettysburg allows you to experience the Gettysburg
battlefield tours in three different formats - interactive
CD-ROM, audio-only CD, and tour book.
CD-ROM
The Virtual Gettysburg Program Disc is a PC/Mac compatible
CD-ROM. This will run in any Macintosh or Windows computer
(Win 95/98, NT, 2000, ME, XP) See the next chapter for installation
instructions.
Audio CDs
The tri-fold audio CD pack contains 3 audio-only CDs. These
discs can be listened to using your home stereo system, a
Walkman or your car audio CD player. They contain the same
guide narrative as the Virtual Gettysburg Program CD-ROM,
but without any pictures.
Tour Book
The Virtual Gettysburg Tour Book is a transcription of
the narrative text contained in the Virtual Gettysburg Program
CD-ROM and audio CDs. This book contains maps showing the
general location of the 21 guided tour stops as well as historic
photographs.
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Installation
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Program CD-ROM Instructions
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Virtual Gettysburg is designed to be as easy as possible to
use. Simply insert the Virtual Gettysburg Program CD into
your CD-ROM drive. If your computer has QuickTime 5 and is
set to Autorun, you will be taken right to the Virtual Gettysburg
title screen. Nothing will be copied to your hard drive. It’s
that easy.
Autorun
If Autorun is disabled, follow these steps:
PC:
1. Select Run from the Start Menu.
2. In the Run box, type x:\VGpc.exe where x is the drive letter
of your CD-ROM drive, and click Enter.
Mac:
1. Double-click on the 'VGmac' icon.
QuickTime™
Virtual Gettysburg requires QuickTime 5. If you don’t
have it installed on your computer you will be asked if you
would like to install it. The QuickTime software is free and
included on the CD-ROM. Simply follow the instructions in
the QuickTime installer. Once QuickTime is installed, Macintosh
computers will need to be restarted, PCs won’t.
Version
Note: To see which version of the CD-ROM you own, hold
down the ‘v’ key as the CD-ROM starts up. The version
number will be displayed on the Virtual Gettysburg title screen.
Virtual Gettysburg updates will periodically be available
for a small fee at www.virtualgettysburg.com.
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Experience
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Watch the campaign and battlefield tours
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This section describes the different viewing options available
while the battlefield tours are playing. We will start at
the title screen of the Virtual Gettysburg Program CD-ROM.
If you are not sure how to get to the Virtual Gettysburg title
screen, please refer to the Installation portion of this manual.
Start Here
When the Virtual Gettysburg title screen appears, click the
Next button to start Virtual Gettysburg. You don’t have
to touch anything else and Virtual Gettysburg will play from
start to finish. Watching the entire CD-ROM straight through
- the Intro, the Prelude, the twenty-one battlefield tours
and the Gettysburg Address, takes about three hours.
Intro
In the Intro section of the CD-ROM, Gary Kross gives a brief
overview of the twenty-one places on the battlefield that
he will be taking you. To advance through the intro a day
at a time you can select the Next button.
If you listen through to the end of the Intro the presentation
will automatically advance to the Prelude. As an alternative,
the Tours palette gives you direct access to the entire timeline
of the Virtual Gettysburg CD-ROM. So if you want to skip the
Intro and go straight to, for instance the Prelude, you can
do so by selecting the Prelude button in the Tours palette.
Prelude
The Prelude describes the month-long campaign leading
up to the Battle of Gettysburg and lasts about ten minutes.
You can use the QuickTime movie controller to pause or restart
the Prelude, or to go to a specific location in the narrative.
You can also use this controller to adjust the volume.
When the Prelude ends it will automatically advance to the
first battlefield tour - McPherson’s Ridge. If, at any
time during the Prelude, you wish to jump straight to the
battlefield tours, simply make a selection from the Tours
palette.
The Battlefield Tours
When a new tour starts the panoramas are set to rotate in
sync with the narrative. This is called Auto Rotate. To turn
this feature off, select the Auto Rotate button. The button
will turn gray and the panorama will no longer follow the
narrative. To pan continuously in one direction or the other,
use the Left Swing or Right Swing buttons. Select the Auto
Rotate button and the panorama will once again follow the
narrative.
Whenever a new tour is selected the main tour interface defaults
to a view with the Photos and the Maps palettes open.
