HDRI vs HDRI Prep

The HDRI Application is a photorealistic 3D image creation helping tool. The HDRI Application works with a 360 panoramic camera (not supplied) and can be used in many fields, including: - cinematography, special effects - virtual reality - augmented reality The quality of display of a virtual object is key. Some situations require rendering virtual objects with a display that is similar to reality (the user must not be able to distinguish real objects from virtual objects, this is called photorealistic rendering). The virtual restitution of the various physical phenomena observed in reality requires a deep understanding of the scene and its environment (e.g. identification of light sources, their intensities, their temperatures, etc.). The HDRI Application allows you to take a number of photos using a 360 panoramic camera which can then be stitched together* to constitute a high-dynamic-range image (in HDR or EXR format). This image can then be used as a source of lighting and reflection for a 3D scene. *WARNING: The present version of the HDRI Application only allows you to control the 360 panoramic camera. The stitching of the photos (creation of a high-dynamic-range image in HDR or EXR format) must be carried out using a third-party application (e.g. Photoshop®, PTGui®...).

HDRI Prep is a small utility for use in visual effects for creating HDRI bracketing sets for RICOH THETA 360 cameras, specifically, the V, Z1 and X. (If you don't know what all that is than this app probably isn't for you.) Different bracket settings are needed for different production situations. The THETA cameras does do multi-image exposure bracketing that you can set with the iPhone THETA app, but modifying them is painfully slow and difficult and you can't save sets and reuse them later. I wrote this to fill that need and speed up use of the THETA on set for taking HDRIs. With HDRI Prep you can: • Define brackets as X number of photos (3 to 19, always odd numbers) taken X stops apart (1 to 3) rather than setting each photo’s parameters individually • Pick the camera and you can set the Aperture, ISO and Color Temperature for all the photos at once with the settings limited to what the camera can actually execute • Pick a Center Shutter Speed and the bracket extends exposures equally higher and lower • Custom name brackets, organize by show, drag and drop reorder them, move between shows, and duplicate them as needed • View the photos taken read from the camera Quickly modify the Camera’s speaker volume and time it takes to auto-sleep (up to 60 minutes so watch your battery) HDRI Prep is not intended to be a full featured replacement for other THETA iPhone apps. It is designed only to fill a hole in the current functionality of the official THETA app (and what 3rd party apps I've played with): to make a library of Bracket settings, a method of organizing them, and a way to call them up and use them quickly on set. As such you will find it is missing various functions of the official THETA app. Those extended features may be added at some later date, but I make no promises. I recommend using it in conjunction with other apps as needed. Some limitations of the app: • Currently this only works with a direct Wifi connection to the camera (camera hosting Wifi) and it assumes the ip address is 192.168.1.1. • Image viewing is minimal. You can see what is on the camera (heads up, it's slow to load) but I am leaving the downloading and deleting of images up to other apps. You can use the official THETA app or you can manage them on a Mac using Image Capture (you're on your own with Windows). • Be aware that adjusting the camera shutter sound volume and the sleep delay time writes these changes to the camera, overwriting any previous camera setting. If you change the sleep time to 10 minutes it will stay that way even when HDRI Prep isn't connected or running. • If you want to see a live count of the images as they are taken you can actually switch to the official THETA app after beginning a capture. I hope to add this to my interface in the future.