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Questions about stitching pano pics together

erkme73

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After reading a number of threads on what 3rd party programs to use to create a decent panoramic photo after snagging them with the Lichti app, I'm still left puzzled with the results.

First, my ultimate goal is to have a 'photosphere' display where the user can mouse around and zoom in. The flat, or tiny-earth static photos are neat to look at, but the distortion makes them less than desirable.

I tried PTGui, and while that worked perfectly, the only way I can view the finished JPG as an immersive experience is with the PTGui viewer. And boy does that work. I see very little, if any, distortion when viewing - even straight down. The problem is, how do I share that play-ability with others?

I tried Microsoft ICE - which generated a very similar looking flat panaroamic JPG. But no way to play it in an immersive view. I loaded the image in to the PTGui viewer, and it is horribly distorted compared to the JPG generated by PTGui.

I saw that Facebook allows 360 photos to be posted, but I don't have a Facebook account (and wouldn't join just for this). I tried Google Photos, but most of the instructions I've found describing how to get the photosphere functionality are outdated. I even tried Street View app, which Google's own help/support pages don't accurately describe.

Anyway, the simple question is, what's the easiest way to get an immersive 360° view that I can quickly share with others that may not have a player/plugin on their device/PC/Mac?
 
It's not as quick as FB uploading, but using the PTGui "publish to web" converter tool and having access to a web hosting account, I got this to work:

Panorama
 
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I came across this the other day which might help.......

Except for the very last part where it talks about uploading it to Facebook, I would agree - very helpful. Unfortunately, I don't have (or want) a FB account. I'm reasonably happy with the solution I have now - though it would be nice not to have to publish a webpage to make it work.
 
You have to have some flavor of panoramic viewer, and most are geared for the web in one form or another since that's where most people want that content to live.

Panorama Studio will save your panorama to your local computer and let you view it (in your browser) there - or you can upload it to a web site if you choose. It's got a free (watermarked) trial if you want to play around, and the price is quite reasonable. I'm happy with it.
 
Thanks Joet. I downloaded the trial. It works just as good as the PTGui in generating the panorama. My problem is getting it from the flat 2D image to the 3D viewer, but in a way that I can easily share. Facebook seems to be the pioneer in terms of simplicity and share-ability.

I was just hoping there was a service (like YouTube or Google Photos) where you could upload the large compiled jpg, and the site would automatically render it into a 360 viewable sphere. Doesn't look like we're there yet.

For now, I'm happy that I figured out how to get the PTGui to publish all the necessary files to upload them to my webhosting company. From there, it's a simple as pointing to the html file as a link to those with whom I'd like to share it.

Just took this one this morning: clubhouse - from 400' up. I can't imagine the clarity if I was just 100' above the pool. Though, given the 4 min it takes to snap all 34 pics, I'm sure someone would find a way to toss a beach towel over it before it finished. Hence the 400'.
 
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Except for the very last part where it talks about uploading it to Facebook, I would agree - very helpful. Unfortunately, I don't have (or want) a FB account. I'm reasonably happy with the solution I have now - though it would be nice not to have to publish a webpage to make it work.
I agree, good video, I was able to upload to FB, but I want to upload to Google Maps. Street View says that it's unable to import the same 360 image that FB was able to. Anyone have other tips (to get it onto Google Maps)?
 
Thanks, I'll try those steps on the next go at it.

Maybe one day Google will have enough smart people under their roof to simplify the process further.
 

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