Beta versions
A new version of PTGui will be released soon, and you can download a beta version already.
This beta version is now being tested but may still be unstable. If you
don't encounter problems with PTGui 8.3.10, it is better to wait for the next
release version.
What's new?
- Version 9.0beta2 (8 August 2010)
- Fix: 'assertion failed' error when loading 16 bit or raw images
- Fix: windows: on some systems the first two buttons in the Project Assistant were invisible (only Create Panorama was shown)
- Fix: mac: registration keys with accented (non latin) characters caused a wxWidgets debug alert
- Fix: mac: Magic mouse did not work on 64 bit macs
- Fix: mac: all single line input fields were actually multiple line fields; this caused oversized text to be truncated in a strange way
- Version 9.0beta1 (4 August 2010)
- PTGui Pro: new masking feature! New Mask tab where you can paint the unwanted parts of an image red, or paint those parts green that should not be obfuscated by other images. Masks can be copied/pasted and saved/loaded to regular .png files. The results are shown in real time in the panorama editor blending preview.
- New 'detail viewer', enabled by clicking on the magnification glass button in the panorama editor. The detail viewer has two modes: 'perspective' generates a rectilinear view like a regular spherical panorama viewer, 'flat' shows a detail of the panorama in the actual projection.
- PTGui now includes a basic web panorama viewer and publishing wizard. The viewer is a combined Flash / HTML5 viewer; the Flash mode works on any computer with Flash 10, the HTML 5 mode works in recent Safari browsers including the iPad / iPhone / iPod. Accessed by Tools -> Publish to website.
- 64 bit Mac version. There are now two mac versions: an OS X 10.4 compatible version for 32 bit Intel and PPC, and a version for OS X 10.6 supporting 32 and 64 bit Intel processors.
- The standard version of PTGui is now available for 64 bit as well. The Windows versions are now distributed in a single installer, automatically chosing the 32 or 64 bit version upon installation.
- Support for Helmut Dersch's PTStitcherNG. PTStitcherNG can be configured as a stitching engine in Options -> Panorama Tools and selected using 'Stitch using: PTStitcherNG' in the Create Panorama tab.
- The panorama tools optimizer is now accessed through the PTOptimizer executable instead of through pano12.dll. A standalone PTOptimizer is available for download (more information).
- Several new interpolators, including the Spline and Sinc interpolators formerly available through Panorama Tools only.
- The 'stitch using PTGui but warp using Panorama Tools' option is no longer available.
- Tool windows such as the panorama editor and control points table are now normal windows with minimize/maximize buttons and are shown in the task bar. The former behaviour is still available as an option.
- By default the mouse wheel is now used for scrolling in the Control Points window. Hold down the Ctrl key (Windows) or Command key (Mac) to zoom with the mouse wheel. This behaviour can be swapped in Options/Preferences.
Known bugs
The following bugs are known. Please don't report these problems as we are aware of them and they will be fixed before the final release:- checkboxes in Control Points tab incorrectly greyed out
- apply Template does not copy the mask from the template
- drawing a line in the mask editor may produce a somewhat irregular shape instead of a smooth line
- occasional crash upon exit
- sending a project to the batch stitcher fails if the batch stitcher is already running
- window positions are not saved correctly on multiple monitors and/or when a window was previously maximized
- windows: certain fields are invisible until one moves the mouse cursor over them
- mac: mouse cursor and window positioning problems on systems with multiple monitors
- mac: using more than 2 cores may result in longer stitching times instead of faster stitching
- mac: first control point in the control point tables cannot be selected
- mac: after a popup window disappears, ptgui may remain inactive until the mouse is moved
- mac: tooltips are not shown
- mac: error when opening help page
- mac: double clicking .pts files does not work, neither does dropping a pts file onto the PTGui icon
- mac: several problems in the on line help window
- PowerPC macs: the image in the Control Points, Crop and Masks tabs are invisible when the zoomlevel is less than 100%
- Documentation is not up to date yet
- Temporary files may remain in the temp dir after closing PTGui
- Masks may get discarded randomly once all available RAM is used by PTGui
Hints
Some hints for using the new features (will be included in the final documentation):- if PTGui crashes upon startup you are likely using the Mac OS 10.6 version on a 10.5 or 10.4 computer. In that case download the 10.4 version instead.
- you can zoom in the detail viewer using the mouse wheel
- Masks can be copied/pasted between images using Ctrl+C/V (Windows) or Command+C/V (Mac), or through the Edit menu. A mask can be copied to multiple images at once by selecting mutliple images in the Source Images tab, right clicking (or Ctrl+clicking on mac) and choosing Paste Mask. Masks can also be copied/pasted to/from external image editors such as Photoshop. A pasted or loaded mask should consist of the colors black, red and green.
- Shortcuts for the Mask tab: hold down Shift to toggle between the selected color and the eraser. Hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) to toggle between painting and filling. Right clicking (Windows) or Ctrl+clicking (Mac) pops up a context menu.
- Mask tab: pencil size is relative to the zoom level; more detailed painting can be done by zooming in
- The control point generator will not place control points in any area that is masked with red, so you can use it to exclude certain areas from control point generation.
- The default mouse wheel behaviour in the Control Points tab is changed. Zooming is now done by holding down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) while rolling the mouse wheel. The previous behaviour is still available as an option.
- there are two ways to navigate within the detail viewer: by clicking and dragging inside the detail window, or by moving the magnifying glass in the panorama editor