If we restart the tour you will notice that in the Photos
palette there is a historic view from the area of the current
tour. As the tour continues, thumbnail photos of people and
relevant monuments appear here. In the middle is a thumbnail
map of the entire battlefield. The area shown outlined in
black depicts the area in the detail map on the right. This
is the Interactive Map thumbnail, centered on the location
of the current panorama.
There are three ways to advance to a new tour. First, if you
watch through to the end of a tour, Virtual Gettysburg will
automatically advance to the next tour. Second, you can click
on the Next Tour or Previous Tour buttons. The third way,
as we have shown before, is to open the Tours palette and
choose a new tour.
Gettysburg Address
The video re-enactment of the Gettysburg Address plays automatically
after the last tour finishes. You can also play this video
at any time by selecting the Gettysburg Address in the Tours
palette.
Exit
After viewing the Gettysburg Address video you will automatically
advance to the Exit screen where you can read the Credits,
Quit or Replay the whole program over again. You can go directly
to this screen at any time by selecting the Exit button in
the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
Help
Next to the Exit button is the Help button. Click here
to find out information about the operation of the Virtual
Gettysburg interface.
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Explore
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Stop the tours
and explore the battlefield
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This section describes the different options available once
a battlefield tour has been stopped. Select any tour from
the Tours palette and then click on the Stop Tour button.
The narrative will stop and you are free to roam around the
battlefield and explore for as long as you wish. When you
are ready to rejoin the tour, simply click on the Resume Tour
button and Gary will pick up right where he left off. If you
wish to start the tour again from the beginning, simply re-select
the tour from the Tours palette.
There are many buttons, lists, HotSpots, etc., that when clicked
during a tour, will also cause the tour to stop. We will be
covering some of these in the following sections. For now
we will stop the tour using the Stop Tour button.
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Moving
within panoramas
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The panoramic video that you watch during the tours is actually
a 360-degree panoramic photograph. There are a number of ways
to control your view of these panoramas.
1. Rotate the panorama left, right, up or down by clicking
and dragging the mouse on the panorama.
2. Zoom in by holding down the Shift key and zoom out by holding
down the Control key. The mouse must be within the bounds
of the panorama for zooming to work.
3. View the panorama full-screen by clicking the Full Screen
button. This same button brings you back to the normal view.
4. The Sights palette contains a list of every sight mentioned
in Gary’s narrative. Swing to a view by selecting from
the list.
There is a shaded area in the Interactive Map thumbnail that
shows the field of view of the current panorama and tracks
its movement. Note that you can zoom the Interactive Map thumbnail
in and out by clicking the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons. See
how the center map updates to show the detail area. You can
also close all of the palettes and reveal a large Compass
that tracks the movement of the current panorama.
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Moving
between panoramas
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You can visit just about anywhere on the battlefield thanks
to Virtual Gettysburg’s 99 360-degree panoramic photographs.
There are a number of ways to move from one panorama to another.
Let’s reset the screen. Select any tour from the Tours
palette and then click on the Stop Tour button.
1. You can go to a new panorama from within the current panorama
by clicking on a HotSpot. To see where the HotSpots are, click
on the Show HotSpots button. There are two types of HotSpots.
The oval HotSpots represent panoramas and the rectangular
HotSpots represent monument photos and historic scenes. We’ll
talk about the rectangular photo HotSpots later.
If you roll the cursor over an oval HotSpot the cursor turns
into an arrow and a thumbnail photo of the panorama it represents
shows up in the Photos palette. Simply click on the HotSpot
to go to the new panorama. Note that both maps in the Map
palette update when you go to the new panorama. If a tour
had been going, clicking on this HotSpot would’ve stopped
the tour.
HotSpots work whether or not you can see them. Make them invisible
by clicking the Show HotSpots button again. The best way to
find a HotSpot when Hotspots are hidden is to keep the cursor
right around the horizon line and spin the panorama. Then,
when the cursor turns into an arrow you can look in the photos
palette to see if this is where you want to go. If it is,
then click on the HotSpot.
2. You can go to a new panorama from the Interactive Map.
Zoom in the Interactive map thumbnail using the Zoom In button.
The green buttons represent panoramas. When you roll over
a green button in the map thumbnail, a thumbnail photo of
the panorama it represents shows up in the Photos palette.
Simply click on the green button to select the new panorama.
Note that both maps in the Maps palette update when you go
to the new panorama. If a tour had been going, clicking on
the green button would’ve stopped the tour.
