Autopano Video Changelog

What's new in Autopano Video 2.6.2

Jun 10, 2017

Fixes since 2.6.1:
[ALPS-1116]: Mp4Merger progress bar not always reseted
[ALPS-1115]: AVP fails to render videos with very high bitrate
[ALPS-1114]: goproMovParser produced videos cannot handle audio samplerate different than 48KHz
[ALPS-917]: Crash in Matrix.cpp (138) from VisualMotion
[ALPS-809]: MP4 Merger fails after 71min and 35 secs

New in Autopano Video 2.6.1 (Mar 30, 2017)

New in Autopano Video 2.6.0 (Feb 16, 2017)

AUTOPANO VIDEO NEW FEATURES:
User template stitching:
Use your templates like presets by saving your favourite or best .pano files in your user directory and access them easily from Autopano Video. Using template stitching will position your cameras in exactly the same position as they are defined in your .pano file, with the same distortions and offsets. So you just need to calibrate your camera once and then re-use the template for any other shots. It can be combined with a geometric analysis in APG to adapt the stitching to your scene. Here is a link to a tutorial: tutorial
New video pipeline, allowing native spatial metadata injection and timecode pass through:
We coded a new video pipeline. With this pipeline, spatial metadata injection and progressive MP4 writing are native and don't need any 3rd parties like python. This new pipeline also brings the pass through of the input video timecodes to the output, with the right offset applied depending on your render selection
The mask timeline is not available any more in smooth blending mode:
Many users were confused on mask poor efficiency when blending was set to smooth. To prevent this confusion, the mask timeline is now only available in sharp blending mode
GOPRO OMNI IMPORTER:
Photo modes support:
Many customers wanted the support of still images directly in Omni Importer. This is possible with this new release, which also comes with the support of photo timelapse, burst and nightlapse. Users must note that support of photos comes with an update of the Omni firmware. Hence old still images shot with Omni will not appear in Omni Importer.
Default options customization:
We have added a preferences window, allowing you to choose:
customized video / photo / multi-shots default settings
customized export default directory
Sharp blending option availability:
In the first version, we decided to use by default the smooth blending mode. Many users asked for having the possibility to choose between smooth and sharp blending for their exports.
Filtering by capture type:
This new feature allows users to focus quickly on the kind of capture they want to work with. With the filtering bar, the Omni Importer can display only videos, photos or multishots.
Starred shots:
We implemented this feature to improve professional workflows. Users can now select the sequences they want to work on by clicking on the little star, and then display only those shots.
UI improvements:
We worked a lot on making the Importer as smooth and useful as possible, following some customers feedback. In particular, now the multiselection is fully implemented as expected in a data management tool.
ADOBE PREMIERE PRO PLUGINS:
We continued to work on GoPro VR Horizon and GoPro VR Reframe, to enable an amazing 360 video edition workflow. On both plugins we added a slider to fine tune the transitions smoothness
FIXES SINCE 2.5.3:
KOI-262 : add a pickup list of .pano feature in the "stitch as template"
KOI-251 : [NLE Plugins] NLE Plugin refactoring
KOI-240 : [Omni Importer] Filter favorite items
KOI-239 : [Omni Importer] Filter items by capture type
KOI-237 : [Omni Importer] CineForm render produces unpredictably different resolutions with trimmed clips
KOI-228 : integrate QuickTimeFaststart
KOI-218 : [Omni Importer] Apply the updated UI for 2.6
KOI-216 : [Omni Importer] Save user preferred settings and apply them when app is launched
KOI-214 : [NLE Plugins] new installer for NLE Plugin
KOI-208 : Masking timeline should not be available in smooth mode
KOI-194 : [NLE Plugins] use a slider to fine tune the transition smoothness in GoPro VR plugin for premiere
KOI-172 : Video merger : GPMF to be merged
KOI-168 : Discussion about the number of stitching positions and quality
KOI-159 : [Omni Importer] identify my favorite shot/capture
KOI-155 : [Omni Importer] Add a 3rd party window in Omni Importer
KOI-151 : retain directories in merger
KOI-145 : [Omni Importer] Option for audio alert upon completion
KOI-132 : [Omni Importer] add a Iso / Sharp blending preset for video and video time lapse
KOI-077 : Update CineForm libraries
KOI-009 : [Omni Importer] Multiple selection
KOI-271 : [Omni Importer] Omni Importer / AVP 2.6 finalization before public release
KOI-269 : [Omni Importer] Omni Importer 2.6 stabilization (crash, performances)
KOI-264 : [Omni Importer] fully support of photo modes (single, burst, timelapse), with the correct options applied for processing according
KOI-241 : [Omni Importer] Quitting Omni Importer during processing results in crash
KOI-197 : finalize MainConcept mov exporter - remove python script for metadata injection
KOI-148 : [Omni Importer] Omni Importer: App will crash sometimes when quitting while rendering
KOI-180 : autogenerate Save Project filename
KOI-308 : [Omni Importer] Display a percentage of fetched sequence when loading files
KOI-307 : [Omni Importer] Display the number of selected sequences
KOI-305 : [Omni Importer] When opening a capture, preview expands to be visible in the available area without scrolling
KOI-306 : [Omni Importer] Display a 'Restart to apply' message when user modifies settings
KOI-211 : [Omni Importer] add a window displaying EULA/CLUF in Omni Importer and AVP
KOI-204 : Anonymous usage statistics
KOI-312 : Float settings not saved properly on MacOS sierra
KOI-311 : does not re-stitch after opening already stitched project
KOI-309 : Crash when exporting to cineform avi
KOI-188 : Render settings ask for file overwriting at apply
KOI-275 : Preferred rendering settings seems to not be taken into account
KOI-253 : crash in GpuRenderer::yuvConvert
KOI-185 : Stereo settings needs saving even when nothing was modified
KOI-241 : [Omni Importer] Quitting Omni Importer during processing results in crash
KOI-284 : auto cut does not work on apply or edit
KOI-315 : On some rendering videos are clamped
KOI-316 : No I frames when merging some videos
KOI-317 : Unable to merge H.265 videos
KOI-319 : Rendered h264 video cannot be played
KOI-331 : broken GoPro video merging
KOI-320 : Frames dropped at the beginning and the end of a rendered video
KOI-334 : CPU rendering broken on AVP standard when using MOV/H.264 pipeline
KOI-332 : ProRes framerate was unproprely rounded when doing 59.940 fps
KOI-342 : Fix ProRes encoding with insane frame sizes
KOI-333 : Pixel Aspect Ratio information wasn't set in MP4 when doing 16:9 video aspect ratio in 2:1 display aspect ratio
KOI-287 : Corrupted stitched preview when item is expanded
KOI-335 : AVP linux packages now use tar.xz format
KOI-336 : OpenSSL dependency missing for usage statistics on Windows
ALPS-212 : default rendering settings cineform/prores not complete
ALPS-493 : Exported timecode not well read in premiere

New in Autopano Video 2.5.3 (Nov 7, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.2 (Oct 14, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.1 (Oct 14, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.0 (Oct 14, 2016)

