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Mod or script to automate screenshot-taking to create a 360 scene


Bolmara

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Hello!

 

Let me explain.
I like creating virtual tours, that you can explore and add content to. Virtual tours are made from 360° scenes (photo and/or video), generally shot in real life with a DSLR and panoramic head or a 360 cam.

 

You can also make 360 scenes with game screenshots if you can be a proper first person view (meaning if you're completely zoomed in and look around, it's all from the same point of view, no offset).

 

Thankfully Fallout allows for the proper point of view, but to create the 360 scene I have to take a bunch of screenshots, with no direction or idea if I've already captured that area or not, so sometimes I have holes in my panoramas.

 

Here is an example of my -unfinished- vault (quickly done, a few holes, it's a test tour but you should get the gist): http://lmih.be/tours/fallout/take2/index.html

 

 

Now, ideally, I would like some assistance in the creating of a mod or script (I have no experience in either) that would take control of the camera, take a screenshot/activate a key on my keyboard, turn a certain number of degrees, take a screenshot, turn some more, take a screenshot and so on until I can cover the whole 360x180° scene.

 

 

This would minimise the amount of screenshots needed to stitch, and also ensure there aren't any holes in the resulting panoramas.

 

 

I would really love some help with this but I do realise there wouldn't be many people interested in this, and I don't know if it would be very complicated to do or not, but here's to hoping.

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Tl;dr: I'd like someone to create a script to automate screenshot taking to create 360x180° panoramas.

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Maybe when Fallout VR comes out(If they make it), You could do this.

What I know about this subject so far is both consoles have the applications Embedded into the chip sets they use ,PS4 and Xbox.

 

you can set up fraps and it will do as you require too. To get clean clear images, choose *.bmp extent ions, those you can edit and set as *.jpg's and not loose quality..quality comes from the density of the saved images.

 

IF the IP / copy rights allow it, then yes, other wise I can't.

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@bolmara

Howdy!

my own mod-fu is not particularly strong... especially in FO4.

 

however,

I appreciate what you're envisaging!

it would make for a GREAT youtube vid or so,

and scott manley of youtube does have some approaches to making your

360 vid.

(Petard also is learning how to make 360 vids, and is something of a FO4 fan also...)

 

Scott Manley has written some code in various applications and provided links for you to use it... with a humble attribution 'thanks, scott manley!" all that's needed.

some of that may directly translate to the FO4 UI.

he has several 'dummy cameras' to allow for different wing-tip viewing or to 360 vid in star citizen or in elite dangerous.

something similar for FO4 would be awesome!

 

otherwise, some other approaches might be to mod

the rotation rate of the third person camera mode, to say 10%-450% (useful for speed-build montages)

and to copy the stitching protocol from Scott Manley's approach to a separate one in FO4.

that would work a lot better than trying to make custom macros, as artifacting errors have cropped in when in some past

I've tried doing some 360 vids.

another feature which would be nice, would be 'recording along a path' -

ideally, a variant of debug mode, which allows you to record in 360 from a walked path in the game...

that way, you don't see any npc's or get attacked or have stuff like that clogging things up.

 

you could also check the GIMP 'script-fu' boards and code-stack-exchange boards also,

as they have how to make 3D or 360 vids from the iso-views (with a particular fisheye lens as the raw image then translated in GIMP).

that might be a way to go too for making cool short .gifs or animations of things

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This caught my eye as I've been taking/making a number of panoramic photos of Fallout4 in the last year.

My panos tend to be comprised of anywhere between 250-500 seperate images; cant go higher than 500 or my system freezes whilst making the final composite.

Originally attempted to write a lengthy explanation of my process, but after reading it decided that it might be confusing (or un-necessary) so deleted it.

It'd probably be easier for me to explain via visual diagrams. Can PM you if you'd prefer to discuss this in any depth.

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@AGreatWeight 200 to 500 screenshots! Stitching gigapixels? I don't need that high a quality, my panos are randomly between 55 and 65 screenshots which is still too many I get a lot of overlap that could easily be reduced. But I still end up with a few minor holes because I don't have a proper way of following a pattern.

 

 

 

@Purr4me I'll have to try downloading fraps but from the web page I don't see how I can automate anything other than change automate the screenshots in my desired format (I use bandicam for that).

 

 

@Montky I'll have to check out all those names, but I'm not necessarily looking to do 360 video, still is enough.

360 video would be tricky because of moving characters across the stitch lines, could end up in ghosting or disappearing characters... But at least when shooting a video game you shouldn't have any parallax which is the major issue of IRL 360 camera rigs. :D

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Haha, it might sound like a lot, but the largest file size I've made has been about 140mb - I always resize them afterwards to something more managable, and always use .png as the file format to maintain a happy balance between visual quality and file size, plus I'm only using 1080p.

Depending on the scene your making a pano from, at the start you should orient the camera in a specific direction that has something or a number of visuals in the environment that you can use as a form of visual anchor, I find it's easier to start from the bottom (looking down) and work your way to the top, in rotations.

Over time, I've become very methodical about it. I find that taking more images the closer to the horizon the camera is looking helps reduce the chances of seams - but generally speaking, taking more photos helps reduce potential warping along the edges and improves the chances of smooth alignments. I find overlap is actually very useful for the process of stitching, more information to work with and get better results. Again, this is just my opinion based on my own experience.

You need to learn to identify and use various visual cues in the main camera path (in this case looking down, and working your way to looking up) in the environment to ensure that you minimize any chance of having gaps. A quick example below (the red dots indicate visual cues that you should memorize whilst taking each 'level' of shot to help 'root' you)

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BELjfBK.jpg

With interiors, creating this kind of mental map isn't much of a problem as there is usually plenty of visual information to use, however exteriors can be more challenging once the horizon is out of view - you have to use parts of clouds formations, or even the tonal changes in the sky. When in doubt, take more shots; it's better to have too many than too few.

Edited by AGreatWeight
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I find that taking more images the closer to the horizon the camera is looking helps reduce the chances of seams - but generally speaking, taking more photos helps reduce potential warping along the edges and improves the chances of smooth alignments. I find overlap is actually very useful for the process of stitching, more information to work with and get better results. Again, this is just my opinion based on my own experience.

 

If you're shooting with a very small fov (field of view) then I can understand the need for so many pictures because you're going to create a very high res panorama (gigapixel with an incredible zoom level), but if you have the regular fov having so many pictures overlapping could actually bring problems instead of solving them. In the virtual world less likely because nothing moves unless you tell it to, but still.

In general, when shooting a panorama, it is recommended to have around 30% overlap between each picture, above that is overkill and under that is risky. If you go above 60/70% overlap you have absolutely no need for the image in between.

 

 

I know how to shoot a panorama, I work in tech support for panorama stitching software, but there's no pano-heads and clicks in Fallout. :|

 

 

But yes I'll have to try finding a proper visual anchor, and take my time; I was hoping to have to spend less time taking the screenshots though. ;)

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