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AutoGArrows GPS based navigation plugin for krpano

Description

AutoGArrows - is a plugin for krpano, which makes navigating the tour automatically based on the GPS coordinates of the panoramas

Latest information about plugin is always at www.robostitcher.com/autogarrows-for-krpano

What is required for the plugin to work

  • Panoramas with GPS coordinates
  • Panoramas must be correctly aligned relatively to virtual North or contain correct EXIF GPSImgDirection tags

If there is no GPS coordinates

GPS coordinates must be assigned to each panorama. You can use LightRoom, placing the panoramas on the map using MAP tab. Compliance geographic coordinates of the panoramas with actual place of shooting does not matter, the right relative positions of the panoramas on the map is important. Also you can use program like GeoSetter to synchronize panoramas with recorded GPS track

About virtual North

If the center of each panorama has a constant bearing on the real North that panoramas are aligned correctly. The presence of the same virtual North in the panoramas is very important for the tours with the routes. For these tours KEEPVIEW mode is required. If the panoramas does not have the same virtual North, you need to align them using PTGui or Offset filter in Photoshop. For panoramas taken by spherical cameras you may not align panoramas. Please read information about use_scenes_heading setting below.

Building the tour with krpano

Build the tour using "MAKE VTOUR (MULTIRES) droplet.bat" for example. Copy autogarrows folder into plugins folder.

At the end of tour.xml file before </krpano> tag insert two lines
<include url="plugins/autogarrows/autogarrows_settings.xml" />
<include url="plugins/autogarrows/autogarrows.xml" />

Before using AutoGArrows you need to modify autogarrows_settings.xml file.

  • search_radius
    Set the search radius (in meters) within which the panoramas will be considered as neighbors and will be linked.
  • ath_shift
    Azimuth correction - the number of degrees which will allow to align the virtual North of the panoramas and the real North on the map (terrain).
  • create_backups
    if true AutoGArrows GPS analyser will create backups of autogarrows.xml file on each run
  • create_tour_xml
    if true AutoGArrows GPS analyser will insert hotspots into tour.xml file
  • create_tooltips
    if true AutoGArrows GPS analyser will create tooltips for every created hotspot
  • use_scenes_heading
    values can be disabled (by default), prealign, athshift (read below)
  • tooltips_template
    template for tooltips. patterns will be replaced with actual values
  • hotspots_atv, hotspots_style
    atv and style values for newly created hotspots

Open the tour in browser. There is no navigation yet! To AutoGArrows built the navigation AutoGArrows GPS analyser must be used. To AutoGArrows GPS analyser links the panoramas you need to run it with the project scenes XML file as a parameter (tour.xml file). Drag and drop tour.xml file on autogarrows.exe (There is some difference on using GPS analyser on Windows and MacOS. On MacOS you need to use terminal to launch GPS analyser. Look at the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NZfFFXJIKo)

If after working AutoGArrows GPS analyser arrows are missing, the search radius must be increased. If there are too many, then reduce. Statistics after each run will be a good starting point for more precise radius tuning.

By adjusting the radius of the search neighboring panoramas and azimuth correction, you may need to run AutoGArrows GPS analyser several times. After the first run AutoGArrows GPS analyser create batch file (plugins/autogarrows/autogarrows.xml.bat for Windows and plugins/autogarrows/autogarrows.xml.sh for MAC OS) in order not to use the Drag & Drop every time. Just run it after make changes in the autogarrows_settings.xml file.

About 'use_scenes_heading' values

When krpano build the tour it read values from EXIF GPSImgDirection tags and store them for each scene. If panorama was taken with spherical cameras this tag usually contains correct information about panoramas azimuth correction. By default use_scenes_heading is disabled and individual panoramas azimuth corrections are ignored. If use_scenes_heading is prealign (prefer value for keepview'ed tours) then AutoGArrows will prealign panoramas. If use_scenes_heading is athshift then AutoGArrows will use panoramas azimuth correction in hotspots ath values and scenes will remain missaligned.

Panoramas from some cameras (Samsung Gear 360, for example) do not cantain GPSImgDirection tag, but contain PoseHeadingDegrees wich is the same, but ignored by krpano. In this case you need to use tiny script from panoexif to copy PoseHeadingDegrees values to GPSImgDirection tags before building the tour with krpano.

Saving tour.xml file with linked scenes

After GPS analyzer has brought satisfactory results you can use it to create tour.xml with liked scenes for you. If create_tour_xml is true AutoGArrows GPS analyser will create tour-autogarrows.xml. You can use newly created tour-autogarrows.xml file instead of tour.xml file and completely remove AutoGArrows plugin from the tour.

Download AutoGArrows for krpano

Fully functional demo versions of the AutoGArrows with AutoGArrows GPS analyzer can be downloaded here.

Demo version
autogarrows-krpano-demo.zip
Download AutoGArrows demo plugin with AutoGArrows GPS analyzer for Windows and MAC OS
Full version
autogarrows-krpano.zip
Download AutoGArrows full plugin with AutoGArrows GPS analyzer for Windows and MAC OS (after purchase)

Support

Ask a question or search for an answer in the official AutoGArrows plugin's group on Facebook