Regarding API

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Jann Lipka
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2008 7:28 am

I've seen Your recent webinar.
I'm also somewhat confused regarding API - thingy .

You mention that depending on usage
GG API can be withdrawn ( Sounds a bit scary if you do client work )

I need to understand is there any hints when this would happen ?

I have been using GoThru previously for my Street View work - never any API warnings there.

Some of my restaurants I shot earlier have hundreds of thousands of views.
Would that affect your bill for API usage ?
or does it happen only for embedded tours ?

I shoot Street View more seldom now and have a small 4 node project that I guess could have 1000 views a week .
I thought that would be a perfect time to test Pano2 VR :-)

Do i need to mess with my own API ?

I also could use Street View app on my iPhone for those 4 images.
why on earth I don't need any API using that ?

browsing this topic on some FB groups feels like opening a can of worms .....
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Hopki
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Hi Jann,
All software requires an API.
With GoThrou and other subscription services this cost is built in to your payments.

With Pano2VR you do not pay for uploading once you have the software.

We are happy for people to use our API if they are low volume users.

But if this is your business and main income then it makes sense for you to have your own key where you are in control of it.

Once the key has been set up and you are a low to moderate user then the chances are you won’t get charged anyway as Google gives you the $200.00 credit a month.

So the bottom line is the subscription services include this in their costs. So even though you do not manage it, you pay for it. As this cost is covered in your uploads you may be paying for this when you don’t need to. As said Google gives you $200.00 credit which is quite a few uploads.

The Street View app is Google’s own product so they can do whatever they want with it.

Pano2VR is not subscription so it is your choice to use our key for free or get your own key which may also be free depending on use.

Is it a can of worms, I don’t think so it’s just with Pano2VR you have to manage the key.
People have had issues with it because of other reasons such as No linked payment method to their account.

But also to be clear, the API key is only required for uploading the tour, there are not any ongoing costs.

Regards,
Garden Gnome Support
If you send an e-mail to support please send a link to the forum post for reference.
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https://ggnome.com/wiki/documentation/
Jann Lipka
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2008 7:28 am

thanks- still a bit unclear
What is low volume use -
I could see that for example you have millions of views ?
is a 1000 views / week low or high volume ?

with GoThru - yes i pay for using it while moderating etc.
but I can quit the program without being afraid that the tour will be removed because
of API issue ...
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Hopki
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Volume is the number of uploads.
The API key is only used when you build the tour and upload. Once the tour is up that’s it done and the API key is no longer required.
The number of views does not come into it.
but I can quit the program without being afraid that the tour will be removed because
of API issue ...
This is the same for Pano2VR.
I think what you were referring to was a big longstanding issue where Google was wrongly rejecting panoramas, even ones that had been up a long time.

This effected all platforms, not just us, this has nothing to do with the API key.
Garden Gnome Support
If you send an e-mail to support please send a link to the forum post for reference.
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Mikejbb
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2021 11:06 am

"We are happy for people to use our API if they are low volume users. But if this is your business and main income then it makes sense for you to have your own key where you are in control of it."

I have no business clients now or ever for GSV tours, therefore I am not a business user. I just go out to my local forest preserves with my wife and hike the trails with my Insta360 One X set to interval 5 seconds. I have 500-1000 photos each trip and I've done about 3 hikes a week since November and plan on continuing. I purchased pano2vr pro a few days ago to do the uploading after testing it with the 4 photos allowed and it seemed to work fine.

I've been getting messages while uploading that seem to indicate some max was hit.

1 Calculating Image Pyramid - seems to be the main message that stops all uploading and just sits there forever. I have to cancel and wait and then retry to upload the project again and if I waited long enough, it just restarts and goes until it hits that same message or completes. This morning I got this msg after only 102photos 223meg were uploaded. I waited 30mins and restarted and it uploaded 613photos 1260meg more, then this msg. Now I have 185 photos 470meg to go to finish uploading the project, but when I retry, it just goes immediately to this msg, so I'll wait. I can wait, but I need to know how long to wait or how much to upload at a time.

2 Waiting for image queue - doesn't happen too often, but just sits there forever so have to cancel and retry

3 Update Metadata - Google Street View - only happened once, but just sits there forever so have to cancel and retry

I was told by the Map the Paths people that Google has set upload limits per user as 750meg/hour and 2,500meg/day for them.

What are my limits in photos or meg so I can figure out how to proceed? Neither the doc nor this blog covers limits that I've found.

"The API key is only used when you build the tour and upload" I've read the Google API pricing page and do not see any price for uploading or building. Please explain how the API key is used and how Google counts images or meg or places to upload.

For my info, does Remapping just mean processing?
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Hopki
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Hi,
Pano2VR uses the Maps JavaScript API when you open the tour map and select a Google Map.
Places API is to find a place on the Map
Geocoding API is used to convert the address to coordinates

I also use the Maps Elevation API, this does not part of the $200.00 monthly credit but works altitude.

Limits, Google set 1 request per second, so we limit 50 requests per second to keep will within the limit.
For my info, does Remapping just mean processing?
Pano2VR remakes the panoramas to resize them, this is what is referred to as remapping.
Google recommends 12000 x 6000px equirectangular JPEG so if your image is larger than this or is a TIFF then Pano2VR remaps the images to this size before uploading.
If your input images are 12000 x 6000px or smaller jpg then no remapping will be done.

Note, over the last week or two there have been account errors, error 500.
I have seen this moving across different countries so I feel this could be Google working on servers.
Regards,
Garden Gnome Support
If you send an e-mail to support please send a link to the forum post for reference.
support@ggnome.com
https://ggnome.com/wiki/documentation/
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