GoPro Omni Importer:
In August 2016, we launched a new 6 GoPro synchronized rig called Omni. This rig solves many pain points you have by using unsynchronized rigs, like syncing, data management, etc.
Alongside with GoPro Omni, we created a standalone application called Omni Importer, included with Autopano Video Pro, that is here to help you to manage the camera content in a simple and efficient way. This made the rig offloading as well as the stitching of your shots really easy to do.
Autopano Video new features:
Undo / Redo / History framework:
Yes, that standard part of a good software wasn't available before. We took it really seriously and now, you can do a CTRL+Z in AVP. You also have access to a history window that allows you to rollback several operations.
Apple ProRes support:
By popular demand, we added official support to Apple ProRes in input and output of AVP. This feature allows some strong workflows if you are going to edit the footage afterward in final cut for example.
Alpha channel support:
Alpha channel is now rendered properly for CineForm and ProRes. This allows to export individually each camera with the color correction, enabling more post production possible. See online documentation.
New Stereo Rendering Options (AVP only):
Most of the time, default 3D-stereo settings (known as interoccular and convergence) are the most suitable. But in some very specific setups, you may have to face compromi deviates from standard values. For that purpose, we allow you to alter (when possible) those two key values. See the documentation for more details.
MP4 file merger:
One of the features that AVP 2.3 users really loved, is the fact that GoPro importer wizard merges MP4 files together automatically when the content was from the same long duration shot (The GoPro camera divides long shots into several MP4 files). Our customers told us that they were interested in having the merge tool only. It is now available as a single action in the AVP menu.
Clever interface to retrieve missing videos:
Added an interface to relink videos that are missing when opening a kava file.
Improved batch renderer:
Re-organize your batches, drag'n'drop your kava files that are ready to render directly in the batch render of AVP to add batches.
Small UI updates:
Moved some menu, added short cuts, and tool tips with shortcuts in them
Rolling shutter effect reduction for Omni videos:
Autopano Video detects shots captured by GoPro Omni rigs and applies corrections for rolling shutter, allowing to reduce the related artefacts.
Adobe Premiere Pro Plugins:
This is also new for this 2.5 series. Customers were really interested in having more tools to improve the 360 workflow after stitching was finished. And this is why we got into NLE plugins development specifically for VR. This version introduces 2 Adobe Premiere Plugins: (These two plugins are available in the Video Effects menu under GoPro VR folder)
GoPro VR Horizon:
This plugin assumes that the input video is a 360 spherical video and the output after processing is a 360 video as well. It lets you straighten the horizon according to 3 sliders representing the yaw, pitch and roll axes. You may even do this job more easily by using the mouse directly on the composition window. You may also place some keyframes to create transitions between spherical point of views. An optional "Smooth transition" checkbox helps you smooth complex transitions.
GoPro VR Reframe:
This second plugin assumes that the input video is 360 spherical video and the output a standard video. By moving the FOV slider and the 3 axes yaw, pitch and roll (mouse is available as well) you can change the field of view and the point of view of the video and obtain a projection going from little planet to a classical planar projection. And just like GoPro VR Horizon, you can use keyframes and the "Smooth transition" checkbox to create your storytelling.
Fixes since 2.3.3:
0005656 : [UI Preview] [Omni Importer] : Preview Player
0005773 : [UI behavior] [Omni Importer] : Fix point size different between OS
0005760 : [UI behavior] UI : tooltip and shortcuts
0005220 : [UI Preview] Double hit on apply in preview has a strange behaviour
0005372 : [UI behavior] Improve batch render
0005625 : [Unclassified] Spherical NLE Plugins integration into installer
0005650 : [Unclassified] [Omni Importer] : Installer
0005652 : [UI behavior] [Omni Importer] : QmlLib integration
0005659 : [Algorithms] set rolling shutter value for each Omni mode
0005664 : [UI behavior] define and create historic UI
0005665 : [UI behavior] Check project dirty status with undo/redo
0004924 : [Rendering] separate rolling shutter compensation and stabilization
0005242 : [Video I/O] input video framerate reading
0005337 : [Rendering] Cineform on Mac - low and medium presets give the same output size/bitrate.
0005491 : [Algorithms] template stitching for Omni
0005645 : [UI behavior] [Omni Importer] : Transfer UI from Widget to QML
0005646 : [Unclassified] [Omni Importer] Play LRV files
0005647 : [Rendering] [Omni Importer] : Import Engine
0005653 : [UI Preview] [Omni Importer] : THM preview
0005661 : [UI behavior] Create a historic framework
0005662 : [UI behavior] Create an undo command for all UI actions
0001490 : [Video I/O] output format, ProRez422HQ
0005122 : [UI behavior] Retrieve video files when they are missing (move their location on disk)
0005603 : [Algorithms] Faster visual stabilization
KOI-006 : [Omni Importer] Horizon straightening for static scene and flip feature
KOI-041 : Crash at computeRMS
KOI-039 : Exception error on motion compute
KOI-018 : Crash after ComputeRMS
KOI-016 : [Omni Importer] Render in MP4 has a different FPS from source videos
KOI-014 : Crash at stabilization computation
KOI-075 : ProRes mov files are sometimes corrupted
KOI-072 : Unlock maximum ProRes render resolution
KOI-048 : Freezing when changing preview resolution while playing
KOI-046 : Edit does not open APG if file path contains accents (Ã©,Ãª....)
KOI-045 : Rolling shutter correction is always applied on rendering
KOI-043 : Crash when computing stabilisation when input video sizes are not multiple of 8
KOI-042 : output as ProRes 4444 renders a proper alpha channel
KOI-040 : [GoPro VR Horizon] : CPU version of plugins not working when using adjustment layer
KOI-038 : [GoPro VR Horizon] : Add smooth transition before first and after last keyframe
KOI-008 : [GoPro Omni importer] : Settings & registration
KOI-002 : [GoPro Omni importer] : Handle Chaptered Videos
KOI-073 : Unlock maximum ProRes and CineForm resolution for stereo rendering
KOI-071 : Fit render to selection shortcut does not always work
KOI-074 : Fix VLC preview windows for Linux builds
KOI-056 : [GoPro VR Plugins] NLE plugins not installed when updating Premiere Pro to version CC 3.2015
KOI-078 : [GoPro VR Plugins] Fix GPU rendering when multiple output sequence sizes
KOI-057 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Omni importer videos does not loop
KOI-053 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Copy: Locate your "footages" - Incorrect grammar
KOI-017 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Make import stitching faster
KOI-012 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Create Welcome UI
KOI-011 : [GoPro Omni Importer] SD card unplugging monitoring
KOI-055 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Chaptered Source LRV Stitch has cameras out of place
KOI-065 : [GoPro Omni Importer] After importing/rendering a clip, Omni Importer allows you to manipulate and attempt to re-render/import
KOI-098 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Importing the same shot twice, makes all the previously imported .mp4's disappear
KOI-095 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Font Size Problem When using higher DPI display on windows
KOI-091 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Color issue on Open in Finder / Open in AVP buttons
KOI-070 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Bug with progress bar when cancelling at restart a task (does not start again from 0)
KOI-069 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Crash at cancel 2 time a task
KOI-066 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Exclusive shot naming in the UI
KOI-062 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Local footage takes a long time to populate importer, sometimes it never populates
KOI-047 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Test and debug cancel button in OmniImporter
KOI-013 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Scroll bar in Imports List
KOI-010 : [GoPro Omni Importer] svg are ugly on some retina screen
KOI-092 : ProRes export have their soundtrack rounded to the inferior second (no milliseconds)
KOI-090 : Invert ProRes encoding profiles order to match the CineForm order (higher bitrate first)
KOI-089 : Fix MainConcept H.264/MP4 rendering when input sources have more than 1 audio track
KOI-084 : quick edition of aspect ratio is not applied
KOI-076 : Handle more PCM audio formats for our custom render pipelines
KOI-052 : frame synchronization when rendering on nvidia
KOI-028 : Skipping / duplicating frames on output video
KOI-027 : Qt 5.6 and QuickPaintedItem
KOI-022 : Problem with buffer size adjustment for switching from retina to non retina screens and vice versa (AVP et APG)
KOI-100 : CineForm and ProRes pipeline can now encode multiple audio tracks found in input videos as long as they have same configuration
KOI-111 : [NLE Plugins] GPU-Opencl bug in export rendering
KOI-058 : Frame shift between input video preview and real time preview
KOI-105 : GPU rendering does not support mixed color format
KOI-103 : frame offset bewtwen different decoding pipeline (mp4, prores...)
KOI-102 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Add version number + trial version to app header
KOI-097 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Importing two shots with the same name, to the same overwrites existing Stitch .mp4 and .Kava Files.
KOI-096 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Quitting Omni importer kills imports in progress.
KOI-109 : [GoPro Omni Importer] SHOTX denomination to start at SHOT1 instead of SHOT0
KOI-117 : [GoPro Omni Importer] After rendering is complete, 'Open In Finder' is displayed instead of 'Open In Explorer' for Windows
KOI-115 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Freezes when adjusting the size of the window
KOI-063 : [GoPro Omni Importer] UI Refresh Issues when Processing Multiple Shots.
KOI-120 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Feature Request: Render Dropdown should show more information
KOI-137 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Render performances between Omni Importer and AVP are different
KOI-083 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Stitched video playback has ghosting
KOI-114 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Sometimes 2.7K rendered with None Render Quality will render at 1920x1440
KOI-116 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Need better contrast of drop down menus in Windows version
KOI-121 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Invert Open in Finder and Open in AVP buttons
KOI-131 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Exclusive directory name should be case insensitive
KOI-136 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Progress Disappear while scrolling
KOI-135 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Crash when scrolling while import
KOI-088 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Handle 120FPS videos
KOI-138 : improve timeline precision
KOI-044 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Slow UI when many shots in the importer
KOI-112 : [NLE Plugins] Watermarks in NLE Plugins even when AVP is activated
KOI-125 : [NLE Plugins] Remove automatic load of Premiere Pro plugins in After effect
KOI-157 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Remove medium initial value for color correction
KOI-146 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Omni Importer: Sorting by date has no consistency from system to system
KOI-133 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Check if the user has write permissions in the import directory
KOI-024 : [GoPro Omni Importer] When Omni will be final, check if template stitching use the right camera order
KOI-144 : [NLE Plugins] Premiere plug-ins are not applied correctly to clips from Omni Importer & AVP if you have a GTX 1080 graphics card
KOI-113 : [NLE Plugins] Plugins not working on GPU Nvidia GTX 1080
KOI-161 : Forbid drag of a single video
KOI-154 : ProRes render in wrong format when using CPU mode
KOI-153 : Prevent GPU mode selection
KOI-150 : When installing newer versions, you have to re-enter the registration key
KOI-128 : Render performances regression on MacOS for Cineform
KOI-140 : [NLE Plugins] Change Premiere Pro NLE plugins install folder for MAC
KOI-191 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Poor preview performances on Windows laptop
KOI-184 : [GoPro Omni Importer] crash on chronometer access
KOI-158 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Player does not loop on Windows
KOI-143 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Playback stops after a few play throughs
KOI-127 : [GoPro Omni Importer] "Oops...Some of your files may have been renamed or deleted" pops up if you open mp4 in QT
KOI-206 : Progress time indications can be corrupted
KOI-205 : Crash : on shotID process with GoPro importer
KOI-203 : Crash : Undo set exposure slider not applied at the right moment
KOI-187 : Render settings needs saving even when nothing was modified
KOI-186 : Stereo settings needs saving even when nothing was modified
KOI-173 : Video merger : proper AAC support
KOI-170 : Windows high DPI / freetype : homepage has wrong aspect label
KOI-167 : Display the remaining time of a rendering instead of the elapsed time
KOI-166 : allow special foreign characters for opening file
KOI-236 : CPU preview does not play
KOI-221 : crash: when seeking preview with avs version
KOI-213 : finalize french translation for 2.5
KOI-141 : [NLE Plugins] Premiere crash when using both GoPro VR and Mettle vr player plugins
KOI-118 : [GoPro Omni Importer] Copyright date in the installer says 2004-2015
KOI-026 : 2.5.0 Features to document

