Interactive 360 degree pano with Litchi and MS ICE

[jsquyre]

I've purchased the Litchi App and it seems to work well for taking Panos with my Mavic Pro. I then stitch them together with ICE. I can then create a really great Tiny Planet. I then take the stitched photo over to Kuula to create the interactive 360 degree photo and it works great with one very major exception. When I look straight down there is a huge black hole instead of my backyard, and of course that is the rotation point of the drone. Here's the link to my completed interactive photo on Kuula so you can see what I'm talking about. 35 percent
I'm sure there is a simple answer but I'm a simple person and need help with the answer. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Aerial-Pixel]

It appears you may have had some settings wrong in ICE or Kuula. I assume Litchi took two photos looking straight down?

 

[jsquyre]

I didn't change any settings in either ICE or Litchi, just used the default settings. Do you have suggestions for what the settings should be?

 

[Aerial-Pixel]

I set litchi to take at least 2 rows of 16 images then 2 looking down to make sure there is plenty of overlap. It's been a while since I've used ICE but I always used the Automatic detection option.

 

[jsquyre]

I set litchi to take at least 2 rows of 16 images then 2 looking down to make sure there is plenty of overlap. It's been a while since I've used ICE but I always used the Automatic detection option.

Thanks! I'll give that a try.

 

[Maxheadspace]

I've purchased the Litchi App and it seems to work well for taking Panos with my Mavic Pro. I then stitch them together with ICE. I can then create a really great Tiny Planet. I then take the stitched photo over to Kuula to create the interactive 360 degree photo and it works great with one very major exception. When I look straight down there is a huge black hole instead of my backyard, and of course that is the rotation point of the drone. Here's the link to my completed interactive photo on Kuula so you can see what I'm talking about. 35 percent
I'm sure there is a simple answer but I'm a simple person and need help with the answer. Any advice is appreciated.

I suspect it is not Litchi, but the dimensions used in the editor. I tried ICE once with OK results, but switched to (free) Hugin, which to me seemed to be a little easier to use. Anyway, I see the black holes more with my 360 video taken on a 360 video cam. My 360 video cam captures in 1920 x 960, rather than the standard 1920 x 1080. So when I render, I get this black hole in the sky and on the ground. I have to set my editor to 1920 x 960 and that sews up the sky and the ground. To change my editor, I had to switch to sldr configuration, because on normal video settings the editor kept wanting to default back to normal video dimensions, i.e., 1920x1080. I don't know how to do that for ICE, but hopefully that will give you a direction to look.

P.S., it may also be the settings of Kuula that don't match your spheric panorama.

 

[jsquyre]

I suspect it is not Litchi, but the dimensions used in the editor. I tried ICE once with OK results, but switched to (free) Hugin, which to me seemed to be a little easier to use. Anyway, I see the black holes more with my 360 video taken on a 360 video cam. My 360 video cam captures in 1920 x 960, rather than the standard 1920 x 1080. So when I render, I get this black hole in the sky and on the ground. I have to set my editor to 1920 x 960 and that sews up the sky and the ground. To change my editor, I had to switch to sldr configuration, because on normal video settings the editor kept wanting to default back to normal video dimensions, i.e., 1920x1080. I don't know how to do that for ICE, but hopefully that will give you a direction to look.

P.S., it may also be the settings of Kuula that don't match your spheric panorama.

Can you suggest a site rather than Kuula where I can try it?

 

[Maxheadspace]

Can you suggest a site rather than Kuula where I can try it?

Facebook.

Can you suggest a site rather than Kuula where I can try it?

