Output generates way too many files

Q&A about the latest versions
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npsoftware
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2022 5:45 pm
Location: Vienna

Hi!

I have bought myself a hosting with 200GB free space. When I export my tour with around 100 nodes, it generates around 25 000 files.. (I am using 360 stereo images for the tour, so in VR they are in 3D)
Are there any better options to generate less files? I know you can set custom resolutions, but I do not have an idea, what is the best.
I consider nowadays everybody has fast enough internet and free bandwidth, so I don't intend to generate for N different resolutions different set of files.
What is your experience and how do I set it?

Problem is, I am limited to 400 000 nodes (files or folder) and this way I already eaten up 10% of the allowed quota..

My VR Tour (not completely finished yet..) : https://bramberg.npsoftware.at/

Thanks
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Hopki
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Hi npsoftware,
Firstly, is it the number of files that is the issue or the overall file size?
Some hosting complains if you have lots of files, so size is not the issue.
But then people want to reduce the file size to save spending more on upgrading their hosting space.

Reducing file numbers.
The quick way is to change the Level Tile size. By default it is 510px, with a 1PX overlap this makes a 512px tile which is deemed to be the ideal size for graphics, or at least used to be.

What you can do is set that to 1022px, again with the 1PX overlap the actual tile will be 1024px.
As the tiles are larger you will need fewer of them. Of course, some tiles will be different sizes as some 1024px may not fit exactly into your panoramas image size so you will end up with odd-sized tiles. But this is to be expected.

But if you want to do things manually, you could set the multiresolution sizes so the tiles fit exactly into your image, so only having 1022px tiles, this could mean you reduce your image resolution slightly to achieve this but overall the tile could be further reduced.

For the overall file size of the project, you can look at quality as found under the web output properties, the default is 90.
It may be selecting 80 will still give acceptable quality but will reduce the overall file size of the output.
Of course, manually reducing the number of multi-resolution levels would also help.

The other thing is to use external software such as JPEGMini .
Once you have created the output, open the tiles folder and open each node. What you want to do is run each JPG tile through JPEGMini making sure you do not resize the tiles.

I have seen people in the Facebook group use this to great effect. If you are going to use something like JPEGMini to reduce your files then I would experiment with the quality setting in Pano2VR, start with the default of 90 test JPEGMini and then select 80, does that affect the output size much more?
Regards,
Garden Gnome Support
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npsoftware
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2022 5:45 pm
Location: Vienna

Hi!

Thank you for your answer!
The size is not the matter here. I consumed only 1% of the allowed space I have, the problem is the number of files.
This way I consumed with 1 tour already 10% of the allowed number of files and folders.. (not sure why this matters)

What are currently the resolution sizes?
If I choose manual, I got only an empty list, where I can type in my resolution. But I do not know, what to use.
What is the current list? I have 8K photos in Stereo, I do not have a clue, how should the list of resolutions look like.

If I increase the tile size to double as you suggest, what effect will it have on the final view? The globe will consist from less tiles, but
the quality will remain? So to load a spot, it will load less files, which are bigger?

Sorry, I am still a bit confused.
But as said, the goal is to use less files and folders, keep up the quality as high as possible. (I got enough HDD space)

Please advice

Peter
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Hopki
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Hi Peter,
The larger the tiles the fewer there will be.
This will not affect quality but may be slightly slower on downloading tiles and now each one is twice the size.
But that said in the real world this may not be an issue. The next thing to do is try it.
For Manual multiresolution levels, the first is blank, but if you select the + button it will add the first level with the setting looking at your image.
So an 8000 px wide equirectangular image has the first level of 2000 px which is the width divided by 4.
Click the + for the next level which will be 1000px, then 500px.
You can probably delete the 500px level.
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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npsoftware
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2022 5:45 pm
Location: Vienna

Hi!

When I switched to 1022px, the amount of tiles went down from 24 000 to around 6 000, which is now acceptable by me.

I still got a few questions..
If I chosen 1022px as a tile set, in the tiles folder I can see only files which are around 1024px maximum.
I do not see any lower resolutions. If I got the 8K photos, how does the pano script decide, which resolution (if I got just one)
it should display? Does it display the 8k every time?
In the Web Output->Image, I have got now Level Tile Size 1022px, Levels: Auto.
Should I not see multiple resolutions in the tiles folder? I can see only cf_0 to cf_6 and cf_0l to cf_5l.