New in Autopano Video 2.5.0 RC 2 (Sep 8, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.0 RC 1 (Sep 8, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.0 Beta 2 (Jul 13, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.0 Beta 1 (Jul 13, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.0 Alpha 3 (Jun 16, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.0 Alpha 2 (Jun 16, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.0 Alpha 1 (May 27, 2016)

GoPro Omni Importer:
At NAB 2016, we announced a new 6 GoPro synchronized rig called Omni. This rig solves many pain points you have by using unsynchronized rigs, like syncing, data management, etc. Alongside with GoPro Omni, we created a standalone application called Omni Importer, included with Autopano Video Pro, that is here to help you to manage the camera content in a simple and efficient way. This made the rig offloading as well as the stitching of your shots really easy to do. The idea of Omni importer was really to ease the work at capture time. Just remove the SD cards from omni, put a new set of SD cards in it to continue capturing. While continuing the shot, an other member of the team can review on stage what has been captured. If needed a stitch can be done in a few clicks too. But at any time, as you have access to the project file, you can be also really accurate thanks to Autopano Video features. The Omni importer can be used in a fast workflow or a powerful workflow.
Autopano Video new features:
Undo / Redo / History framework:
Yes, that standard part of a good software wasn't available before. We took it really seriously and now, you can do a CTRL+Z in AVP. You also have access to a history window that allows you to rollback several operations.
Apple ProRes support:
By popular demand, we added official support to Apple ProRes in input and output of AVP. This feature allows some strong workflows if you are going to edit the footage afterward in final cut for example.
New Stereo Rendering Options (AVP only):
Most of the time, default 3D-stereo settings (known as interoccular and convergence) are the most suitable. But in some very specific setups, you may have to face compromi deviates from standard values. For that purpose, we allow you to alter (when possible) those two key values. See the documentation for more details.
MP4 file merger:
One of the features that AVP 2.3 users really loved, is the fact that gopro importer wizard merges MP4 files together automatically when the content was from the same long duration shot (The GoPro camera divides long shots into several MP4 files). Our customers told us that they were interested in having the merge tool only. It is now available as a single action in the AVP menu.
Clever interface to retrieve missing videos:
Added an interface to relink videos that are missing when opening a kava file.
Improved batch renderer:
Re-organize your batches, drag'n'drop you kava files that are ready to render directly in the batch render of AVP to add batches.
Small UI updates:
Moved some menu, added short cuts, and tool tips with shortcuts in them
Rolling shutter effect reduction for Omni videos:
Autopano Video detects shots captured by GoPro Omni rigs and applies corrections for rolling shutter, allowing to reduce the related artefacts.
Fixes since 2.3.3:
0005656: [UI Preview] [Omni Importer] : Preview Player
0005773: [UI behavior] [Omni Importer] : Fix point size different between OS
0005760: [UI behavior] UI : tooltip and shortcuts
0005220: [UI Preview] Double hit on apply in preview has a strange behaviour
0005372: [UI behavior] Improve batch render
0005625: [Unclassified] Spherical NLE Plugins integration into installer
0005650: [Unclassified] [Omni Importer] : Installer
0005652: [UI behavior] [Omni Importer] : QmlLib integration
0005659: [Algorithms] set rolling shutter value for each Omni mode
0005664: [UI behavior] define and create historic UI
0005665: [UI behavior] Check project dirty status with undo/redo
0004924: [Rendering] separate rolling shutter compensation and stabilization
0005242: [Video I/O] input video framerate reading
0005337: [Rendering] Cineform on Mac - low and medium presets give the same output size/bitrate.
0005491: [Algorithms] template stitching for Omni
0005645: [UI behavior] [Omni Importer] : Transfer UI from Widget to QML
0005646: [Unclassified] [Omni Importer] Play LRV files
0005647: [Rendering] [Omni Importer] : Import Engine
0005653: [UI Preview] [Omni Importer] : THM preview
0005661: [UI behavior] Create a historic framework
0005662: [UI behavior] Create an undo command for all UI actions
0001490: [Video I/O] output format, ProRez422HQ
0005122: [UI behavior] Retrieve video files when they are missing (move their location on disk)
0005603: [Algorithms] Faster visual stabilization

New in Autopano Video 2.3.3 (May 27, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.3.2 (May 27, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.3.1 (Mar 10, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.3.0 (Feb 11, 2016)

