This stepped horizon problem has been a pita for me dozens of times, and it really needs a tool created to fix it. I've posted a thread in the feature request forum ages ago... On my phone so can't find the link. The 'washing line' approach seems to be a descent method.

The sea/flat terain should never have steps in it... This should be an absolute priority for the stitching software as it's often SO obvious!

Most of the time the foreground below the step doesn't contain any important details,  so morphing/shifting joins there woud be totally invisible.

Please, please please! Can when have the tool?

A stepped horizon is a failed stitch.

gkaefer wrote:

hmm - 1st try and I think no problems.

Besides of a wavy horizon . .

I imported the xml and it seems (!) to show some bad alignment or lens-distortion.
But i didn´t further explore it yet. Will do it in the evening. Intersting case anyway!

@leifs: did you touch the head during the session?

best, Klaus

marzipano wrote:

CheeseAndJamSandwich wrote:

This stepped horizon problem has been a pita for me dozens of times, and it really needs a tool created to fix it. I've posted a thread in the feature request forum ages ago... On my phone so can't find the link. The 'washing line' approach seems to be a descent method.

The sea/flat terain should never have steps in it... This should be an absolute priority for the stitching software as it's often SO obvious!

Most of the time the foreground below the step doesn't contain any important details,  so morphing/shifting joins there woud be totally invisible.

Please, please please! Can when have the tool?

A stepped horizon is a failed stitch.

This thread I think

http://www.kolor.com/forum/t7906-horizon-tool

That's the kiddie!

Cheers Marzipano

klausesser wrote:

@leifs: did you touch the head during the session?
best, Klaus

It was shot using a VRdrive 1 on a 2m pole in windy condittions. First one row, change the pitch, then row #2. Ofcourse this is not optimal.
On the other hand this is not indoors and the trouble is the horizon xx kilometers away. The foreground dosn't matter much, so the CP's there could all be deleted (?).

leifs

leifs wrote:

To move the case forward I have a suggestion to Kolor for the new "horisontal horizon"-tool
It is easy to get a pano at RMS 2.0 with a nice horizon. The problem is to get it horisontal, and the "vertical line"-tool makes steps and is to no use in theese cases.
A solution is:
start with the RMS 2.0 detection, use a tool like the Photoshop line-tool to mark the horizon, like in the image below
the "horisontal horizon"-tool warp the pano so the marked line is horisontal

leifs

Have you read my feature request idea i had a while ago, in the link above?
Similar idea...  But i'd just add manual horizon control points to each image (that needs them), and these point would be forced to lie exactly on the horizon in the finished projection...  So same, same, but different... But this would also eliminate the steps, which the OP was having problems with.
The manual horizon control points could be added even if the actual horizon (sea, etc) isn't in the image... and subtly moved to warp the image until it looked right...

It's stepped from the detection...
I've found the verticals tool does pretty much nothing to get rid of the steps
Putting control points in the area of the horizon, and deleting foreground ones never seems to change it either...

Manually putting points down on a horizon is such an easy thing, so the tool should be so simple to use.

You can download it from http://www.lstrand.no/ymse/rundevarden.zip
(post http://www.kolor.com/forum/p97951-2012- … -18#p97951)

leifs

gkaefer wrote:

I just wonder why its technically inpossible to provide the horizontal tool in other projections than the planar projection?

Hi Georg!

For me the correction tool works arlready perfectly for years also in spherical projection. Never had such a problem like leifs has. I´m afraid there´s something weird otherwise . .

Some images on the left side are tilted and on the right side the horison goes up. Most of the image´s horizon i could correct using the vert.lines tool - but not in all
parts of the pano at the same time. In the left 3rd there´s a clear curve which results from the twisted images. I tried to rotate and move them - and that worked: the curvation was gone.
But after that some other part of the image became unstraightened again . . .

best, KLaus

CheeseAndJamSandwich wrote:

I.e. chasing rabbits.

With the new tool ideas we've suggested, once we've set the points/line on the horizon, this should then be set in stone, no matter what manipulations you try after, it shouldn't be possible to change it unless you first disabled the true horizon tool.

But because it might work on the whole "construction" i do leveling only in the end.

CheeseAndJamSandwich wrote:

But perhaps it should work on two levels... The first as above, which fixes steps and wiggly horizons... 
And second, perhaps a switch to allow the moving, rotating, as with normal good panos, but the steps are fixed. So the now flat horizon can go S shaped...  perhaps only needed for special occasions :-)

"Steps" come from stitch-errors in my understanding. A "wiggly" horizon usually result from geometrical issues - caused by lens-issues/-distortions or misaligning the setup . . . by mistake or by choice.
That´s how i understand it.

best, Klaus

I use "misalignment" by choice when i place the camera/tripod tilted at about 30°-45° - as is shown here and when the camera rotates with a 45° tilted horizon:

AlexandreJ wrote:

This ice landscape is a good example. Would it be possible to upload it on the ftp ? I would like to create a tutorial how of it to explain how to fix the horizon issue.

leifs wrote:

You can download it from http://www.lstrand.no/ymse/rundevarden.zip
(post http://www.kolor.com/forum/p97951-2012- … -18#p97951)

leifs

how are you doing ?

leifs

AlexandreJ wrote:

I have it. I still need some time to prepare the tutorial.

I can't see the tutorial yet. Am I looking at the wrong places ?

The problem is still there. This example shows that APG finds CP's in the sky, which is of no interest, but does not care about the horizon. For humans the borderline between water and sky is the importent element here, but APG seems to ignore it and happily make CP's in the clouds instead.

For the wish-list:
if there is a water-sky-horizon make shure it is straight and horisontal, Auto !

leifs

leifs wrote:

AlexandreJ wrote:

I have it. I still need some time to prepare the tutorial.

I can't see the tutorial yet. Am I looking at the wrong places ?

The problem is still there. This example shows that APG finds CP's in the sky, which is of no interest, but does not care about the horizon. For humans the borderline between water and sky is the importent element here, but APG seems to ignore it and happily make CP's in the clouds instead.

For the wish-list:
if there is a water-sky-horizon make shure it is straight and horisontal, Auto !

leifs

Give this a try:
Hard-link 44 to 61, 45 to 62 and so on. Also link diagonally. Optimize locally each time seperately and delete CPs about 2.0 manually.

best, Klaus

Last edited by klausesser (2012-06-13 19:29:33)