Facebook. The link for proper format and meta data retention is at this link: Editing 360 Photos & Injecting Metadata

 

[Lewench]

Don’t know if you want an alternate method but hangar 360 app did amazing job used it today. Takes all the pictures uploads it and it gives you back a link to share (don’t know your privacy issues with 3rd party companies)

https://viewer.hangar.com/360?assetId=/mrpykKW0

 

[Maxheadspace]

Don’t know if you want an alternate method but hangar 360 app did amazing job used it today. Takes all the pictures uploads it and it gives you back a link to share (don’t know your privacy issues with 3rd party companies)

https://viewer.hangar.com/360?assetId=/mrpykKW0

I have the Hangar 360 app as well. It does a great, automatic job of stitching the photos, and since the final result is hosted on their site and accessed via link or embedded photo, there's no issues with posting in different locations on the Web. The downside is that it only takes the photos from 300 feet, and instead of a hole in the sky, there is the Hangar 360 logo. Also, since the final photo is maintained on their cloud, you don't really have the photo in your possession. If a person is OK with that, Hangar 360 is an excellent, easy way to get 360 panoramic photos online.

 

[Qoncussion]

I've purchased the Litchi App and it seems to work well for taking Panos with my Mavic Pro. I then stitch them together with ICE. I can then create a really great Tiny Planet. I then take the stitched photo over to Kuula to create the interactive 360 degree photo and it works great with one very major exception. When I look straight down there is a huge black hole instead of my backyard, and of course that is the rotation point of the drone. Here's the link to my completed interactive photo on Kuula so you can see what I'm talking about. 35 percent
I'm sure there is a simple answer but I'm a simple person and need help with the answer. Any advice is appreciated.

The problem you're facing are the dimensions of the image. A 360 pano is actually 360° around X (by) 180° top to bottom. So your final image must be a ratio of 2:1. If your final panorama is 20,000 pixels wide, you must extend its height to 10,000 high, leaving the top portion of the sky empty. The Mavic only shoots "up" 30°, leaving 60° of un-photographed sky. I'm currently working on a system for capturing the sky from the Mavic, to create a true 360x180 pano.

Figured out how to get perfect 360°x180° panorama using Mavic Pro!

 

[Maxheadspace]

Here is a 360 pano shot I took with my Mavic using the Litchi app and stitching with Hugin. On the coast at La Jolla, California, near San Diego. It doesn't meet the ratio specs stated by Facebook, but it uploaded nonetheless. No hole at the bottom, but the apex is blurred out a bit. There's a minor stitching error on the ocean horizon, but not bad. I didn't feel like editing further.

Rotor Teknika

 

[SunnyD]

I have the Hangar 360 app as well. It does a great, automatic job of stitching the photos, and since the final result is hosted on their site and accessed via link or embedded photo, there's no issues with posting in different locations on the Web. The downside is that it only takes the photos from 300 feet, and instead of a hole in the sky, there is the Hangar 360 logo. Also, since the final photo is maintained on their cloud, you don't really have the photo in your possession. If a person is OK with that, Hangar 360 is an excellent, easy way to get 360 panoramic photos online.

I love hangar 360, and you can do any height, 300’ is just standard. In the app you can fly to whatever height you like and start the mission. The preset photo settings are great in hangar 360 as well. Well worth the price ($0.00).

 

[Qoncussion]

Here's where I successfully captured a 360x180, full sky and all, using the Mavic: Jackass Flats Hydraulic Mining, Nevada City, California

 

[jsquyre]

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions, I'll give them a try this afternoon. I have tried some other apps and PTGui appears to work flawlessly (no black hole) and is very robust. However it is not free so before I spend the $97 I'll try out the ones you suggested.

 

[jsquyre]

Regarding PTGui, I would appreciate hearing pros and cons of this software from anyone who has experience with it.

 

[wombat]

I have the Hangar 360 app as well. It does a great, automatic job of stitching the photos, and since the final result is hosted on their site and accessed via link or embedded photo, there's no issues with posting in different locations on the Web. The downside is that it only takes the photos from 300 feet, and instead of a hole in the sky, there is the Hangar 360 logo. Also, since the final photo is maintained on their cloud, you don't really have the photo in your possession. If a person is OK with that, Hangar 360 is an excellent, easy way to get 360 panoramic photos online.

The 23 shots are on your sd card in Hanger 360, download them to your computer and use from there.