Over 4K workflow:
If you use GoPro 4 Black cameras, the native resolution can go up to 8K in the spherical space. Nevertheless, current workflows are complicated if you go over 4K which is the maximum size allowed by h264. We had to introduce another codec so that this size would be manageable. The solution was easy to find: Cineform
That codec is a really good solution for over 4K workflows, as it is really fast, compresses quite well and optimized for editing. Producing Cineform videos from within AVP will make them easily editable inside Adobe products like Premiere, as Adobe products already support Cineform. You can keep the master file at maximum resolution through the full editing workflow using that new codec in AVP
You can find the Cineform codec in the render dialog box. It can be selected for the AVI container on windows only or for the MOV container for both Windows and Mac
Batch rendering:
A real batch rendering system was missing in the previous versions of the software. We've worked on that and now you have a real batch rendering dialog that allows you to manage rendering jobs. The details:
UI: the inspiration was the batch rendering dialog box from Autopano Giga. It works in a similar manner. Start the queue, pause the queue, stop current job, remove job, etc. You can also add new jobs without having to open the project file by using the open job button on the batch rendering dialog box.
Backup queue: the job queue is automatically saved. If you close the software while something is rendering, at next launch, the queue restarts by asking you what you want. Easy and efficient.
Command line rendering: You can add one job to the batch rendering queue through the command line, without opening the software. It will render that job and quit the software when finished. If you have a render farm and want to use AVP for massive rendering, you can do it now with this option.
Autopano Video -batch filename.kava
Performance boost:
The speed of the software is something that is important so you spend less time during rendering. We did a big study on how we use the GPU in the software by adding some internal benchmarking timeline into the software directly. This huge study did allow us to measure timing in 3 main areas which are, the decoder, the rendering and the encoder pipeline. By doing this study and analysing the results did end up in a speed boost during rendering of up to 50% on windows and up to 15% on mac. But that really depends on the hardware tested.
For people that want to optimize their hardware, we added an output log after each rendering in the batch rendering dialog box. This output calculates the activity of each subparts of the software, decoding/rendering/encoding. It is really interesting to look at the values there.
If one of the areas is around 100% while the others are much lower (< 50%), it means that this part of the process is the limiting factor to get better performance. Some advice
Decoder is at 100%: The CPU or I/O is most certainly the limitation. Use ssd or change the input file format for a faster decoding
Rendering is at 100%: This is easy, it means that the GPU drives the performance. Better GPU, better global rendering time
Encoder is at 100%: Here, you should try to switch from synchrone to asynchrone mode in AVP. Sometimes, the GPU drivers are not behaving well with texture transfers. If it doesn't change anything, just use another codec as output format, for example, Cineform
We are really interested into having customers sharing their rendering logs and results on their hardware. Please use the forum for that.
Cache preview:
The preview window is one of these zones that you always look at. It has to be fast so that you can work fast. To be able to get that at maximum speed, we are introducing in this version a cache system that computes this preview in the background. It gets that window refreshing rate at realtime.
To be able to understand how it works, we added a small green line in the timeline that highlights the part that is cached into the memory. Scrubbing inside that green zone by moving the cursor forwards and backwards is realtime.
GoPro Importer:
Working with a lot of cameras is challenging, especially for managing so many videos. We refreshed the GoPro importer to improve the workflow when importing videos from the camera. We worked on several aspects in this wizard.
Sequence/Camera organization: You have an option to switch the wizard between camera view or sequences view. It will reorder the videos differently to understand better the datas. Note: we suppose that for a shooting, you cleared all the memory cards beforehand.
Subfolder creation: That option creates folders which have the name of the top organization, so for example sequences or cameras names.
Chapters support: With GoPro, if your video is getting over 4GB, the file will be cut into several individuals files, but it is the same video. We detect and find that videos were part of a chapter.
Chapters merging: If you have Chapter, you can decide if the wizard should just copy the files or do a merge while copying. So on your hard drive, you will have a single big video file and not individuals 4GB videos which are in fact the same continuous sequence.
USB Hub workflow: We still don't support MTP which is the protocol used by cameras when they are plugged directly to the computer. This means that you still need to use USB hub / SD card reader.
Efficient workflows:
In several areas, we have improved the workflow efficiency by bringing new options. Let me highlight some of the small features for faster workflow.
Timeline highlights: Our design of the timeline is quite unique and some users did get back to us saying that it was not that intuitive. But as soon as you understand it's logic, it is easy to use. We tried to address this by adding highlighting on the timeline as soon as you modify something. Clicking on a button will highlight the state(s) that is affected by this action. The states that were not affected will not highlight. If nothing lights up, there must be an issue.
GoPro lens presets: Now that we have the knowledge of the GoPro lenses, we can provide much better calibration.
Entaniya presets: We worked with Entaniya team to add direct support of their lenses inside AVP. The calibration is really accurate now.
MP4 Preset: Changing bitrates was a bit challenging in the previous version. We added an option directly in the rendering UI, so you can change the rate quickly from there ( audio and video bitrates ).
Temporary files: One of the key challenges when working with professional workflow, for example with networks disks that are read only to prevent any loss. So it wasn't possible to work on such videos directly as AVP was creating temporary files in the same location as sources videos. We've changed that behavior and now working from a read only drive is possible without copying video files locally.
Shortcuts: To speed up editing, keyboard shortcuts are really important. We did review the software to add shortcuts where they were needed. Example: in preview, 'A' to apply, 'I' and 'O' for input and output range, 'F' to fit selection to rendering range, 'Shift+F' to fit rendering to current selection, 'arrow up/arrow down' to go to previous/next selectable edge in the timeline.
Magic Mouse support: The support trackpads and the Magic Mouse was lacking. These devices are now supported, improving the workflow.
Authoring editor: We changed the way the editor worked in that mode. We use now less pixels, a lower resolution, but the edition experience is much better.
Camera numbers: Ever wondered which camera is where in the preview? Now, you have a switch that will put a number over the camera. This is especially helpful during the synchronization stage.
Output frame numbering: We added an option to name the output frames with the frame number from the timeline. So exported sequences will not always start by 0.
Fixes since 2.2.2:
0005263: [UI behavior] Wheel event toggles combo boxes in stereo settings pannel
0005280: [Unclassified] remove layers in range stiching
0004986: [Video I/O] encoding preset sharing
0005200: [UI behavior] Always reset the UI when hitting new project?
0005233: [UI behavior] Synchronization panel with cache preview
0005256: [UI behavior] Asks to save a kava file when only general settings are changed
0001571: [Video I/O] Support for gopro video over 21minutes
0005243: [UI behavior] Play problem with cache preview
0005249: [Timeline] Frame difference between timeline and preview with Cache Preview
0005257: [UI behavior] AVP Stereo assignment - modification of the inverted mode to the default mode and vice versa
0005285: [UI behavior] Zoom is too strong with magic mouse on macos
0005260: [Unclassified] use temp directories for working files
0004991: [UI behavior] add select all into GoPro importer
0005125: [UI behavior] Trackpad / Magic Mouse behaviour
0005259: [Rendering] rework mp4 rendering UI
0003237: [Rendering] Batch rendering
0005121: [Rendering] Cloud rendering - Deadline tool integration
0005234: [Timeline] Frame difference between timeline and preview in GPU mode without cache preview
0005208: [UI behavior] Asking to much if we want to overwrite
0005180: [UI behavior] Shortcut for previous/next transition
0004445: [Performance] Benchmarking tool inside AVP
0004915: [Video I/O] export Cineform
0004917: [Video I/O] support cinefrom into vlc player
0004919: [Video I/O] avi muxing
0004920: [Video I/O] mov muxing
0005019: [UI Preview] Cache preview
0005051: [UI Preview] draw camera numbers in stitched preview
0005052: [UI Preview] synchro in preview can be slightly different from the one at rendering depending on the exact seek time
0005069: [Timeline] Highlight actually modified timeline states
0005244: [Performance] Activate/Desactivate cache preview at run time
0005338: [UI behavior] Magic Mouse behavior on combo box
0005331: [UI behavior] UI Adjustments in GoPro Importer
0005351: [Rendering] Preserve Frame Numbering/Choose Start Frame
0005261: [Video I/O] cineform input
0005346: [Algorithms] Stabilization & motion sync broken with ProRes inputs
0005176: [Performance] Automatic GPU preference to High performance
0005339: [Rendering] Cineform export size - multiple of 8 and 4
0005344: [Rendering] ProRes source videos are not supported anymore
0005328: [Algorithms] Broken stereo O/U - SbS - Anaglyph render and preview
0005330: [Video I/O] H264_MOV_OUTPUT still not hidden on MACOS
0005248: [Timeline] Frame difference between timeline and preview in CPU mode without cache preview
0005380: [Algorithms] Autopano Video Standard : Play and Cache preview
0005410: [Rendering] [GPU] Iso weight has wrong pixels on diagonal
0005414: [Rendering] Bug stereo rendering
0005411: [Video I/O] dirty audio with cineform inputs
0005416: [UI behavior] Empty name for pano when no common parts in video name
0005409: [Rendering] Vignetting correction applied from image center
0005384: [UI behavior] Corrupted render dimensions
0005397: [Video I/O] dirty audio with cinforme export
0005396: [Video I/O] mp4 merger with some files
0005381: [Rendering] Loop glitch at rendering
0005519: [Video I/O] wrong framerate reading
0005521: [UI behavior] Bad Frame rounding display for render In/out in timeline
0005501: [UI behavior] UI Adjustment in Batch Render(er)
0005487: [Rendering] Clicking on render resumes batch manager even if previously paused
0005239: [Rendering] black pixels in little planet GPU rendering
0005574: [UI behavior] Corrupted video durations displayed in GoPro importer

