How to create a panoramic image from my scene

[Mzigaib]

Is there a way to render a 360 panoramic image from a scene?

[brianburke]

Is there a way to render a 360 panoramic image from a scene?

You can use a tube and raytrace along the normals. Then you can render to the uv's to get a 360 panorama.

panorama.hip

[ben]

Because we are in the coders coner I'm not sure if this is what your are looking for...

Anyway that's what I do to create env map:

-Setup 6 cameras, fov90°.

-Gather the 6 views in a single cubic env map

-use hdrshop to convert to a latitude/longitude(spherical) map if needed.

Maybe this can help :

PanoramaSetup.hipnc

It's very simple.

-Just hit "render 6 views"

-then "render cubic env map"

ben

[Mzigaib]

Wow, cool stuff that uv render, I didn't know that this was possible, thanks for that.

But isn't there a solution that doesn't involve raytracing? I just want to make an environment map for may scene so I wouldn't need to use raytrace.

Anyway thanks for the tip.

[petz]

the easiest way to create an environment maps from you scene is let mantra do the work for you.

lay down an new geo and attach "auto-generate environment maps" to it. you´ll find it under render properties. when you do so then mantra renders out an cubic environment map ready for use inside houdini. the problem is that you need an commercial license because you have to render out an .rat file for propper results. using an apprentice version mantra renders six images in .picnc format and you have to use isixpack later to generate the cubic map.

petz

envmap.hip

Edited July 25, 2010 by petz

[Mzigaib]

the easiest way to create an environment maps from you scene is let mantra do the work for you.

lay down an new geo and attach "auto-generate environment maps" to it. you´ll find it under render properties. when you do so then mantra renders out an cubic environment map ready for use inside houdini. the problem is that you need an commercial license because you have to render out an .rat file for propper results. using an apprentice version mantra renders six images in .picnc format and you have to use isixpack later to generate the cubic map.

petz

Thank you for the file.

I can see mantra create the six maps temporally and delete it so I got the envmap.rat but it isn't the whole enviroment it seems that it is just a part of the cubic environment, I also can´t control it´s resolution from any params on the scene nodes. I also noticed that if I use the interactive render mantra shows me the full environment render on a extra window but I want to save it on render time as a sequence, I didn't know how to do that.

[petz]

I can see mantra create the six maps temporally and delete it so I got the envmap.rat but it isn't the whole enviroment it seems that it is just a part of the cubic environment.

when you open envmap.rat with mplay there should exist six channels. one channel for every face of a cube since its an cubic environment map.

I also can´t control it´s resolution from any params on the scene nodes.

attach "resolution" to the geo-node that is used to compute the environment map. it´s under render-properties / view

I also noticed that if I use the interactive render mantra shows me the full environment render on a extra window but I want to save it on render time as a sequence, I didn't know how to do that.

don´t use interactive-render mode to create the env-map.

hth.

petz

[Mzigaib]

Thank you very much petz!

Everything is working like you said.

How can I convert it to a single latitude long reflection map?

Edited July 26, 2010 by Mzigaib

[petz]

Thank you very much petz!

Everything is working like you said.

How can I convert it to a single latitude long reflection map?

it´s easy! just change the output file from envmap.rat to envmap.pic or any other supported file-type. if it´s not an .rat file you´ll get an lat/long representation of the environment.

petz

[Mzigaib]

So Coooollll!

The only thing that I noticed is that I cant have a image size different from 1024X512 no matter the resolution if you use other format besides .rat.

Is there a way to override it? I tried to use the override resolution parameter but it doesn't work.

[Mzigaib]

I just got my answer from the manual

"Mantra also supports a cubic environment map stored as standard image files (.tif or .exr) but this format is limited to 1024×512 pixels and has poor anti-aliasing compared to .rat. You should use .rat textures instead."

Sorry to be such a pain, but what would be the workflow if I want the environment bigger than 1024X512 as a latitude long environment?

Edited July 26, 2010 by Mzigaib

[petz]

I just got my answer from the manual

"Mantra also supports a cubic environment map stored as standard image files (.tif or .exr) but this format is limited to 1024×512 pixels and has poor anti-aliasing compared to .rat. You should use .rat textures instead."

Sorry to be such a pain, but what would be the workflow if I want the environment bigger than 1024X512 as a latitude long environment?

in that case you need isixpack to override the default resolution.

file is attached!

petz

envmap_latlong.hip

[Mzigaib]

Thank you very much for this!

Python is a little out of my league but that could be a start to learn.

Thanks again!

[Mzigaib]

----

Edited August 7, 2010 by Mzigaib

[carstenw]

Hi,

there is another option: switch the projection of your camera to "polar (panoramic)", and set your output image dimensions ratio to 2:1 (e.g. 1024 x 512 pixel). This gives you a panoramic latitude-longitude render which you can convert to vertical-cross with HDRShop. Finally, make a cubic *.rat with isixpack.

This has the advantage that you can output arbitrary sizes (with Apprentice HD, at least) without much fuss.

Regards,

Carsten

panorama.hipnc