Software for 360 Panoramas

[Greg Sparkman]

What are your recommendations for stitching and player software. My only requirement is that the 360 panorama viewer runs on HTML 5.

I own an old version of AutoPano now. I’m not attached to any software, I just want the viewer to run on HTML5.

Thanks for your advice.

Greg Sparkman
St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
709-743-7710

[Sam Rohn]

hi greg

i use PTGui for stitching my panos, but Kolor Autopano is more or less the same in terms of results, both are excellent apps and highly recommended

http://www.ptgui.com

http://www.kolor.com/autopano/

hugin is also an excellent pano stitching app, and is totally free

http://hugin.sourceforge.net

for pano display i use krpano, although sometimes i use Pano2VR, or kolor panotour, depends on exactly what i am trying to achieve, all of these support html5 output no problem, and all have free demo version available, so see which one is best for your needs

http://krpano.com

http://www.kolor.com/panotour/

http://ggnome.com/pano2vr

for freeware html5 panorama viewer, look at either panellum or marzipano

https://pannellum.org

http://www.marzipano.net

have fun :)

sam

[Greg Sparkman]

Hi Sam,
Thanks for your reply. I’m getting back into photography as a business after 7 years away, and I have some experience with stitching and AutoPano Pro, and PixAround.

I took a look at Pano 2VR and it looks great. Do you have any experience with Kolor Panotour? Do Panotour and Pano 2VR have functions that are the same? How are the different? From what I saw, I would guess that Pano 2VR is easier and better, but I don’t know from looking at the Kolor site if I am correct in that guess.

Greg Sparkman
St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
709-743-7710

[Sam Rohn]

hi greg

it is really a matter of personal preference and exactly what you want to do, etc

both kolor panotour and pano2vr are fairly easy to use and customise, but krpanotools droplets are very easy to use as well, and very easy to customize if you are not afraid of xml text files

kolor panotour is actually just a GUI for krpano, and panotour results can be further customized as you would with a krpano xml file

pano2vr also has other features that the other apps lack, extract and insert arbitrary view etc

i would recommend downloading the free demo versions of all of these apps and exploring a bit, then you can start to figure out more specific questions to ask, many people use all of these apps for different situations

but if you just want to produce simple single panos or simple tours, krpano tools droplets would be the easiest, if you want a bit easier customization w nice GUI pano2vr should make you happy, and if you are already familiar with kolor autopano then kolor panotour should also be easy for you to to work with

thanks

sam

[Panoramic Tur]

Panorama Studio Pro, it is a very good and cheep software

[Panoramic Tur]

@Greg Sparkman
Kolor Panotour PRO have a lot of functions.
It is better that Pano2VR, but more expensive…

[Dennis]

Sam,

I read your opinions above. I am an ex electrical engineer so all sorts of programming in not daunting to me.

That said, would you recommend KRPano or Pano 2VR?

For now my most important use would be to generate Real Estate tours and commercial business interior tours.

I use Autopano for stitching (not Pro).
I want the ability to customize but am not ready to pay for Panotour Pro. So figured it is KRPano or Pano 2vr

Dennis Frost - Vancouver Island, BC
Awden.com
Real Estate, Google Street View|Trusted, Virtual tours

[Greg Sparkman]

Hi Dennis,

After following the advice in the posts above, here is what happened for me.

It is my opinion that the most important consideration as of September 2015 is if the software you use will generate tours in HTML5.

The second most important consideration is if the software you choose will generate HTML5 tours that automatically resize for smartphones and tablets. A less desirable method used by some software, is to generate HTML5 smartphone sized and HTML5 tablet sized tours at the same time as it generates the desktop sized HTML5 tours.

With some panoramic tour software, you have the privilege of paying for the software, and as an added bonus you get to correct the errors in the generated panoramic tour file, so that the pano will display as you or your customers dictate. So the third most important feature for me, is that customization features are built into the GUI of the software.

Please consider looking at the code in panoramic tour files that are generated by the various panoramic tour software that you are testing. Some have more commands and lines of code, and in my opinion are therefore less desirable.

Pano2VR is my second choice after Panotour. My final choice was to upgrade my Panotour software.

Greg Sparkman
St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
709-743-7710

[Neil Jones]

I find Easypano Tourweaver excellent for generating html5 tours

[Jürgen Schrader]

So far no package will create a tour for all platforms in one go.
There’s too many considerations and particular needs to be taken care of.
In general the most flexible thing you can get is Krpano which is more or less plain XML scripting while it has some nice drag’n drop templates for a quick start.

If one prefers the convenience of a GUI look at Panotour Pro (which uses Krpano as the core engine) or Pano2VR. They both offer great value for the money but can have some shortcomings compared towards the full flexibility of handcoding.

All three have a great and helpful user community in their forums with fast response.

It all depends on ones personal needs and preferences. Luckily all of them can be downloaded and evaluated for free.

[Julio Castillo]

Hi guys,

Have any of you hear about 3DVista? This guys promise a lot for their Pano stitching and editor, I’ve look everywhere for reviews without avail. Thanks for any advice.