New in Autopano Video 2.3.0 RC 1 (Jan 8, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.3.0 Beta 2 (Dec 2, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.3.0 Beta 1 (Dec 2, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.2 (Oct 14, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.1 (Sep 29, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.0 (Sep 5, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.0 RC 3 (Aug 26, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.0 RC 2 (Jul 30, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.0 RC 1 (Jul 27, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.0 Beta 4 (Jul 27, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.0 Beta 3 (Jul 27, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.0 Beta 2 (Jun 9, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.0 Beta 1 (Jun 9, 2015)

Flexible UI:
When working with a video editing tool, it is really important to be able to adapt the software to your workspace. We wanted to address this demand by adding some nice UI features.
The software can be divided in several windows which contain a task: sources players, the preview zone, the timeline, synchronization parameters, etc. For all these zones, you can now, Attach / Detach them from main windows, make them fullscreen, move them to a second screen, etc. You can completely revamp the organization to match what you want. And if you close the software and reopen it, it will keep the layout you have chosen. These new options in the UI are intended to make the workflow more user friendly.
New automatic color correction:
With the new color correction engine created in Autopano Giga, we were able to have color correction applied along the time. This is really nice and works really well. Just define how many keyframes you want and autopano video will calculate and optimize through time the color / exposure of the video.
Moreover, as you have the new exposure slider, you can adjust that through time too. It applies on a state and is interpolated to next state.
Integrated projection and horizon editing:
An integrated editor for the most time consuming part, the horizon and projection adjustments. So you don't need to switch to Autopano Giga anymore to be able to create a director's cut video or correct the horizon.
Nevertheless, you will still need Autopano Giga for more advanced adjustments, for editing control points for example.
Miscellaneous:
Stereo improvements: Creating stereo content is now really easier. You can directly render to anaglyph, side by side. No more need to use ffmpeg afterwards for that.
Better input format support: We support now quicktime format better if quicktime 7 is installed.
Direct show 32bits under 64bits: This is quite nice, as now, we can read videos using 32bits direct show codecs while using Autopano Video in 64bits. It opens the door for stitching really huge input sources (over 4K).
Images sequence support: Through a easy understandable XML format that describes an image sequence, you can now use these images as input to stitch. No more conversion before stitching.
Fixes since 2.0.2:
[Video I/O] Input format, images sequences
[Algorithms] Color correction, generate one color key each x seconds button
[MainConcept] Mac QuickTime codec support - os 64
[Algorithms] Integrated workflow to produce 3D video

New in Autopano Video 2.0.2 (Jun 2, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.0.1 (May 15, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.0.0 (Apr 3, 2015)

