Theta Z1 Stitching

[Howard Hartman]

Hello. 

I recently purchased PTGui because I've heard good things about it's ability to stitch panoramas.      

I've been using the Ricoh Theta Z1 and it's stitcher for several years to make virtual tours.  The stitching with the Ricoh stitcher is good, but not perfect.  I was hoping PTGui would be better.

So far I have not been able to stitch a Theta Z1 Dual Fisheye image into a panorama.   This image was made from a dual fisheye image directly from the Z1.  It was not modified in Lightroom or any other program. 

I created a sample package which contains the original dual fisheye image and the PTGui output I get from this image.   The images are available at https://www.capitalskyeye.com/samples/ptguiz1sample.zip 

I let PTGui establish control points and I aligned the image before creating the panorama.

I must be missing something very obvious.  Is PTGui supposed to be able to stitch Z1 dual fisheye images? 

Thanks.

[Pavel Albert]

Each newer version has a much worse engine for composing panoramas. Version 11 composes the panorama of Theta well the latest version composes it badly.

Dátum: nedeľa 24. apríla 2022, čas: 3:35:50 UTC+2, odosielateľ: howa...@gmail.com

[John Houghton]

I got a good stitch without any problems.  I added the image into PTGui and the Panorama Editor already showed a decent result.  I created control points at the edges using the "Create control points here" function, and ran the optimizer and then output the panorama.  The alignment was then very good.  Project file and result attached.

(To use the "Create control points here" function: in one of the Control Points windows drag out a rectangular selection box with the shift key held down and then right click in the box to bring up the option to create control points.  The images must already be roughly aligned for this function to work effectively, which they are in this case).

John

[Howard Hartman]

Thanks for showing me this, however I cannot reproduce it.   As I said in my original message, I let PTGui create the control points and it found no bad control points after that.  The images from the Z1 are already roughly aligned.     I already know PTGui will stitch Z1 images, but I have not been able to do it so my original post was asking what settings I am missing to create the output you achieved.   Is there a way to import your control points into my image?

[John Houghton]

Well.  Exactly what I did was as follows (using PTGui Pro V12.11 on a Win 11 pc):

1. Add image R0024156.JPG

2. Create points on the left and right hand sides of the image using "Create control points here", with the crop rectangle set as shown on the screenshot for the right hand side attached.

3. Run the optimizer.

Nothing more.

John

[Erik Krause]

Am 24.04.2022 um 13:49 schrieb Howard Hartman:

> Is there a way to import your control points into my image?

It wouldn't make much sense to import control points into a different
image. However, you can import the alignment. Just use the project file
John provided as a template. See https://ptgui.com/support.html#3_9

--
Erik Krause
http://www.erik-krause.de

[Howard Hartman]

It's not a different image.    John is working on an identical image

[John Houghton]

If you cannot replicate my result by following the instructions I provided, please save your project with File->Save project, and make the .pts file available in a post here.  That should help a lot.

John

[Howard Hartman]

I am also using v12.11 on Windows 11.   I am not able to generate anywhere near 40 or 41 control points.   I have attached the .pts file

[John Houghton]

I see that you are not using the same image that you supplied in your zip file.  In trying to replicate my results you should use the same (jpg) file, not a DNG file.  You can increase the number of control points generated by visiting Tools->Options->Control point generator.  Try with the jpeg file and see how it goes with that and more points.

John

[Howard Hartman]

This is the one with the JPG file instead of the DNG.   I have several hundred shots of these tracks.   I increased the max number of control points from 25 to 50.  That didn't make any difference.  Project attached.

[John Houghton]

Your project file for jpeg delivers a perfectly good panorama when I run Create Panorama, similar to mine.  There's an adequate number and spread of control points so all seems ok. There may or may not be a problem with DNG files, but it's usually better to convert to tiff format with a good raw converter to gain full advantage of the raw format. If you care to supply the DNG file then we could see what happens with that.  The DNG project does appear to have enough control points though.

John

[Howard Hartman]

I added the DNG file and the output of the latest panorama from the last project file I sent.    I don't think it's the graphics card.   I use an HP Envy laptop, but Lightroom and Photoshop run fine on it.   The original link is https://www.capitalskyeye.com/samples/ptguiz1sample.zip

[PTGui Support]

Hi Howard,

I'm afraid I don't understand what is going wrong here.

I've placed your R0024156 Panorama (1).pts (the one you posted an hour
ago) together with R0024156.JPG (from the zipfile at capitalskyeye.com)
in the same folder. I then open the .pts file in the standard version of
PTGui 12.11 and go straight to Create Panorama. I press the Create
Panorama button and the output looks fine.

Unlike your R0024155 Panorama.jpg and R0024156 Panorama NEW.jpg, which
look very bad indeed.

So could you repeat exactly the steps I did above? Do you still get the
garbled result?

And it never hurts to try disabling GPU acceleration, I've seen weird
things happen due to driver bugs. It would be good to rule this out.

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

> with *File->Save project*, and make the .pts file

> available in a post here.  That should help a lot.
>
> John
>
> On Sunday, April 24, 2022 at 5:39:44 PM UTC+1
> howa...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> It's not a different image.    John is working
> on an identical image
>
> On Sunday, April 24, 2022 at 9:26:14 AM UTC-4
> Erik Krause wrote:
>
> Am 24.04.2022 um 13:49 schrieb Howard Hartman:
>
> > Is there a way to import your control
> points into my image?
>
> It wouldn't make much sense to import
> control points into a different
> image. However, you can import the
> alignment. Just use the project file
> John provided as a template. See
> https://ptgui.com/support.html#3_9
> <https://ptgui.com/support.html#3_9>
>
> --
> Erik Krause
> http://www.erik-krause.de

> <http://www.erik-krause.de>
>
> --
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[Howard Hartman]

Yes, that was it.  Thank you.  GPU acceleration was enabled at install.    Turning it off fixed this problem

[PTGui Support]

Hi Howard,

Could you do Help -> System Information in PTGui and send me the output?
Please send this to sup...@ptgui.com

Kind regards,

Joost Nieuwenhuijse
www.ptgui.com

On 4/25/22 01:34, Howard Hartman wrote:
> Yes, that was it.  Thank you.  GPU acceleration was enabled at install.
>   Turning it off fixed this problem
>
> On Sunday, April 24, 2022 at 5:34:27 PM UTC-4 PTGui Support wrote:
>
> Hi Howard,
>
> I'm afraid I don't understand what is going wrong here.
>
> I've placed your R0024156 Panorama (1).pts (the one you posted an hour
> ago) together with R0024156.JPG (from the zipfile at

> capitalskyeye.com <http://capitalskyeye.com>)

> in the same folder. I then open the .pts file in the standard
> version of
> PTGui 12.11 and go straight to Create Panorama. I press the Create
> Panorama button and the output looks fine.
>
> Unlike your R0024155 Panorama.jpg and R0024156 Panorama NEW.jpg, which
> look very bad indeed.
>
> So could you repeat exactly the steps I did above? Do you still get the
> garbled result?
>
> And it never hurts to try disabling GPU acceleration, I've seen weird
> things happen due to driver bugs. It would be good to rule this out.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Joost Nieuwenhuijse

> www.ptgui.com <http://www.ptgui.com>

> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/e2b645a7-6885-449a-be89-07dc17223af2n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ptgui/e2b645a7-6885-449a-be89-07dc17223af2n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>>.

>
>
> --
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