I also checked the box to export VR, but in the cf_vr I can only see 1 image: \node2\cf_vr\l_0\c_0\tile_0.jpg (1 for every node I mean)
And this image is not a top/bottom 360, but just a 360 image with dimensions 512x256. How do you display the 3D stereoscopic image?
(I tried it before and it worked, thanks to your help)

I just want to be sure, I am doing everything right.

Also, in Web Output -> Image -> Download/Preview I have got a Quality set to 25 %. This is to be displayed and used where?

Sorry for so many questions, hopefully I just need to set these things once to make my workflow to work correctly.

Thanks a lot for your patience and good answers. Maybe we are helping also other people in this forum.

Peter
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Manel
Posts: 54
Joined: Thu May 26, 2016 4:52 pm

I had the same problem. Hopki gave me the solution a time ago:

File name: tiles/$y/c%c_l%r_%y_%x.jpg

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=16031&p=67394#p67394
npsoftware
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2022 5:45 pm
Location: Vienna

Hi!
As mentioned, going to 1022px already cut the number of files and folder to a quarter by me.
So far this is ok with me. I just dont understand, where I can find files with different resolutions if set to automatic..
And where are the 3D images.. I am backend software developer,so I guess I am asking too many questions and want to now how it works
in the backend.. :)
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Hopki
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Hi,
For example, if you are using Left over Right equirectangular images and create an output will all default settings, in the tiles folder you will see node1, then inside this the subfolders for the cube faces.
So you will see cf_0, then cf_0l, so one for the right side, cf_0, and one for the left side, cf_0l.
Then each of these has subfolders for different levels for that cue face.

So in short you will have cf_0 to cf_5 and cf_0l to cf_5l which are the six Cuba faces, cf_6 is the preview track.
And if you have VR enabled you will also have cf_vr which is the image used for the spinning hotspot images seen if no skin is selected.
Regards,
Garden Gnome Support
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npsoftware
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2022 5:45 pm
Location: Vienna

Hi!

That makes sense! I did not realize that. thanks
And about those resolutions? I can only see c0 to c5 with Auto resolution setting.
Should I not have an image in more resolutions?
What decides, that I need a bigger resolution, or smaller? If opened in a mobile browser, or HD monitor?
I cant choose it anywhere.. (like in YouTube you can choose quality)
Or am I missing something?

Thanks

Peter
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Hopki
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Hi Peter,
Pano2VR looks at your input image and by default devices by 4 to create the cube face size which will be the top level.
This is then divided by 2 for the next level down, and so on until you get to the level tile size at which point Pano2VR creates a level equal to or below the level tile size.
So in the Auto setting a level tile size of 510px will have more levels than if the level tile size is set to 1022px.

Other factors, output divided by PI rather than 4, this squeezes more pixels out of the image, look at the Settings/Preferences page in the documentation, under the Advanced Tab and output factor, set to divide by PI.

Also check out the Bias setting as found under the web output, Advanced setting.
This determines at which point the level changes see: https://ggnome.com/doc/output-html5/#multiresolution
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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deedee123
Posts: 285
Joined: Wed May 20, 2020 10:38 am
Location: NL

Hi,

For me my hosting server counts the number of "nodes" (not the pano nodes), which means every file *or folder* counts as one. I could drastically reduce the number of folders by changing the multiresolution output setting to tiles/$(y)/c%c_l%r_%y_%x.jpg .
With that all files from one Pano-node get into a single folder, but no more sub, subsub...folders. with this (and of course replacing / deleting previous uploads) i didn't need to upgrade my server, without any change in quality. But this just depends on what your hosting provider "counts".
David
npsoftware
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2022 5:45 pm
Location: Vienna

Hi!

I actually realized, that I could use the Wordpress plugin and upload the GardenGnome file (which is 1 file only I think) and the plugin
would read it on the go.. This would however not use the Cloudflare for optimizing the Image deliveries, so it might be slower..
any thought on this?
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