Director’s cut mode:
Here is the biggest news in Autopano Video 2: the director’s cut mode. When creating 360 videos, one of the big challenges after that, is to be able to produce a standard video out of the 360 video, by selecting projections, crop zones, orientation, etc. This means framing the view and allowing creativity after stitching. The director’s cut is the tool that allows you to do so : you can define a rendering camera with projections and orientation that can change over time.
The video generated in this mode can have the aspect ratio of your choice and is dedicated to be shared as a standard video (no 360 video viewer needed). All the Autopano output projections (Planar, Little planet, Fisheye…) are available and can be smoothly interpolated from one to another. At any time, you can switch the video editing mode between standard full sphere output and director’s cut video output.
The new timeline tab “Authoring” gives access to two new tracks, defining the director’s cut rendering camera over the time:
Orientation: orientation of the rendering camera.
Projection: projection of the rendering camera.
The whole purpose of this mode is to export a video that can be directly uploaded in a standard video player (Youtube for instance) without losing the interest of a 360 video. Sure, the viewer cannot change the point of view and projection dynamically but you can do it for him and show him what is the best to see ! It gives stunning results and it’s really easy to master.
Improved stitching / horizon track / RMS curve:
The “Camera” track of the previous Autopano Video version has been split into two separate tracks: “Horizon” and “Stitch”. These new tracks allow you to compute new stitches without losing all the work you did to keep a straight horizon over the time. This improves a lot the production workflow.
Another great improvement is the ability to see in real time the RMS at each frame of the video. As a reminder, the RMS is a figure which gives the overall quality of the stitching in a panorama. As it is video, here you get a RMS error curve with high peaks meaning high RMS, so big parallax and bad stitch and low peak meaning good stitching.
Due to inevitable parallax with close objects in every 360° video capturing system, getting a perfect render requires the stitching to be adjusted to the scene over the time. This new curve is a very useful tool to detect problematic moments and fix them. Here’s how it works -
Range stitching on a selection:
With previous versions we advised user to use a stitching template for complicated stitching situation. It was working properly but we worked hard to improve this system in this new version. So we came up with range stitching which gives much better results especially for videos with not enough details (underwater content for instance).
How does it work:
The stitching on a selection allows to stitch on a sequence of the video, using the best instants for each video pair automatically. This function gives very good results in every situations and is also advised for stitching easy cases.
It is interesting to look at this feature while analysing the RMS curve. Using range stitching, it will show a lower RMS over the selected range, whereas current time stitching gets the best just for that frame.
New Mask timeline track:
One of the major issues with 360° video is managing parallax. The new tools above will help you deal with parallax problems but here’s another powerful one: the new Mask timeline track. It contains states like other timelines. The mask track allows to benefit from all the power of the Autopano Masking tool to make some fixes on video boundaries over the time.
4K / High DPI / Retina display support:
Due to technical limitations, we were not able to add high DPI display support in Autopano Video 1.x. It is now done in version 2 and the result is that we now have a better interface, with Retina icons / high DPI screen support even for 4K screens. The switch also accelerate every part of the software which are related to displaying something on the screen.
Miscellaneous improvements:
Youtube 360 support: 360 videos created with Autopano Video / Pro are ready to be uploaded in Youtube and played in their new 360 video player. Read the change log for more information.
Improved audio synchronization: Our audio synchronization algorithm has been greatly improved thanks to the use of state of the art techniques and should no longer fail if enough sound is captured in source videos.
Local motion estimation: In Autopano Video 2, you will no longer have to compute the motion over the full project before you can start editing.
It can now be estimated and updated only on a chosen part of the video.
Autopano Giga new color correction engine: Autopano Video 2 benefits from the new color correction engine of Autopano 4.
Grid over preview: a grid can be displayed over the preview to help detect horizon drift.
Preview resolution: the preview resolution can be changed at any time.
VLC source players: the source videos players are now based on the VLC library which means that more input formats will be supported.
Timeline editing in key frames mode: a new editing mode accessible from the settings configuration interface allows you to switch timeline editing to a more key-frames-based mode.
In this mode, every pano edit automatically inserts a new state.
Track collapse: unused timeline tracks can be collapsed to save space in your edition workspace.
Speed up: The exchange file used between AVP and APG were tiff before. We switched to jpeg and it makes the edit button much faster.
Introduction wizard: The first time you use AVP, you will see a quick introduction wizard guiding you through the first steps in video stitching. That’s really handy for beginners.
Manual synchronisation range: We allow you to use negative shift in the tools, so that the synchronization in manual mode is easier.
Main changes:
This is the final version of the new Autopano Video engine v2. It is by far the most advanced video stitching engine we’ve built, with a lot of new and unique features.
Director’s cut mode:
When creating 360 video, one of the big challenges after that, is to be able to produce a standard video out of the 360 video, by selecting projections, crop zones, orientation, etc.
This means framing the view and allowing creativity after stitching.
The director’s cut is all about that. It allows you to define a rendering camera, with projections and orientation that can change over time.
The video generated in this mode can have the aspect ratio of your choice and is dedicated to be shared as a standard video (no 360 video viewer needed).
All the Autopano output projections (Planar, Little planet, Fisheye…) are available and can be smoothly interpolated from one to another.
At any time, you can switch the video editing mode between standard full sphere output and director’s cut video output.
The new timeline tab “Authoring” gives access to two new tracks, defining the director’s cut rendering camera over the time:
Orientation: orientation of the rendering camera.
Projection: projection of the rendering camera.
Improved stitching / horizon track / RMS curve:
The “Camera” track of the previous Autopano Video version has been split into two separate tracks: “Horizon” and “Stitch”.
These new tracks allow you to compute new stitches without losing all the work you did to keep a straight horizon over the time.
This improves the production workflow.
When we did that split, an idea came to us. How cool would it be to be able to visually see the stitching quality. That could be a good solution to understand what is happening along a video.
This is the RMS error curve, which is the equivalent of the RMS value when stitching a still panorama but along the video.
This is displayed over the stitching track in a curve function, the lower, the better. High peak means, high RMS, so big parallax and bad stitch.
Due to inevitable parallax in every 360° video capturing system, getting a perfect render requires the stitching to be adjusted to the scene over the time.
This new curve is a very useful tool to detect problematic moments and fix them. After a first computation, that can be long, the RMS curve can be updated almost instantly even if you calculate a new stitch locally.
Range stitching on a selection:
Getting a good stitch template can be a complicated problem. There are 2 cases that were complicated to manage
Not enough details at any moment: Typically in an underwater video, you cannot find a single moment in the whole video where all input videos have enough good content that allows you to get a stitch.
It is only at some different moments, that some pairs of cameras have relevant links. Over the full video or a large range of time, globally, all the data needed to get a stitch is there, but not at a single moment in time.
Optimal stitch for a given content: If your camera is stationary or if the content relative to the camera is globally the same, it should be possible to get an optimal stitch for that range of time.
To be able to manage the two problems, we introduced range stitching in Autopano Video 2.0. The stitching on a selection allows to stitch on a sequence of the video, using automatically the best instants for each video pair.
This function gives very good results in every situations and is also advised for stitching easy cases.
It is interesting to look at this feature while analysing the RMS curve. Using range stitching, it will show a lower RMS over the selected range, whereas current time stitching gets the best just for that frame.
New Mask timeline track:
One of the big projects of 360° video is managing parallax. Both tools, RMS curve and range stitching, are really good for getting a better local stitch, but sometimes, it is not enough. To overcome this problem, Autopano Video 2 introduces a Masking timeline to select what is displayed from which camera at which time.
It contains states like other timelines. The Mask track allows to benefit from all the power of the Autopano Masking tool to make some fixes on video boundaries over the time.
Stereoscopic stitching (AVP only):
Autopano Video Pro is now able to handle stereoscopic videos in a very friendly way thanks to a new interface, allowing you to assign each source video to an output eye.
This new interface allows you to work with a rig in which a same camera is used for both left and right, rendering without the need of creating manual Masks.
Camera presets introduction:
The camera presets let you configure the stitching optimizer with advanced options. The presets let you define the lens type (fisheye or standard),
initial focal and distorsion values, enable or disable their estimation, and choose their scopes.
Stitching and presets:
Accurate lens calibration
If you use back to back configurations, like 2 Kodak SP360 for example, the overlapping zone is not enough to be able to calculate the lens distortion.
You will need to create a first panorama while rotating the lens, so you can calculate the lens distortions.
Once you have some accurate distortion, through the presets, you can inject them in the stitching process. The presets is exactly about that, use for example,
calculated k1,k2,k3, while optimizing focal and sensor/lens offsets.
The way we integrated presets allows users to create their own presets super easily for their cameras, for example, if you modify gopros to get 185° lenses, this system will work perfectly.
Improvements:
This new system doesn’t really reduce the RMS value, you should notice that, but as the lens distortion are really accurate, the visual experience that you have through HMD is really improved. You don’t have any more visual bumps like if you were looking at a mirror ball.
Current presets: There are already some presets shipped inside the software. You can add you own by just creating a XML.
GoPro: Generic GoPro preset that already stores lens distortions. The distortion will still be optimized. This mode is a really generic mode.
QBic: Generic QBic mode, but it doesn’t contain any precalculated distortion yet. It may be improved in the future.
Kodak SP360: For back to back set-up with 2 Kodak cameras. The distortion are forced as they have been calculated before.
A good example of calibration and reusing the calibration is available here: How to stitch back to back rigs
Generic mixed lenses: To be used with heterogeneous rigs that have different fisheye models in the same rigs.
A lot of nice miscellaneous improvements:
Improved audio synchronization: Our audio synchronization algorithm has been greatly improved thanks to the use of state of the art techniques and should no longer fail if enough sound is captured in source videos.
Local motion estimation: In Autopano Video 2, you will no longer have to compute the motion over the full project before you can start editing.
It can now be estimated and updated only on a chosen part of the video.
Autopano Giga new color correction engine: Autopano Video 2 benefits from the new color correction engine of Autopano 4. It is just amazing
Grid over preview: a grid can be displayed over the preview to help detect horizon drift.
Preview resolution: the preview resolution can be changed at any time.
VLC source players: the source videos players are now based on the VLC library which means that more input formats will be supported.
Timeline editing in key frames mode: a new editing mode accessible from the settings configuration interface allows you to switch timeline editing to a more key-frames-based mode.
In this mode, every pano edit automatically inserts a new state.
Track collapse: unused timeline tracks can be collapsed to save space in your edition workspace.
Speed up: The exchange file used between AVP and APG were tiff before. We switched to jpeg and it makes the edit button much faster.
Introduction wizard: The first time you use AVP, you will see a quick introduction wizard guiding you through the first steps in video stitching. That’s really handy for beginners.
Manual synchronisation range: We allow you to use negative shift in the tools, so that the synchronization in manual mode is easier.
4K / High DPI / Retina display support:
We’ve always cared about the visual comfort when using our software, and the experience should be enjoyable during use.
But with the latest computers / laptops, everything is quickly evolving to use high resolutions on screen and high DPI.
Our software should adapt to that evolution.
Having an interface that adapts itself to high DPI / Retina display depends on the way the software is built. We use Qt for almost all our software. Qt should then be providing us
with the solution for High DPI / Retina Display. It happens that Qt has provided this only really recently, with Qt 5.4. Our software relied on Qt 4.8 ( quite old ).
It wasn’t possible to make the switch before, as it does impact a lot of the codebase. We could only plan the switchover for a major update, as it also impacted the minimal OS configuration needed for the software.
The result is that we now have a better interface, with Retina icons / high DPI screen support even for 4K screens.
The switch also accelerates every part of the software related to displaying something on the screen.
With this upgrade of Qt, we are also ready for Windows 10 and Mac Yosemite.
Some noticeable minors fixes:
Google spherical metadata support
Google has released a specification about spherical metadata. We added direct support of this metadata to our software. That means that generated video out of Autopano Video will now be compatible with the upcoming 360° video support on YouTube. To support this specification, we need your operating system to have Python 2.7 installed. On MacOS, it is installed by default. On Windows, please install Python and put it to the path so we can use Python to write this specification in the output video.
VLC 2.2 final integration
Luckily for us, VLC released one week ago a final version LibVLC 2.2. It has been integrated into our software and allows to be more stable in several cases. One nice side effect of this new VLC is that a better Linux version of Autopano Video has been made possible.
Qt and compilers updates
To be really up to date in the development tools, we used here the latest version of both Qt and Intel compilers. You should notice a small improvement in terms of performance.
Fixes since 2.0.0 RC 1:
[UI behavior] Qt translation
[Main view] Fisheye images badly cropped when the circle is decentered

New in Autopano Video 2.0.0 RC 1 (Mar 11, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.0.0 Beta 5 (Feb 11, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.0.0 Beta 4 (Jan 21, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.0.0 Beta 3 (Jan 8, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.0.0 Beta 1 (Dec 17, 2014)

