Midnight Mars Browser, Midnight Mars Browser discussion |
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Midnight Mars Browser, Midnight Mars Browser discussion |
 Aug 6 2005, 05:08 AM
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#256
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 Newbie  Group: Members Posts: 4 Joined: 6-August 05 From: Houston, TX Member No.: 456  |
I love MMB. Thank you Michael. I just love it. Images straight from Mars through the rovers eyes to my desktop, and my tired little mouse doesn't even have to point or click or anything. Finally it can rest and watch Mars with me.
Michael, have you looked at using PanoTools in your code? It's an open source platform for panorama creation, and it can produce beautiful results: http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/index.html I don't know if it would be compatible with your code, but it is open source, so I thought you might be interested. I managed to use it to build a couple of nice Mars panos: http://www.atgig.com/cozmsbrpng/index.html They took me a while to assemble, but with all the information that is available from the rovers perhaps some of it could be automated. I know that much of the panorama creation done by the MER team is automated. All the best to you! |
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Aug 6 2005, 09:53 AM
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#257
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 270 Joined: 29-December 04 From: NLA0: Member No.: 133 |
QUOTE (cozmsbrpng @ Aug 6 2005, 07:08 AM) They took me a while to assemble, but with all the information that is available from the rovers perhaps some of it could be automated. I know that much of the panorama creation done by the MER team is automated.  You can use AutoPano to auto find the control points. I use it all the time, even for the Cassini stitching, and it works great: http://autopano.kolor.com/ -------------------- PDP, VAX and Alpha fanatic ; HP-Compaq is the Satan! ; Let us pray daily while facing Maynard! ; Life starts at 150 km/h ;
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Aug 6 2005, 11:18 AM
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#258
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 Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 46 Joined: 1-March 04 From: Belgium Member No.: 41 |
I'm slowly dowloading the full set, but given bandwidth restriction, it'll probably be a long time before it's complete. Trying to limit myself to 100Mb a day, heh...
A question re: false-color image generation... Both here, on New Mars and probably countless other messageboards, there have been heated debates of what would be the best way to render 'true-color' pics, and looking at cornell's site, it seems they're pretty close... However, you chose to use a default filterset that does not generate imagery that's close to 'true' color, and I'm not complaining, it is YOUR browser after all, but given the flexibility of generating false-true color imagery, using the advanced settings, wouldn't it be interestinxg if some people posted their suggested settings, of how they think is the best or closest approimation to true-color (here or on your blogspot) I mean, now I can tweak, experiment, trial and err... but people like Doug surely have a pretty good idea which filtersets are best to lead to result XYZ... And *why* they choose those sets. (Sorry for crappy, confused Engrish...) Heh, ok... Trying to put this in one sentence... What kind of settings would you and others suggest to render (as near as) true color pics (as possible) ? |
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Aug 6 2005, 02:02 PM
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#259
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
Using the raw JPG's - the best process for getting 'true' colour images is a highly technical process called "guesswork"
 Doug |
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Aug 6 2005, 02:14 PM
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#260
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 Chief Assistant Group: Admin Posts: 1409 Joined: 5-January 05 From: Ierapetra, Greece Member No.: 136 |
Thanks on the Lacie-info Doug. that's another option..though I must find the will to burn some discs
 Nico -------------------- photographer, space imagery enthusiast, proud father and partner, and geek.
http://500px.com/sacred-photons & |
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Aug 6 2005, 04:32 PM
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#261
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Member Group: Members Posts: 270 Joined: 29-December 04 From: NLA0: Member No.: 133 |
-------------------- PDP, VAX and Alpha fanatic ; HP-Compaq is the Satan! ; Let us pray daily while facing Maynard! ; Life starts at 150 km/h ;
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Aug 7 2005, 10:33 PM
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#262
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 Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3431 Joined: 11-August 04 From: USA Member No.: 98 |
QUOTE (cozmsbrpng @ Aug 6 2005, 05:08 AM) Michael, have you looked at using PanoTools in your code? It's an open source platform for panorama creation, and it can produce beautiful results: http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/index.html Might look at it in the future... For the moment my emphasis is on fast realtime VR pans rather than technically perfect static panoramas. Fortunately there's lots of people here working on the "real" panoramas.