You can reposition the Interactive Map thumbnail by clicking
anywhere on the center map or by dragging the detail area.
Then, as before, you can click on a green button in the Interactive
map thumbnail to select a new panorama.
3. Finally, you can go to a new panorama from the list in
the Panoramas palette. Click on the Panoramas button. You
will see a list of all of Virtual Gettysburg’s 99 panoramas.
They are listed geographically by area, somewhat following
the order of battle. When you roll over a panoramas name in
the list, a thumbnail photo of the panorama it represents
shows up in the Photos palette. Simply click on the name to
select the new panorama. If a tour had been going, clicking
on the name would’ve stopped the tour. Now, click on
the Maps palette button. Note that both maps in the Maps palette
have updated to show the position of the new panorama.
Note that when you leave a tour by selecting a new panorama,
the Sights tab and the Info tab disappear.
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Getting
to The Photograph Gallery
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There are two ways to get to the Photograph Gallery from the
main Tours screen, by clicking on a Photo HotSpot in a panorama
and by clicking on the Photos palette Full-Screen button.
You can also get to the Photograph Gallery from the full-screen
Interactive map, but we will show you how to do that later.
1. First let’s look at how you can go to the Photograph
Gallery by clicking on a rectangular HotSpot in a panorama.
Open the Tours palette, select the Devil’s Den Tour,
and then click on the Stop Tour button. Turn on the HotSpots
by clicking on the Show HotSpots button. Note that there are
oval HotSpots and rectangular HotSpots in this view.
As we discussed before, oval HotSpots take you to different
panoramic views. We can see by rolling over the left oval
HotSpot that the Triangular Field is right in front of us
and by rolling over the oval HotSpot on the right that the
Wheatfield is to our up over the rise to our right. Now, put
your mouse over the rectangular HotSpot that contains the
statue in the middle of the screen. You will see that you
have your cursor over a HotSpot for the 4th Battery New York
Light Artillery. You will also note that the cursor has now
turned into a hand, not an arrow as when over an oval HotSpot.
Click on the statue.
You are now in the Photograph Gallery looking at a photograph
of the 4th Battery New York Light Artillery. The list of monuments
has scrolled to show the 4th Battery New York Light Artillery.
You will also see a thumbnail view of the panorama in the
upper right corner of your screen. Click on the Go Back button
on the bottom edge of the panoramic thumbnail to return to
the main Tour screen. Turn off the HotSpots by clicking on
the Show HotSpots button.
2. The second way to get to the Photograph Gallery is by clicking
on the Full Screen tab in the Photos palette. Let’s restart
the Devil’s Den tour by opening the Tours palette and
selecting Devil’s Den. As soon as the picture of Dan
Sickles appears, stop the tour. Click on the Full Screen button
in the Photos palette.
You are now in the Photograph Gallery looking at a photograph
of Dan Sickles. The list of People has scrolled to show the
name of Dan Sickles.
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Photograph Gallery interface
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There are four ways to select photos in the Photographic gallery
- by clicking on a panorama, a list, a map or a Next/Previous
button.
1. Let’s first look at how to find a photo from the panorama
thumbnail. Open the Tours palette and select the Little Round
Top tour. Stop the tour by clicking on the Stop Tour button.
Turn the HotSpots on by clicking on the Show HotSpots button.
Click on any of the rectangular HotSpots.
You are now in the Photograph gallery. Hold the cursor down
over the panoramic thumbnail and hold down the Shift key to
zoom in. Move the mouse around and then note select new photographs
by clicking on other rectangular HotSpots. This technique
makes it easy to find photos of monuments that you can see
from the position of the current panorama.
2. You may have noticed that when you select a new photograph
by clicking a HotSpot the Monument list updates to show the
name of the current photo. This makes it easy to find photos
of monuments from the same state. Select a monument photo
from the Monuments List. This list contains every monument
and marker on the battlefield in this order - Equestrian Statues,
Bronze Statues, Commemorative and Memorial Statues, Headquarters
Markers, State and Regimental Monuments, Union Markers, Confederate
markers and Hospital Markers.
3. You can move through the Monument list by clicking on the
Next/Previous buttons underneath the photograph thumbnail.
This also works when you are viewing the photographs full-screen.
Click on the Full-Screen button. You can still locate photos
in full-screen mode using the lists, or you may choose to
hide the lists by clicking on the title of the active list.