DIRECTOR'S CUT MODE:
When creating 360 video, one of the big challenges after that, is to be able to produce a standard video out of the 360 video, by selecting projections, crop zones, orientation, etc. This means framing the view and allowing creativity after stitching.
The director's cut is all about that. It allows you to define a rendering camera, with projections and orientation that can change over time. The video generated in this mode can have the aspect ratio of your choice and is dedicated to be shared as a standard video (no 360 video viewer needed). All the Autopano output projections (Planar, Little planet, Fisheye...) are available and can be smoothly interpolated from one to another. At any time, you can switch the video editing mode between standard full sphere output and director's cut video output.
The new timeline tab "Authoring" gives access to two new tracks, defining the director's cut rendering camera over the time.
IMPROVED STITCHING / HORIZON TRACK / RMS CURVE:
The "Camera" track of the previous Autopano Video version has been split into two separate tracks: "Horizon" and "Stitch". These new tracks allow you to compute new stitches without losing all the work you did to keep a straight horizon over the time. This improves the production workflow.
When we did that split, an idea came to us. How cool would it be to be able to visually see the stitching quality. That could be a good solution to understand what is happening along a video. This is the RMS error curve, which is the equivalent of the RMS value when stitching a still panorama but along the video. This is displayed over the stitching track in a curve function, the lower, the better. High peak means, high RMS, so big parallax and bad stitch.
Due to inevitable parallax in every 360° video capturing system, getting a perfect render requires the stitching to be adjusted to the scene over the time. This new curve is a very useful tool to detect problematic moments and fix them. After a first computation, that can be long, the RMS curve can be updated almost instantly even if you calculate a new stitch locally.
RANGE STITCHING ON A SELECTION:
Getting a good stitch template can be a complicated problem. There are 2 cases that were complicated to manage:
Not enough details at any moment: Typically in an underwater video, you cannot find a single moment in the whole video where all input videos have enough good content that allows you to get a stitch. It is only at some different moments, that some pairs of cameras have relevant links. Over the full video or a large range of time, globally, all the data needed to get a stitch is there, but not at a single moment in time.
Optimal stitch for a given content: If your camera is stationary or if the content relative to the camera is globally the same, it should be possible to get an optimal stitch for that range of time.
To be able to manage the two problems, we introduced range stitching in Autopano Video 2.0. The stitching on a selection allows to stitch on a sequence of the video, using automatically the best instants for each video pair. This function gives very good results in every situations and is also advised for stitching easy cases.
It is interesting to look at this feature while analysing the RMS curve. Using range stitching, it will show a lower RMS over the selected range, whereas current time stitching gets the best just for that frame.
NEW MASK TIMELINE TRACK:
One of the big projects of 360° video is managing parallax. Both tools, RMS curve and range stitching, are really good for getting a better local stitch, but sometimes, it is not enough. To overcome this problem, Autopano Video 2 introduces a Masking timeline to select what is displayed from which camera at which time.
It contains states like other timelines. The Mask track allows to benefit from all the power of the Autopano Masking tool to make some fixes on video boundaries over the time.
STEREOSCOPIC STITCHING (AVP ONLY):
Autopano Video Pro is now able to handle stereoscopic videos in a very friendly way thanks to a new interface, allowing you to assign each source video to an output eye. This new interface allows you to work with a rig in which a same camera is used for both left and right, rendering without the need of creating manual Masks.
A LOT OF NICE AND SEXY MISCELLANEOUS IMPROVEMENTS:
We addressed a lot of the requests of our users in several areas:
Improved audio synchronization: Our audio synchronization algorithm has been greatly improved thanks to the use of state of the art techniques and should no longer fail if enough sound is captured in source videos.
Local motion estimation: In Autopano Video 2, you will no longer have to compute the motion over the full project before you can start editing. It can now be estimated and updated only on a chosen part of the video.
Autopano Giga new color correction engine: Autopano Video 2 benefits from the new color correction engine of Autopano 4. It is just amazing, see the following video See the video
Grid over preview: a grid can be displayed over the preview to help detect horizon drift.
Preview resolution: the preview resolution can be changed at any time.
VLC source players: the source videos players are now based on the VLC library which means that more input formats will be supported.
Timeline editing in key frames mode: a new editing mode accessible from the settings configuration interface allows you to switch timeline editing to a more key-frames-based mode. In this mode, every pano edit automatically inserts a new state.
Track collapse: unused timeline tracks can be collapsed to save space in your edition workspace.
Speed up: The exchange file used between AVP and APG were tiff before. We switched to jpeg and it makes the edit button much faster.
Introduction wizard: The first time you use AVP, you will see a quick introduction wizard guiding you through the first steps in video stitching. That's really handy for beginners.
Manual synchronisation range: We allow you to use negative shift in the tools, so that the synchronization in manual mode is easier.
4K / HIGH DPI / RETINA DISPLAY SUPPORT:
We've always cared about the visual comfort when using our software, and the experience should be enjoyable during use. But with the latest computers / laptops, everything is quickly evolving to use high resolutions on screen and high DPI. Our software should adapt to that evolution.
Having an interface that adapts itself to high DPI / Retina display depends on the way the software is built. We use Qt for almost all our software. Qt should then be providing us with the solution for High DPI / Retina Display. It happens that Qt has provided this only really recently, with Qt 5.4. Our software relied on Qt 4.8 ( quite old ). It wasn't possible to make the switch before, as it does impact a lot of the codebase. We could only plan the switchover for a major update, as it also impacted the minimal OS configuration needed for the software. The result is that we now have a better interface, with Retina icons / high DPI screen support even for 4K screens. The switch also accelerates every part of the software related to displaying something on the screen. With this upgrade of Qt, we are also ready for Windows 10 and Mac Yosemite.
FIXES:
0002453: [Algorithms] Better audio synchronization
0003650: [UI behavior] Change the default output settings of AVP, especially for the framerate because 48fps cause playback problems.
0003656: [Timeline] save timeline zoom/pos in .kava
0004129: [UI Preview] Grid switch over the preview for alignement
0004127: [Performance] Exchange files speed test
0003907: [UI behavior] UI for toggling: stitch at current position/range stitching
0003908: [Timeline] UI not enough place for settings of tracks CAMERA and HORIZON
0003703: [Timeline] Tooltip explaining the warning in the cameras timeline when the SMART cutting is enabled
0004130: [Synchronization] Frame sync, do not renormalize
0003795: [Algorithms] Compute motion on a small part, not the whole project
0001782: [Algorithms] Interpolation Kernel
0001702: [UI behavior] Qt 5.0.0
0003905: [UI behavior] UI timeline director's cut
0003906: [UI behavior] UI range selection tool
0003395: [Algorithms] Quality settings for realtime playback
0003543: [UI behavior] Edit the timeline in key mode
0002652: [UI behavior] QT Player revamp
0002144: [MainConcept] bitrate seems wrong
0003569: [UI behavior] Qt 5 integration
0003545: [Video I/O] Vlc player
0003877: [Algorithms] Use both left and right tracks for audio synchronization
0003854: [UI behavior] Horizon track in timeline
0003853: [UI behavior] RMS curve
0003544: [Algorithms] Mask points in timeline

New in Autopano Video 1.7.1 (Dec 10, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.7.0 RC 1 (Oct 3, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.6.3 (Aug 6, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.6.2 (Jul 24, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.6.1 (Jul 18, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.6.0 (Jul 3, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.6.0 RC 1 (Jun 16, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.6.0 Beta 1 (May 29, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.5.1 (May 2, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.5.0 (Apr 3, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.5.0 RC 1 (Apr 3, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.5.0 Beta 3 (Apr 3, 2014)

Rendering UI:
Many people were wondering how the rendering settings worked. It was not really simple as it was split in 2 windows with different settings influencing the real output. So we decided to change everything for a more easy to use UI while dropping one feature. The new UI has the following spirit
The size information is at the top. I’ll make a warning here, as the size can represent several aspects and this is the main reason why people didn’t always understand the rendering settings. The size can be the maximum possible size with the source videos: we call it the maximum panorama size. It can be also the maximum size allowed by the selected output, for example, if you encode in MP4 with HD preset, you cannot render anything over 1920×1080, because in this norm, the size is this one, and nothing else. If you are used to Adobe Premiere or other video tools, you should be used to that. Depending on the encoding choice, it reduces the allowed size. We don’t do that differently, but now, you have a visual feedback
Below the size, you have the rendering algorithms. This hasn’t changed
After that, you have a new unified user interface for the output. First, select the type of output and then its options. I think it is more straightforward to understand now. As we did this way, there is no more option to render at the same time the frames and the MP4 file, which was possible before. You can still do that by doing twice the rendering and batching everything
Also, we found out that the MP4 presets were not really understandable by our users, so the naming has changed as well. Now, you have
"H.264 Auto (HD or 4K)" – This default value will select the best MP4 according to the source you have. It can end up with a 4K mp4 if the input allows it or by a HD version if the input is too low quality for a 4K version
"H.264 HD" – This is the standard mp4 specification for FullHD ( 1920×1080 ). It is a mp4 level 4.2 so you can render over 30 fps
"H.264 4K" – Our preset for panoramic 4K rendering, size 4096×2048. Encoded into a mp4 level 5.1
"H.264 4K Cinema" – The 4K cinema has a rendering size 4096×2160, which is the cinema 4K. Also encoded in a mp4 level 5.1
"H.264 4K UHDTV" – The UHD 4K which is the size 3940×2160. Encoded into a mp4 level 5.1
"H.264 Blu-ray" – This is a variant of the HD preset with a better bitrate. It will restrict the fps to 30 fps to ntsc and 25 fps in pal (anything else should be banned if you want that video to be playable on a bluray)
In the output options, you have a new option which is an uncompressed AVI output. We found out that doing this way is really faster in rendering than doing frame rendering and allows you to have a nice workflow afterward. Besides the huge amount of data it creates, this mode is really nice compared to frame output
Fixes and improvements:
The timeline becomes usable even if the input video sources are not decoded by the system. Now, you must be able to stitch and work with the timeline even if video preview remains black
A better GPU code on Mac. It should not crash anymore on this platform. If it still happens, then switch in the general setting to synchrone mode and not asynchrone. It is a bit slower, but super stable
The timeline has a quite final design. We moved the Cut and Open tools a little to the left to prevent the use of too much space over the title zone. We still need to have the final icons integrated and it should be done
Fixes since 1.5.0 beta2:
0003335: [I/O] Useable timeline without preview source videos
0003307: [Crash Dump] crash in mainconcept decoder
0003264: [I/O] Raw codec output
0003247: [I/O] wrong pixels on GPU rendering

