Hugin-2011.2.0 Release Notes

Hugin is more than just a panorama stitcher.

Changes Since 2011.0.0

Hugin has received a Python scripting interface and new lens calibration tool. A critical bug affecting a significant number of Mac users has been fixed and many general improvements have been made.

Lens Calibration Tool

Lenses are designed to follow a perfect geometric model. For rectilinear lenses, a straight line in the depicted scene should be straight in the picture. This is not always the case: most lenses have an inherent deviation from the perfect model, resulting in imperfections such as pincushion or barrel distortion in rectilinear lenses.

Adherence to the perfect geometric model is desirable for aesthetic purposes and indispensable to achieve proper alignment when stitching images. Hugin can calculate lens distortion parameters on the fly when optimizing a project, however this requires more control points and more computational effort than a project starting with a calibrated lens, and is prone to more errors.

The new lens calibration tool calculates the distortion parameters of a lens based on an input image. The input image must contain straight lines, ideally many of them at different distances from the center of the lens, covering at least one quadrant of the image. The calculated parameters are valid for a given combination of focal distance, aperture (F-stop), and sensor.

The values, saved into a lens profile, can be used in Hugin to achieve a better stitch, or on single images taken with this lens / settings combination to achieve a more aesthetically pleasing outcome.

Python Scripting Interface

Hugin now exposes some of its data structure and functionalities through a Python module. To get started with scripting, start your Python interpreter and type:

   >>> import hsi
   >>> help (hsi)

Standalone Python programs can access a panorama object with Hugin's functionality. It is possible to develop complete command line and even GUI tools based on this module.

The Python Scripting Interface does not work on Mac OSX yet.

Python Plugin Interface

Hugin can now run Python scripts inside the application. In an enabled Hugin binary, a new "Actions" menu gives access to system-wide plugins distributed with Hugin. Moreover, plugins can be written, modified, customized in the user's own directory.

Currently there are only a few plugins available, but we expect the body of available plugins and functionality to grow organically as the interface is being made available to the general public.

The Python Plugin Interface does not work on Mac OSX yet.

Other Improvements

Libraries and Build Improvements

The Python interface introduces new dependencies:

Languages

A Danish translation has been added and a few translations have been updated for this release.

Upgrading

Upgrading from previous versions of Hugin should be seamless. If you do have problems with old settings, these can be reset in the Preferences window by clicking 'Load defaults'.

It is strongly recommended to set the default control point detector to Hugin's CPFind. It is the only control point generator endorsed by Hugin. Third-party generators may be compatible with the plug-in architecture.

Compiling

Users compiling from source refer to the list of dependencies and the platform-specific build processes described in the wiki. More information in the README and INSTALL_cmake files in the tarball.

Download

Hugin can be found at SourceForge and Launchpad.

Users communities produce executables for their respective platforms. Executables are likely to be announced within a few days of this tarball release on the mailing list and added to the download section on SourceForge.

Known Issues and Workarounds

Panosphere Overview window seperated from the content. Details.

Mac OS X Users at Tiger and Lion: this version of Hugin contains an openMP enabled enblend and enfuse. These versions don't run on Tiger and currently not on Lion either. Please use the Tiger-compatible enblend and enfuse from the enblend-enfuse-4.0 folder in this dmg. You can specify alternative "external" enblend and enfuse from the Programs pane in the preferences after installing these special version by following the instructions in the README in the enblend-enfuse-4.0 folder. Details.

OpenSuse 11.4 has a bug in a used library that results in crashes.

There is a known problem building Hugin with CMake 2.8.5rc2. Workaround: Upgrade to a newer CMake version.

An updated list of issues deemed to be critical, including discussions and workarounds, is in the Issues Tracker.

Splash Screen

The Hugin project is proud to promote artwork created with Hugin in the splash screen of this release.

Artist David Haberthür took the pictures for this Fafleralp Panorama on October 10, 2010 during a wonderful hike in the autumnal woods, using a Panasonic DMC-TZ7. Handheld panorama from 18 images (6x3 exposures). The resulting panorama is 9000x2213 pixels.

It is a view of the Breithorn mountain in the Valais, Switzerland.

About the Artist

David Haberthür is a generic geek and typography-nerd. After studying physics he worked as a bike messenger before earning a PhD in ultra-high-resolution tomography to study lung development. Having finished his PhD in 2010 he should now have a bit more time to take pictures and panoramas, but often has too many projects going on at once.

David is the administrator of Hugin's Google Summer of Code 2011 participation and has used gource to visualize the evolution of our code base.

Thanks

Thanks to all the contributors to this release and members of the hugin-ptx mailing list, too many to mention here.