Rules and regulations
By submitting an entry, you agree that you are the sole creator of the entered work, and/or that you have permission to use and enter said work into the Contest.
Entries may be disallowed by the Contest judges. The organizers retain the rights to disallow or refuse entries for any reason which they deem necessary.
These guidelines may be subject to change by the organizers.
General rules & regulations
Eligibility
Current members of the IVRPA can enter up to four (4) images in the contest at no cost. For as little as US$25, non-IVRPA members may throw their hat into the ring -- and gain the benefits of entry level membership in the IVRPA to boot!
Contest Judges and their immediate families are not eligible for entry in to the contest; Members of the IVRPA Board of Directors and their immediate families are not eligible for entry in to the Contest, except for the People's Choice awards.
Non-IVRPA members may join the IVRPA and gain the benefits of membership while throwing their hat into the ring. Membership is reasonable and rewarding!
Rights & permissions
Contest finalists grant the IVRPA the right to print images for display, to be used solely in promoting the association, the contest, and the VR industry.
The photographer also grants the IVRPA right to use the winning print or interactive images on the IVRPA web site. Copyright and all other rights will be retained by the photographer. When used for purposes other than judging for the contest, the creator’s name will always be associated with the image.
Entries will be uploaded to the IVRPA server: as an interactive VR file. Entries will not be made public until after the Thursday May 31 submission deadline. After the submission deadline, entries will be shown without credits, in order not to influence judging. Full credits will be added after the Contest completes.
Dates
The last day for submission to the Contest is Thursday May 31, 2007. Entries are closed June 1, 2007. All dates and times are -0800 GMT.
Meta data
Entries should have a clearly specified title, place and date of photography. No logos, copyrights, names, dates, text or borders on the image or on a "tripod cap", and when possible no metadata in the file. (There may be exceptions to this for commercial work -- please inquire).
Categories
There are two main judging categories: Print and Interactive. Images will be judged on both their technical and creative merits.
Each member can enter up to four (4) works in total: Two works in the Print category and two in Interactive.
Sub-categories may be combined or expanded by the Contest organizers, depending on the total number of entries.
'Print' category
The images entered must be panoramic in nature, taken with either a traditional panoramic camera, a scanning camera, or stitched from multiple exposures (either digital or film). A minimum horizontal field of view of 120° is required.
'Print' entries must be submitted as JPEG files with a pixel size of 3000x1500 and file size of less than 3MB. The entry must meet one of the dimensions and not exceed the other, or meet both dimensions if equirectangular. The JPEG files should be saved at the highest quality (least compression). 'Vertical' panoramas should be rotated 90 degrees to meet the size limitations.
Finalists will be asked to submit print-ready JPEG files at 250-300 dpi, with a borderless print size of 19"x38". The entry must meet one of the dimensions and not exceed the other, or meet both dimensions if equirectangular. The JPEG files should be saved at the highest quality (least compression).
Square images may be entered as 2000x2000 pixel JPEGs, and square finalist submissions must have a borderless print size of no less than 19"x19" and no greater than 25"x25". They must fulfill the other photographic and field of view requirements.
Other panoramic projections may be entered, as long as they fulfill all photographic, field of view, and print requirements. Entries not able to fulfill these print requirements will be disqualified.
'Interactive' category
Entries as interactive panoramas must be in the QuickTime VR (QTVR) file format.
Files must be no larger than 4MB (four megabytes) and able to be viewed "full screen", except in the case of commissioned/commercial work and interactive environments which must be able to be linked to dependably and viewed in their expected Web environment.
Interactive images must be single node only, except for the subcategories of commissioned/commercial work and interactive environments.
Entries must not contain any hotspots or outward-bound links, except in the case of commissioned/commercial work and interactive environments which must be able to be linked to dependably and viewed in their expected Web environment.
Entries in the commissioned/commercial work and interactive environments categories must be able to be viewed cross-platform (both Windows and Macintosh).
Entries which are kiosk-delivered or otherwise self-contained and not viewable within a browser may be delivered for judging by special request on disc media, but must adhere to cross-platform and other constraints.