Improvement tips

Q&A about the latest versions
Branigan
Posts: 231
Joined: Tue May 19, 2020 3:43 pm

Neal wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2020 1:44 am ......

This is a basic, economy level pano.
Here is the result: https://hvolnew.com/Images/output/index.html
Well, if you're happy with that, then cool. :)

It's just me, but I'd be tempted to remove the noise in the sky and the chromatic aberration on contrasting edges: green on one side, purple on the other; so the doors, the windows, etc. Even the edge of the path. Looking directly down at that tiny piece of something to the left, like a little arrow with a black head you can see it fairly clearly.
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I've just bought AI Sharpen, as it works well enough at improving what's coming out of the Insta360 One X fairly painlessly and I decided I don't need to upscale to Gigapixels to get a result that Pano2vr will just throw away anyway. Still going to x2 upscale everything while the Demo period is in effect though, in preparation for that time when Pano2VR gets that improvement to its display system and I can refresh all the panos. Might be worth buying then. ;)

It's good to see you wearing your mask when taking your photos, :wink: but it's only a single pass to improve them with some upscaling and noise reduction. The more I'm playing with this the more I'm thinking I'll probably spring for it at the end of the 30 days trial.
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Branigan
Posts: 231
Joined: Tue May 19, 2020 3:43 pm

Just realised: you've changed to FoV Mode: Diagonal, so it scales correctly with browser width, but it looks like you still have your default FoV at 70, which is now too 'zoomed in' and needs to be adjusted to 90. Then it will look mostly right on both mobiles and desktops.

Or, if for desktop viewing only: go back to FoV Mode:Vertical, leave the FoV at 70, because then you can do zooming fades in your transitions (only setting After:Zoom In, with 'Wait for Transition' UNticked, time and speed set to 1.0 and Zoomed FoV set to 10.0 works for now) without it going wonky.

These don't work properly if it's set to Diagonal, so all you can do is Cross Dissolves, as you are now and we have to wait for the fix.
Neal
Posts: 193
Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2013 11:14 am
Contact:

Branigan wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2020 11:27 am
Neal wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2020 1:44 am ......

This is a basic, economy level pano.
Here is the result: https://hvolnew.com/Images/output/index.html
Well, if you're happy with that, then cool. :)

It's just me, but I'd be tempted to remove the noise in the sky and the chromatic aberration on contrasting edges: green on one side, purple on the other; so the doors, the windows, etc. Even the edge of the path. Looking directly down at that tiny piece of something to the left, like a little arrow with a black head you can see it fairly clearly.
.
CA_arrow.png
.
I've just bought AI Sharpen, as it works well enough at improving what's coming out of the Insta360 One X fairly painlessly and I decided I don't need to upscale to Gigapixels to get a result that Pano2vr will just throw away anyway. Still going to x2 upscale everything while the Demo period is in effect though, in preparation for that time when Pano2VR gets that improvement to its display system and I can refresh all the panos. Might be worth buying then. ;)

It's good to see you wearing your mask when taking your photos, :wink: but it's only a single pass to improve them with some upscaling and noise reduction. The more I'm playing with this the more I'm thinking I'll probably spring for it at the end of the 30 days trial.
.
compare.jpg
I plan on having several levels of Pano aimed at different prices of homes. The one above is for those less expensive homes. Few features, little post-processing, and a lower price. Other levels will have more features, better skins, and more touch-up on the photos. The touchup would include removing that little bit of noise and the color issues.

I already have Photoshop, I need it for editing. What you are seeing there is nothing that can't be done in seconds using it. Even if it takes only a minute a photo to run it through that AI Sharpener, that means that every day I lose a few hours. By the end of the week, I could pay for better equipment. What you are seeing in your example is one of the lower resolution levels. The reason the detail isn't there is the trade-off between display speed and photo resolution. Lower resolution tiles are used as the FoV increases. As the FoV decreases, those tiles are replaced by higher resolution images. This keeps image downloading time to minimal. For the most part, you aren't going to see it, unless you take a portion of the screen and magnify it outside of the player. On the photo you selected, you can zoom the pano in and very clearly read the display.
Branigan
Posts: 231
Joined: Tue May 19, 2020 3:43 pm

Neal wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2020 6:28 pm I plan on having several levels of Pano aimed at different prices of homes. The one above is for those less expensive homes. Few features, little post-processing, and a lower price. Other levels will have more features, better skins, and more touch-up on the photos. The touchup would include removing that little bit of noise and the color issues.
Interesting premise. Not one I'd considered, as I'd be worried it's not only my customers that are judging my work, but the potential buyers of the house judging both my work and the choices and money saving done by the sellers. What else did they save money on and where? Do property photographers also offer an iPhone or a Sony/Canon DSLR option?

Various levels of menus and other bells and whistles like floorplans does make sense, but personally I'd like every panorama to be suitable as a portfolio piece, even if the property is modest, so I make sure they go around and tidy up their junk, just as if they were having important guests over. You never know who is going to see which panorama where, and how it's going to be associated with your brand/name.