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Aug 7 2005, 10:43 PM
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#263
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3431 Joined: 11-August 04 From: USA Member No.: 98 |
QUOTE (Rxke @ Aug 6 2005, 11:18 AM) What kind of settings would you and others suggest to render (as near as) true color pics (as possible) ? It's not quite that simple, unfortunately... I think usually there is not a lot of choice which filter set to use, because usually only a few filters' worth of images are returned. Something about available bandwidth between here and Mars, I guess. And there are other issues as well. So, since it's a bit complex, MMB currently doesn't do any real color adjustment such as you'll see elsewhere. However, there's something I could do to give us some 'true color' in the near future, at least for pre-Sol 360... hope to talk about that more soon. |
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Aug 7 2005, 11:35 PM
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#264
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 46 Joined: 1-March 04 From: Belgium Member No.: 41 |
Thankss for the explanation.
Started to slowly figure that out myself, though... Seeing the cases where you can choose from filtersets being quite rare (esp for panorama's) This is the greatest bit of software ever! Can't get enough of it... Can't get enough of the MERs either... Hope they keep rolling and rolling and rolling! |
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Aug 15 2005, 02:51 AM
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#265
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3431 Joined: 11-August 04 From: USA Member No.: 98 |
Version 1.2.4 is up. Rxke, as you can see your wish is my command (within reason
) - ie, configurable home directory has been added.Since there are a lot of changes/improvements, I'll quote my whole blog entry below: QUOTE Midnight Mars Browser version 1.2.4 is now available. Here's what's changed: - Midnight Mars Browser home directory is now configurable in Preferences. Preferences are now stored in the MidnightMarsBrowser.properties file in the user directory, or in {user directory}/Library/Preferences on Mac OS X. - Status displayed in title bar while panoramas are loading. - Faster updates: eliminated unneccesary file checks, particularly for metadata. - Fast reloading of panorama list when panorama criteria is changed. - Panorama Screenshot feature (under File -> Advanced). - Must enter Panorama Edit Mode (under File -> Advanced) before allowed to edit panoramas. - Panorama full resolution mode loads navcam images first at full 1024x1024 resolution, then pancam images, until out of memory. - Donation, software update reminder dialogs. - Increased maximum memory allocation for the JVM from 128M to 192M. - Changed "Check for New Images" button in main window to "Update Now"; now does an update same as Auto Update. With this version MMB officially becomes "Shareware" instead of "Freeware". Nothing is disabled; there is only a reminder dialog asking you to donate if you use the software regularly. (Thanks to oheresy for reminding me to mention that.) A big Thank You to those who have already donated; you may simply press the "I donated" button when the reminder dialog appears. MMB will continue to be freely available; my mission with it is to help promote the remarkable MER missions and NASA/JPL's outstanding public availability of raw images. Midnight Mars Browser Home Page |
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Aug 15 2005, 03:18 AM
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#266
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3431 Joined: 11-August 04 From: USA Member No.: 98 |
Postscript:
I am thinking of getting the word out a little more about the program. Until now it's been a bit of a "secret" mainly known to the Unmanned Spaceflight crowd. Now, I think it might possibly be of more general interest, and could even help promote MER a bit amongst some people. If anyone has ideas about where (what sites) I could mention the program, or wants to mention the program themselves there, I'd appreciate it. For one thing, as soon as I get some basic documentation created, I plan to submit the program to Apple's OS X software tracker, since there is a special OS X version of the program. |
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Aug 15 2005, 08:19 AM
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#267
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 46 Joined: 1-March 04 From: Belgium Member No.: 41 |
Great!
And the other tweaks/improvements you mentioned, were also on my wishlist, greatgreatgreat!  Getting this up at Slashdot would give you lots of scope (and a fried server... Or rather a couple of fried servers.... Here, Blogspot, Exploratorium...) I suggest adding a FAQ on your site, re:documentation... |
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Aug 15 2005, 12:37 PM
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#268
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 46 Joined: 1-March 04 From: Belgium Member No.: 41 |
Hm. For some reason, changing my home folder doesn't work. It always reverts to the old one. Even if I rename the old one, it generates a new one in the old place...
 And I don't see a 'donate' window popping up, either... (OSX 10.3.9) |
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Aug 15 2005, 12:57 PM
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#269
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3431 Joined: 11-August 04 From: USA Member No.: 98 |
Did you change it in the Preferences? You'd need to do that as well as rename your directory.
The donate window doesn't pop up until you've used the program for 24 hours total since version 1.2.4 was installed, so I wouldn't worry about that, but look at Help -> About and make sure you're looking at the right version. |
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Aug 15 2005, 01:05 PM
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#270
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3431 Joined: 11-August 04 From: USA Member No.: 98 |
QUOTE (mhoward @ Aug 15 2005, 12:57 PM) Did you change it in the Preferences? You'd need to do that as well as rename your directory. Never mind... There seems to be something wrong with it. I'll have to fix it later tonight. In the meantime it should work as it did before. |
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