Model Quality and Output Improvements
New Presets
- Tile Generation for Close Range Presets: Eliminates tile gaps that create a "floating" effect on upper segments of vertical structures, such as towers, ensuring they appear connected to lower portions.
- New Enhanced True Orthophoto Preset: Introduces an alternative 3D correlation method focused on horizontal surfaces to better represent vertical structures and complex geometries. Best used with nadir collections that have high overlap.
- New Camera Calibration Refinement for Non-Metric Sensors and Lenses AT Preset: Adds an extra Bundle Block Adjustment iteration using a unique camera calibration method to address image geometry inconsistencies in non-metric sensors and lenses. Recommended for cameras with issues such as large distortions, rolling shutter, auto-zoom, auto-stabilization, and motion-based distortion.
- Modified the default build setting to set the origin of Ortho tiles at the pixel's corner instead of the center, aligning with the accepted standard.
New Settings
Introduced two new settings, adjustable via configuration files:
- ImagesPerTask: Configures the number of images allocated per task in the Image Processing stage, allowing for more flexible task management.
- ImageProcessingMaxFailThreshold: Establishes a failure threshold for the Image Processing task, whereby exceeding this limit will result in the task being marked as failed.
NIR Photo Calibration
PhotoMesh 8.0.1 includes an optional flag that provides advanced calibration of Near-Infrared (NIR) photos during the photo preparation step. Using DJI Exif tags (drone-dji:BlackLevel and drone-dji:SensorGainAdjustment) embedded within the captured photos, PhotoMesh normalizes the light sensitivity and establishes consistent baseline black levels across all NIR photos. This calibration process is critical for ensuring uniform reflectance measurements throughout the imagery, thereby effectively neutralizing the impact of variable sunlight conditions which can otherwise compromise the quality and analytical value of NIR data.
Stability Improvements and Bug Fixes
Project Build
- Fixed an issue where the number of photos participating in the build was not updated after changes to the effective range value.
- Resolved an issue where some build stages failed or entered a loop on German locale machines due to decimal separator issues.
- Fix to the “More Aggressive Match” and “Reconstruction Close Range with Long Lens” presets
Fuser Management
- Conducted a comprehensive refactor and stability enhancement of the fusers pool.
- Corrected a display issue in fuser manager window that incorrectly showed zero active fusers.
- Fixed inaccurate reporting in the Build manager regarding the number of required, allocated, and maximum fusers.
- Prevent job release failures caused by fuser machine reboots during builds.
- Addressed an issue where fusers would get stuck and fail to display completion percentage.
- Enhanced user data management by ensuring the deletion of the fuser's share folder alongside its intermediate files.
AWS Stability and Automation Enhancements
- Resolved issues with fusers running on AWS cloud, including one related to a malfunctioning .dll file that caused installation problems.
- Fixed issue where builds in AWS would fail due to the use of reserved values as tag keys.
- Addressed InvalidArgument error when using AWS fusers in regions without specified subnet.
- Resolved a potential issue where duplicate keys on AWS fusers could disrupt operation.
- Enabled the "Build and Rerun Failed Tasks" functionality using the PhotoMesh Project Queue REST API.
Usability
- Introduced a new logging system where a separate out.log file is created for every task, addressing the issue of concurrent log access in multi-machine environments.
- Fixed Photos List "Exclude" checkbox issue where exclusion mark was not initially visible.
- Allow selection of reconstruction tiles after creating a new modified terrain object in the area, improving user experience.
Reports
- Fixed error affecting reporting when one of the AT tiles has no calculated photos.
- Addressed a bug that caused projects with reference images to be inaccurately represented in the connection and projection error maps.