thanks to @mcworen (Grant McBride of Perspective Media) for showing us some examples of image enhancement with Gigapixel AI. This is a $99 software package that uses AI to enhance images.
We are giving away a free copy of Gigapixel AI in a giveaway. GIVEAWAY ENDED AUG 20, 2021. THANKS TO ALL FOR PARTICIPATING.
To assess the stitching, look for the portion of the picture at the edge of the equirectangular image and then view in the RICOH THETA image viewer (desktop app).
Glad to hear Topaz Labs is helping out with some free software!
I find that a setting of [Lines-100-100] gives me the best results for most images from a Theta Z1, but each image will react slightly differently to the application of the AI algorithm. Some images will require different settings to mitigate artifacts that occur from complicated geometry or subtle color or light variation.
Gigapixel can be used after stitching. This yields the best results in my opinion and doesn’t create stitch lines or seams.
I tested the free trial. I used it with SC2 images, because of the lower resolution I thought that the effect would have a bigger impact.
I believe it improves the quality of the image. The lines feel sharper and the darks are darker.
In Preferences, I set AI Processor to my internal graphics card instead of CPU and I set Allowed memory consumption to High, instead of Medium or Low. It was unclear to me what difference this makes.
I also experimented with the AI Models (Standard, Lines, Art & CG, Low Resolution, Very Compressed). I seemed to have better results with Low Resolution or Very Compressed. The example below is Very Compressed.
I also set Suppress Noise to 100%. And I set Remove Blur to 100%.
Yeah settings for jpg will definitely need the extra help to eliminate compression artifacts and boost resolution, and it does a very good job at that. The fact that it’s a standalone program was a huge deal for me since I ditched Adobe software last year.