When you are finished, you can return to normal viewing mode
by clicking on the Full Screen button.
4. You will notice that the panorama goes blank when you select
a photo from the Monument list. This is because you are no
longer standing at the location of the current panorama. You
are merely looking at photos from a list. To select a new
current panorama, open the Panoramas list and choose any of
the 99 panoramas. For the purposes of this demonstration,
select the Little Round Top, Military Crest panorama. Open
the maps palette by clicking on the Maps palette button and
notice that the Interactive map thumbnail is centered on the
current panorama.
Zoom in by clicking on the Zoom In button twice. You will
notice a little arrow next to the green current panorama button
in the map thumbnail. Click on this white button to show a
view of what it looked like at this location over 100 years
ago. You can also click on the red buttons to bring up pictures
of monuments in the area. You can also click on the blue buttons
to read what the markers in the area say.
Click twice on the Zoom Out button. Look to the west a bit
and you will see a small green button next to where it says
Slaughter Pen. Click on this button. Zoom in by clicking on
the Zoom In button twice. Right above the green current panorama
button is a white arrow that represents another historical
scene – The Dead in the Slaughter Pen Pond.
Let’s see what this pond looks like close up today. Roll
your cursor in the panorama thumbnail until you rotate the
field of view towards the pond photo. You will see the pond
in the panoramic thumbnail. Click on the Go Back Button. Now
you are on the main Tours screen. Click on the Full Screen
button and now we are right at a close-up of the Slaughter
Pen Pond.
Turn on the HotSpots by clicking on the Show HotSpots button.
In the distance you will see a rectangular HotSpot for the
4th Maine Infantry monument. Clicking this HotSpot will take
you back to the Photograph Gallery.
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Finding
Things on the Interactive Map
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There is only one way to open the full-screen Interactive
map – by using the Full Screen button on the Maps palette.
Select the Emmitsburg Road Tour from the third day’s
tours – that’s the bottom row of tours. Click the
Stop Tour button. In the Maps palette, click the Full Screen
button.
You are now at the full-screen Interactive Map, centered on
the current panorama - Emmitsburg Road, Codori Farm. The panorama
list is also updated to reflect the current panorama. If you
click on a panorama in the panoramas list, the map updates
to reflect your choice. The map thumbnail updates as well.
You can find a monument or a historic scene the same way.
Open the Monument list. Click on any monument. The map will
center on the monument you have chosen.
Zoom out two clicks with the Zoom Out button. Select another
monument from the list. Note that the map zooms in. Now, zoom
in two clicks with the Zoom In button. Select another monument
from the list. If you are already zoomed in, the Interactive
Map maintains your current field of view.
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Going
Places from the Interactive Map
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Clicking on a green panorama buttons opens that panorama in
the main Tours screen. Clicking on any other button takes
you to the Photograph Gallery. Let’s see how that works.
Center the map on the town square by clicking in the little
dark spot in the middle of the map thumbnail, (just above
the center of the thumbnail map.) If your aim is a little
off you can drag the detail indicator to find the town center.
If you still haven’t found it, open the Panorama list
and scroll down a bit until you find The Town Square, The
Diamond.
Close any open palettes to get a clearer view. From this spot
you can see all of the types of items on the map. Right in
the center is a green button representing the Town Center
panorama. Click on it. You are now on the main Tours page
looking at the Town Center. Open the Maps palette and notice
that the map thumbnail is centered on the current panorama.
Click Full Screen in the Maps palette. You are now back at
the Full Screen Interactive Map.
Close any open palettes again to get a clearer view. Way to
the left you can see an arrow representing a historic scene.
This one is for John Burn’s House. There are numerous
red buttons representing monuments. Note that large red buttons
represent both Union and Confederate monuments. The small
blue and small red buttons represent Union and Confederate
markers, respectively. Look up by the Brickyard and note that
some markers have pictures and some have text. Look down at
the two small red Confederate Marker buttons. One is a generic
Division Marker. The other is a generic Brigade Marker.
Click on any button except a green one. Now you are in the
Photograph Gallery. Open the Maps palette and notice that
the thumbnail map shows a full battlefield view. This is because
there is now no current panorama. Click Full Screen in the
Maps palette. That is how you get a full town view of the
full-screen Interactive Map. You simply go to it when there
is no current panorama.
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