Sliced Gigapixel Panorama Rendering: "Slicer"

One of the most annoying problems in gigapixel imaging is the fact that most image formats can't handle large files. Some proprietary (like Photoshop PSB) or rare (like VIPS) can do, but using them will inhibit continous workflow.

In an attempt to circumvent this restriction - and to make rendering faster, i have created a small helper application that will divide a large PTGui/Hugin project into smaller slices.
The rendered panorama slices can be easily post-processed or assembled in your favorite application.

You can download the current version here: http://dativ.at/slicer/

Update 2007/10/17: Microsoft Research has updated its HDMake tool. It can now assemble tiled source images. See this HDView blog entry for more information.

Compiling latest Hugin on OpenSuSE 10.3

Good news: with openSuSE 10.3, most dependent libraries for Hugin 0.7beta are in the correct state, so here's a quick roundup how to get and install:

• Download latest sources:
  svn co https://hugin.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/hugin/hugin/trunk hugin
  See http://hugin.sourceforge.net/download/ for more information
• Create bootstrap:
  ./bootstrap
• run "make", then "make install". You can speed up things with modern computers by using more than 2 CPUs, e.g. "make -j2" will use 2 CPUs.
• At least for Gnome, Hugin will automatically create a start menu entry
  

What else is needed to run Hugin?

• Mandatory: The panotools library (pano12):
  svn co https://panotools.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/panotools/branches/pano12/libpano libpano12
  See http://panotools.sourceforge.net/ for more information
• Optional: Autopano-SIFT (Tool for automatic creation of control points)
  http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~nowozin/autopano-sift/
  Install instructions for the ignorant:
  - unpack autopano-sift-2.4.tar.gz
  - copy all files from the ../bin subdirectory to your harddisk (e.g. /usr/local/bin)
  - configure Hugin to use autopano-complete.sh for control point creation
• Optional: Enblend (Tool for seamless blending)
  I recommend still using Enblend Version 2.5 as V3 introduced GPU-based calculation which - at least on my computer - turned out to be tricky to compile.
  http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=123407

More annotated HDView

Linz, Upper Austria
View from Pöstlingberg

312 images captured with a 300mm lens in auto exposure mode.

Control point creation with Autopano-SIFT, warped and blended with Autopano Pro. The resulting image is uploaded with a resolution of 0.65 Gigapixel.

Also new: A detailed tour through Vienna by Wolfgang Stich, based on the View from Danube Tower

Annotating Gigapixel images using HDView

One of the most fascinating things you can do with gigapixel images is, to annotate the panorama and create a "guided tour" within the image.


I worked out how to control Microsoft HDView by injecting new view parameters with Javascript.
This is fairly easy to implement, so here is an example:
http://hdview.at/200706_gmunden2/index.html

Choose a name from the drop-down list and press the "Show me!" button. This will change the viewport to the selected feature.

Gigabot Software Update 0.3c

I have made minor changes to the Gigabot software:
- Bug in "reshoot"-mode fixed
- Shorter timings for faster operation

You can download the binary here.
If you want the most recent source code, please don't hesitate to contact me.