You know how to knock a lot of money off a property? Take a photo with the windows open ("Are they broken? Could a burglar get in? What would it cost for a new set of windows?") or put a garden gnome in the middle of the lawn or a "Vote for ABC/XYZ" sign. Think I'm joking? Have you met the general public? :roll:

But if you're looking to save time: you could remove parts of the skin that aren't needed, like the fisheye/rectilinear/stereo selection button, maybe even the autorotate and zoom in/out buttons completely and stick with Single Res Tiles and not bother patching the tripod and slap a hotspot on with your logo, or contact details etc - 3D distorted to stay in place - to cover it up. Or perhaps not have your logo on the low end ones: maybe the client's contact number on a neat little circle?

I have a second PC with a shared folder (toggle the monitors and keyboard on a KVM switch) I just drag things into, so it chews away while I work with the 'draft' versions of the panoramas, etc. I can drag back the finished versions for the final export. Parallel processing isn't losing me much time other than the switching and setting off of the batch processes.

Also: don't miss the other post above about changing (or not) your FoV now you're using Diagonal (or back to Vertical).
Neal
Posts: 193
Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2013 11:14 am
Contact:

Branigan wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2020 11:37 pm
Neal wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2020 6:28 pm I plan on having several levels of Pano aimed at different prices of homes. The one above is for those less expensive homes. Few features, little post-processing, and a lower price. Other levels will have more features, better skins, and more touch-up on the photos. The touchup would include removing that little bit of noise and the color issues.
Interesting premise. Not one I'd considered, as I'd be worried it's not only my customers that are judging my work, but the potential buyers of the house judging both my work and the choices and money saving done by the sellers. What else did they save money on and where? Do property photographers also offer an iPhone or a Sony/Canon DSLR option?

Various levels of menus and other bells and whistles like floorplans does make sense, but personally I'd like every panorama to be suitable as a portfolio piece, even if the property is modest, so I make sure they go around and tidy up their junk, just as if they were having important guests over. You never know who is going to see which panorama where, and how it's going to be associated with your brand/name.

You know how to knock a lot of money off a property? Take a photo with the windows open ("Are they broken? Could a burglar get in? What would it cost for a new set of windows?") or put a garden gnome in the middle of the lawn or a "Vote for ABC/XYZ" sign. Think I'm joking? Have you met the general public? :roll:

But if you're looking to save time: you could remove parts of the skin that aren't needed, like the fisheye/rectilinear/stereo selection button, maybe even the autorotate and zoom in/out buttons completely and stick with Single Res Tiles and not bother patching the tripod and slap a hotspot on with your logo, or contact details etc - 3D distorted to stay in place - to cover it up. Or perhaps not have your logo on the low end ones: maybe the client's contact number on a neat little circle?

I have a second PC with a shared folder (toggle the monitors and keyboard on a KVM switch) I just drag things into, so it chews away while I work with the 'draft' versions of the panoramas, etc. I can drag back the finished versions for the final export. Parallel processing isn't losing me much time other than the switching and setting off of the batch processes.

Also: don't miss the other post above about changing (or not) your FoV now you're using Diagonal (or back to Vertical).
This is an add-on to our photography and advertising service. The simple fact is that the budget agents have to sell a $60,000 home is far less than a $260,000 home or a $1.6 million home. We shoot all of those and charge different amounts for each. We aren't the agents, we are not going to make them tidy up their junk. It the home is really bad, we may call the agent and ask if they want us to reschedule or shoot as is.

I'm not sure how your suggestions save me any time. All those items are in the skin already, they don't require any customizations. I'm still modifying that template, it was more of a proof of concept. I'll repost it when done.

Two computers....you may have just given me an excuse to build another computer.
Branigan
Posts: 231
Joined: Tue May 19, 2020 3:43 pm

Neal wrote: Sat Aug 08, 2020 12:32 am
I'm not sure how your suggestions save me any time. All those items are in the skin already, they don't require any customizations. I'm still modifying that template, it was more of a proof of concept. I'll repost it when done.

Two computers....you may have just given me an excuse to build another computer.
OK, sure. It was more about suggesting a more visual way of differentiating between your various tiers other than noise removal and CA correction at first glance. Cheaper pano = no zoom option, for example?

Plus, the Rectilinear/Stereo/Fisheye button is pretty redundant at the best of times and you want to avoid confusing the buyers with buttons that just make it 'look weird' with no other benefit to them. "Oops! I've broken it! What do I do now?!"

Can put them off the pano experience, therefore the house; therefore the seller has been negatively impacted. People get upset/discouraged by the smallest of things when they're at that 51%/49% decision stage.

Which is why I test for iOS and hide the 'Full Screen' button - and use a logic test to realign the rest of the buttons to be central without it - so they don't think that the panorama is "broken" when that button is ignored by iPhone/iPad browsers.
DMcKinney
Posts: 59
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2020 12:53 pm

My quick 2 cents...

For the lower light shots, I'd try to tune the noise reduction better. Don't know if you process everything at the same level, but it might be good to tag the lower light shots separately so you can apply a deeper setting.
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