Kind regards,

Julio Castillo

[srdjan zivulovic]

Hi everyone !

im new in 360 degree imagenary. I have Thetas and what software do i need to publish pictures
on the web .

Pls help
all the best Srdjan

[Sam Rohn]

if you are using a ricoh theta, your easiest options is probably to upload directly to theta’s own pano hosting site, see the theta docs for more info

https://theta360.com/en/support/manual/s/content/pc/pc_07.html

or see the previous posts in this thread for other options using software like krpano or pano2vr

or you could use a spherical panorama hosting site like
http://www.360cities.net
https://round.me
http://www.viewat.org
http://www.spinattic.com
https://www.flickr.com
https://www.google.com/maps/streetview
etc

here is a sample ricoh theta S pano hosted on theta360 pano site

https://theta360.com/s/jY1SEyFYtdHhWxDh75RCw5j2O

Brooklyn Blizzard, 2016 #theta360 – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

and here is the same pano on flickr –

sam

[Marc Charette]

Has anyone within the community taken the time to create a proper comparison table for these programs? That would make much of research much easier. I know if I had the knowledge and time, that’s what I’d be offering up (and what I’m hoping to find).

Buying any one of them is not the end of the world. It’s really not that difficult to make your money back on it. The challenge is more the lost time of learning program ‘A’ when you get to a particular point and find out it won’t do what you want and then need to go to program ‘B’ and start learning all over again.

I don’t think the manufacturer/software engineers have much to lose out as has been well said, it’s more a matter what each person wants. But for someone to choose, there needs to be some clarity of description amongst the offerings.

Any takers?

Marc Charette
Central Coast, NSW Australia
www.workpics.com

[Jürgen Schrader]

The problem is that in a review you can’t simply compare functions as with camera models. We’re talking about entirely different concepts. To do these justice a full review would need a LOT of time.

So better name the three leading tour building packages and the two leading stitchers and leave the rest to anyone’s taste.

Or to make it short, get ptgui and pano2vr and be happy for the rest of your life.

[Marc Charette]

Thanks for that Jürgen.

In essence, you are confirming what I was already half way doing. PTGUI’s been really great and Pano2VR’s new v5 seems to address most of the questions I can think of needing. At worst case, I’ll own them all and maybe one day be that person crazy enough to write such a review.

Cheers!

Marc Charette
Central Coast, NSW Australia
www.workpics.com

[Ken Butt]

Completely agree with Jürgen.

I have been using the pro versions of PTGUI and Pano2VR since 2009 and watched both evolve into a complete package for my needs. I have often thought of giving KRPano a test drive due to the many positive comments that I have read but just when I start to hit a wall, Pano2VR comes out with something that takes me to a new level.

I am currently in the process of rebuilding all of my 360 VR panos in the HTML5 format. V5 is awesome. The community forums are a great place to hang out. I suspect the other programs mentioned in this thread have similar followers.

I am hoping that the upcoming Quebec City 2016 Conference will give me some new insights into the alternatives. Healthy competition can only help all to reach their full potential.

Rock360

[Lu Yanfeng]

Ptgui

I like panorama

[Wan Jing]

I am glad that I found this. I have been digging and comparing PTGui and Giga for past few days. It is frustrating when comparing products that is similar. I finally purchased AutoPano Giga + Krpano + AutoPano Tour Pro. Started using it for few days now. So far everything is smooth.

[Kuula]

Please consider trying Kuula https://kuula.co It’s 360 photo sharing service I’m working on. I build it mostly because I wanted something that allows me to upload 360s easily.

The HTML5 player works well on both desktop and mobile and there are some interesting additional functions (filters, lens flare effect, privacy settings). All the photos are easy to share and on Twitter the panoramas even appear in-line in the user feed. The photos can also be embedded.

Please give it a try and let me know what you think. Any feedback is appreciated and we’re adding more features on a regular basis.

[The Twitt]

There is a software called Panoweaver for 360 Panoramas which can build 360 Panoramas for digital photos. One can stitch wide angle images fisheye lens images etc. into spherical panorama.

TheTwitt
A Virtual Reality News Portal
http://www.thetwitt.com

[Benedict Savio]

Any one can help our which software can create little planet effect transition for 360 photos ?
example like this :
https://www.skypixel.com/photos/ffb09cf5-7103-4f82-9e2e-07d900e7397e

World Beyond Reality

[Sam Rohn]

krpano, kolor panotour, & pano2vr can all create little planet transitions like your example

sam

[James Mackenzie]

I’m a software developer by trade, not a photography professional – so have a strong bias for free options.

For panorama stitching and transformations, I like ICE, Hugin and Panotools.

Since they’re a bit fiddly to install and configure, I put together a quick start guide here

Website - jamesfmackenzie.com

[Roman Grinev]

I use TrueVirtualTours for my 360 projects

https://truevirtualtours.com - place 360° panoramas, create real virtual tours, combine panoramas and tours into collections, improve the quality of your work!

[Author]

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