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Distortion improvement progress
#1
Thought we'd share some work-in-progress of distortion improvements for Explorer.  

First we acknowledged there are lots of kinds of distortion, such as

"Elevations seem incorrect (white dots don't match road mesh at given location)"
"Dots turn before road"
"Road sidewall not modeled in depth map"
"Dots don't follow almost perfectly straight road. Also occasional misaligned horizon"
"Depth map artefacts (like riding into a wall projected onto it)"
"Well, there are endless depth map issues, some of which we could improve on but many that would still look bad since the photos contain pedestrians and cars that can't be captured in the depth map."
"It bothers me when dots are not following a smooth line and it feels much better when transitions are aligned."

Some of these we were able to improve in our latest release, such as elevations and dots persistently going off-road, by smarter analysis and application of redundant data.

We also experimented with better alignment between photo transitions.  This showed promise, but we found a bigger idea that can fix more problems.

The idea is to change the way we render our scenes into something like Pokemon Go in reverse.  It will make terrain geometry appear solid between transitions, and be able to incorporate data from multiple image perspectives to avoid the "stretchy" distortion in between images.  Here are a few screenshots, with the meshes intentionally highlighted and skymap disabled.

   
   
   
   

Here's a halfway done video, with solid geometry but still simple image transitions, that shows the benefit on buildings which normally have a bunch of depth errors.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-UBfxt...ayCqzMkckx

Note it can't fix the distortion of cars or people or stray trees, which we intentionally captured in this video to show the worst case.  But does make it seem more like you're riding through a solid world, especially in VR with stereoscopic depth.
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#2
Can't access the video from google drive.

but COOL! Sounds like a unique approach that I hope will make the experience more solid - I love the idea of Explorer but am just too distracted by the artifacts to enjoy for long and always go back to Play.
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#3
Video link should be fixed now!
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#4
That video is very encouraging. I've just recovered from a recurring chest infection and about to cycle for the first time in ages now. I think you've updated Explorer since I last cycled so I will look forward to trying it again today.
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#5
Good luck on your recovery! These improvements aren’t in yet, they are still R&D, but are headed for next Explorer release. The latest release does have other path following improvements you might notice.
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#6
(11-14-2019, 08:56 PM)emalafeew Wrote: Thought we'd share some work-in-progress of distortion improvements for Explorer....

I am very excited for this improvement that you folks are working on. Explorer was the feature that got me to invest in VZFit, and I use it regularly. (Play is good too, but can get repetitive - if that nice lady says "Hiya" to me one more time... Smile )  The video example you've shown seems to really address the only complaint I've had with Explorer - can't wait to see it in the product. Thanks!
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#7
We'll have a 360 video soon that shows the difference between old and new presentation methods in multiple locations.

We're happy with the result and are currently optimizing to run smoothly on Quest and hopefully Go. It takes more processing and we're already at the Go's limit, but will try everything possible. Besides processing, it will also require a bit more network bandwidth than the current approach, which hopefully most people have.

There are times when people may want the old method, like for country roads that capture vegetation and berms and low walls that aren't present in map data. So we're thinking of an Image Mode option, that goes through Morphed Image (our current approach), Projected Image (our new approach), Frozen Image (current comfort mode), and Auto Image (chooses between new and current approach based on map data).

Stay tuned to this thread for updates this month!
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#8
(12-04-2019, 01:56 PM)emalafeew Wrote: We'll have a 360 video soon that shows the difference between old and new presentation methods in multiple locations.

We're happy with the result and are currently optimizing to run smoothly on Quest and hopefully Go.  It takes more processing and we're already at the Go's limit, but will try everything possible.  Besides processing, it will also require a bit more network bandwidth than the current approach, which hopefully most people have.

There are times when people may want the old method, like for country roads that capture vegetation and berms and low walls that aren't present in map data.  So we're thinking of an Image Mode option, that goes through Morphed Image (our current approach), Projected Image (our new approach), Frozen Image (current comfort mode), and Auto Image (chooses between new and current approach based on map data).

Stay tuned to this thread for updates this month!

Definitely looking forward to the new improvements.  Explorer was the main reason I got Quest.  Also really like the new option to create your own routes in Google Maps and then import.  Hopefully this will be in effect by the time I can start riding again in, hopefully in mid-January (recovering from a heart attack).
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#9
At the pace of our tuning and optimization it should be ready for early January release.

Here are two 360 comparison videos going by the Eiffel tower on a boat. The "new" video is with our projected images, the "old" video is with our morphed images. Drag your mouse as they are playing to look in all directions.

New: https://vimeo.com/379347378
Old: https://vimeo.com/379347161

This comparison highlights that where an image doesn't have depth information, it appears frozen in the old method. So the first benefit you'll notice is the water moves naturally in the new method, because Streetview rides along rivers and hiking trails don't have depth information except right under the path they travel. The second benefit you'll notice is the tower actually moves relative to the boat, because Streetview rides don't contain depth information outside of 100 feet, and the tower in these shots is over 500 feet away.

In a future comparison we'll show other benefits of the new method, such as no "stretchy" areas or broken up horizons, as well as some places where you'd want to keep the old method.

Sincerely good luck on your recovery sypder!
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#10
Thanks emalafeew. That's an amazing difference. Looking forward to the next release!
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