New in Autopano Video 1.5.0 Beta 2 (Feb 11, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.5.0 Beta 1 (Feb 3, 2014)

Global presentation:
The timeline offers the ability to have some parameters evolve along the time. With the current version of the timeline, you can already adjust several settings in the panorama stitching. Among them, you can adjust over time:
The global orientation of the panorama so you can make it straight everytime.
The panorama stitching, which means that all camera parameters from the stitching can evolve over time ( focal, distortion, offsets, viewpoint correction, etc ). This is really nice as there is no ideal template for a given video. With this feature, you can decide to make an optimal stitch for a given range and have a smooth transition to a second template during a transition range that you set.
Global histogram of the panorama : you can change global exposure over time.
Color correction : in Autopano Pro / Giga, you can change the color correction of each individual image. These settings can evolve over time to correct an over/under exposed zone during a short or long time range.
For the moment, some parameters cannot be interpolated and will be applied globally. Among them
Projection modes and crop : there is still no way to have a smooth transition from rectilinear to spherical projection. So if you change the projection mode, it will be applied globally and not on the current state. Same story for cropping. It is global.
Rendering settings : also for that, you cannot have these settings vary over time. Rendering settings will be applied globally and not only on the current state.
Anti-ghost pins : for the moment, these constrains are global as well.
With this new version, we also introduced our new anti-shake algorithm. What does this algorithm do?
It takes the real motion of each individual video that you are trying to stitch. From these motion information and the current active template, it will actively calculate the best panorama orientation to remove any shake. For the moment, it doesn’t keep the horizon straight, but this algorithm will continue to improve.
How to use it ?
Just click once on the “motion compute” button. It will calculate all motion over the whole timeline.
Then click on “activate the anti-shake” to use the results. You can see the results by just playing the video in the realtime preview zone.
Add some transitions in the cameras timeline to correct what the algorithm didn’t compensate. It is super simple way to get some complicated videos straight.
Timeline:
The information header. It is the zone where you can play the current stitched video, select ranges, go one frame forward, backward, and get visual information of where you are.
Below that, you have the rendering zone header. In this area, you’ll have 2 buttons.
Button : Frame / hh:mm:ss switch. If you prefer to work in frame or hh:mm:ss mode.
Button : Snap on/off switch button. It allows you to have snapping on states or not.
Button : Tool mode. It changes the action on double click. If on, the double click cuts and creates a new state or transition. If off, the double click opens the Autopano panorama editor.
This zone is followed by the rendering extend in red. Notice that both endings can be drag-and-dropped to change the range. The whole bar itself can be moved by dragging it outside of both ranges.
Cameras timeline
It starts with 4 buttons. Previous / Next State, allows you to change the current time to next or previous start or ending of a state.
Cut button is here to cut the state in two parts at current time.
Compute motion is here to compute the antishake for the global video. More information below.
Colors timeline
Again, you have next/previous states beginning or ending.
Cut button to introduce on color correction a new state.
In the footer of the timeline zone, you have the current view of the timeline. Through that, you can zoom in/out in time, move your current time, etc.
We took attention to keyboard shortcuts / mouse shortcuts for the whole timeline manipulation. Among them, we have
ALT + mouse wheel : timeline zoom in or out.
CTRL + mouse drag : timeline panning
Right click on transition display the local menu to remove / edit / configure a transition
Left key, Right key : previous or next frame
Space : play, pause realtime preview
Miscellanous:
Sources window / realtime preview management. You can change how both windows are split. Or just keep one, for example realtime preview. This is a good improvement for an efficient visual workflow.
Autopano Pro / Giga integration. We found out a good way to work with both pieces of software side by side. Double click on the timeline in Autopano Video Pro, it will open Autopano Pro or Autopano Giga. Then open the panorama editor. Don’t close it anymore as each time you’ll double click to edit a state in Autopano Video, it will refresh the panorama editor in Autopano Pro or Autopano Giga making the workflow in dual screen configuration really efficient.
Fixes since 1.1.0 stable:
[Kernel] crop area reading
[Algorithms] Antighost on changing camera in GPU
[UI] Solution for horizon
[Crash Dump] Crash in math calculation
[UI] Play button just before rendering
[UI] Easier presets
[I/O] one temp project only
[UI] color correction in timeline
[UI] Switching encoding presets don’t keep the video bitrate settings
[Algorithms] GPU colors are darker than cpu ones
[I/O] frame rounding
[Crash Dump] CPU description failed
[Algorithms] YUV to RGB conversion darkens colors

Autopano Video Changelog

What's new in Autopano Video 2.6.2

New in Autopano Video 2.6.1 (Mar 30, 2017)

New in Autopano Video 2.6.0 (Feb 16, 2017)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.3 (Nov 7, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.2 (Oct 14, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.1 (Oct 14, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.0 (Oct 14, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.0 RC 2 (Sep 8, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.0 RC 1 (Sep 8, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.0 Beta 2 (Jul 13, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.0 Beta 1 (Jul 13, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.0 Alpha 3 (Jun 16, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.0 Alpha 2 (Jun 16, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.5.0 Alpha 1 (May 27, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.3.3 (May 27, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.3.2 (May 27, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.3.1 (Mar 10, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.3.0 (Feb 11, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.3.0 RC 1 (Jan 8, 2016)

New in Autopano Video 2.3.0 Beta 2 (Dec 2, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.3.0 Beta 1 (Dec 2, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.2 (Oct 14, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.1 (Sep 29, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.0 (Sep 5, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.0 RC 3 (Aug 26, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.0 RC 2 (Jul 30, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.0 RC 1 (Jul 27, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.0 Beta 4 (Jul 27, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.0 Beta 3 (Jul 27, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.0 Beta 2 (Jun 9, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.2.0 Beta 1 (Jun 9, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.0.2 (Jun 2, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.0.1 (May 15, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.0.0 (Apr 3, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.0.0 RC 1 (Mar 11, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.0.0 Beta 5 (Feb 11, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.0.0 Beta 4 (Jan 21, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.0.0 Beta 3 (Jan 8, 2015)

New in Autopano Video 2.0.0 Beta 1 (Dec 17, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.7.1 (Dec 10, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.7.0 RC 1 (Oct 3, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.6.3 (Aug 6, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.6.2 (Jul 24, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.6.1 (Jul 18, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.6.0 (Jul 3, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.6.0 RC 1 (Jun 16, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.6.0 Beta 1 (May 29, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.5.1 (May 2, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.5.0 (Apr 3, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.5.0 RC 1 (Apr 3, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.5.0 Beta 3 (Apr 3, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.5.0 Beta 2 (Feb 11, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.5.0 Beta 1 (Feb 3, 2014)

New in Autopano Video 1.1.0 (Oct 10, 2013)

New in Autopano Video 1.1.0 Beta 3 (Sep 27, 2013)

New in Autopano Video 1.1.0 Beta 2 (Sep 18, 2013)

New in Autopano Video 1.1.0 Beta 1 (Sep 11, 2013)

New in Autopano Video 1.0.0 (Aug 6, 2013)

New in Autopano Video 1.0.0 RC 1 (Jul 17, 2013)

New in Autopano Video 1.0.0 Beta 4 (Jun 28, 2013)

New in Autopano Video 1.0.0 Beta 3 (Jun 13, 2013)

New in Autopano Video 1.0.0 Beta 2 (Jun 13, 2013)

New in Autopano Video 1.0.0 Beta 1 (Jun 13, 2013)