The PanGazer program is free of charge for non-commercial use; it
is Copyright (c) Mike Cowlishaw, 2014–2024.
2024.04.20
| 2.39 »
| (This is an interim release to make available some new features before some deeper changes and features.)
The minimum zoom limit now allows up to 4mm equivalent (159°).
Use Ctrl + Scroll for finer (slower) zoom change.
Default min/max zooms (for sphericals) are back to 15% → 250%.
Borders around small images are allowed in Maximized as well as
Fullscreen windows.
(Some anomalies related to lens focal lengths remain and are being
worked on.)
|
2024.03.08
| 2.38 »
| The algorithm for minimum zoom is as for 1.96 (but allowing for 9mm equivalent focal length, to match widest available rectilinear lens).
|
2024.01.20
| 2.37 »
| Image resolution is reduced during image dragging to give much improved drag performance (4–6×).
‘@’ keyboard shortcut toggles between compass points and angles
overlay.
Tilt angles overlay positions changed so always match grid.
Minimum zoom for spherical images is now a pel (pixel) ratio of
25% or a view angle of about 120°, whichever is larger.
Dynamic status now shows measured image angles, not theoretical.
Arrow keys now change by multiples of 5°, to match grid.
The displayed frame rate (in performance status) is now the peak
rate during the last/current image drag.
|
2023.11.03
| 2.34 »
| Grid can now be overlaid on all images, and is rectilinear for spherical images or if the focal length of an image is known.
‘#’ keyboard shortcut toggles grid overlay setting.
Overlays → Show tilt and heading angles toggles both tilt and
headings overlays on/off.
Tilt and headings overlays now use different colours to avoid confusion
when both are angles.
More accurate Horizon and North line overlays (now special cases
of Grid overlay).
Minor improvements to overlays colours, edging, and fonts.
Improved heuristics for detection of nadir for spherical images.
Window title includes lens focal length, if known.
Improved (more accurate and faster) algorithms for dragging and
for zooming in or out at a specific point.
Maximum zoom for sphericals increased from 200% to 250%.
All images in the documentation have been updated for Windows 10.
|
2023.08.30
| 2.31 »
| When detecting whether images are 360° PanGazer now ignores solid borders, even if the borders are a little noisy.
A faster algorithm is now used for detecting 360° images.
The presence of XMP metadata in an image no longer forces it to
a spherical projection.
|
2023.08.24
| 2.29 »
| An improved algorithm for matching image edges means that fewer ‘flat’ panoramas will be assumed to be spherical.
The new shortcut key ‘_’ (underscore) toggles 360° images between
‘view as a flat rectangle’ and back.
|
2023.08.22
| 2.28 »
| ‘View image as a flat rectangle’ now works for part-spherical images as well as for spheres and cylindrical images.
When ‘View image as a flat rectangle’ is in use, Fit width and height
to window and Fit window to aspect ratio work (where appropriate)
in the same way as for non 360° images.
The F11 key now toggles between fullscreen and the previous window
state.
If the last-viewed image is loaded explicitly then the previous
view parameters are used (instead of using the default view and zoom).
Drawing of the North line has been reworked so is now more accurate
and faster.
|
2023.08.04
| 2.27 »
| An improvement in the projection algorithm means that the grid overlay and Cursor coordinates (in Status) are more accurate.
The Cursor coordinates for flat images with lens information are
now spherical, assume a rectilinear lens, and take account of camera
tilt and bearing (if known).
‘Change view (window) aspect ratio’ has been added to the View menu.
PanGazer is no longer fully tested under Windows 7 but should continue
to work on Windows 7.
Increased zoom is allowed for small images so they can fill a fullscreen
view.
|
2023.05.31
| 2.24 »
| Progress bar now only shown in 64-bit Pangazer (it slowed 32-bit too much), and also shown during Resize image.
Resize image now runs as a separate thread so no longer makes PanGazer
unresponsive.
Improved anti-aliasing for grid drawing.
|
2023.05.12
| 2.22 »
| New image load and save setting: Always prompt with last-used folder.
New image load and save setting: Save 360° images rotated to view.
The projection of a 360° image can be changed to flat to view
the original image (or back to 360°) using the View → View
image as a flat rectangle menu item.
GPano:InitialViewHeadingDegrees (etc.) values from XMP metadata
are ignored unless the corresponding GPano:PoseHeadingDegrees (etc.)
are available.
|
2023.03.08
| 2.18 »
| PanGazer can now load very large images (up to the 4 GigaPixel limit of JPEG images), provided that sufficient RAM memory is available.
In most cases a progress bar will be shown if loading a JPEG image
will take more than a second.
Error messages have been made more specific when an image cannot
be loaded.
Image loading is now carried out on a separate thread for better
application responsiveness, etc.
|
2022.11.24
| 2.16 »
| A new Overlay, Horizon line, adds a horizon line to images where possible (similar to the North line).
Tilt angles and horizon line are shown for images without tilt information
(assumed no tilt).
Compass points and North line are shown even if known North is not
True North; in this case bearings in status have ‘?’ added.
By default, an ICC profile of ‘sRGB’ is ignored; this can be overridden
in Settings→Initial Load settings.
|
2022.09.04
| 2.14 »
| A new snapshot is now opened in a new PanGazer window so its status can be checked.
When the grid is displayed tilt angles are aligned to the grid at
the edge of the view rather than to the centre of the view.
‘Save Image’ has been added to the Image menu; ‘Ctrl-s’ now invokes
this.
‘Toggle status and overlays’ added to View menu.
Overlays are no longer forced on when the Set Image Geography dialog
is displayed.
New shortcut keys:
‘%’ zooms to 100% ratio (if possible).
‘x’ opens the current view image with default external viewer.
The program icon has been changed to be more distinctive; the image
used for this is included in the PanGazer package (Peņafiel Castle.png).
|
2022.07.25
| 2.11 »
| A new ‘Grid’ overlay adds a grid at 15° intervals for spherical images.
The zoom range has been expanded and is now 25% through 200%.
Draw time has been reduced by 15% on average.
Spherical images now never have borders.
|
2022.06.27
| 2.09 »
| ‘Viewing’ and ‘Cursor’ status tilt values were incorrectly clamped to ~±85°.
Rectangular images rotated 180° could fail to load.
|
2022.06.03
| 2.07 »
| “Jubilee edition”.
Flat (non-360°) images will now be rotated and mirrored automatically
when loaded if the appropriate Exif data was set by the camera when
the image was captured.
Flat (non-360°) images can now be rotated and mirrored explicitly,
using the Rotate/mirror image menu options.
Processing of ICC (International Color Consortium) profiles is now
always automatic and cannot be overridden.
|
2022.05.21
| 2.06 »
| An improved algorithm now means that when viewing a ‘snapshot’ of a spherical image, angles (e.g., bearing and tilt) at the cursor will now be shown accurately (that is, to the nearest pel).
The zoom range for spherical images has been expanded to now be
20% → 200% of the original image.
|
2022.04.05
| 2.05 »
| An over-cautious algorithm prevented the display of compass and/or tilt overlays on many panoramas; now fixed.
|
2022.02.23
| 2.04 »
| UTM coordinates may now have whitespace between zone and band; improved UTM conversion accuracy.
|
2022.02.17
| 2.03 »
| An improved heuristic is now used for detecting ‘wrap in X’ for high-contrast and high-saturation images.
(Experimental) XMP ‘Gpano’ values will now be checked for as attributes
if not found as content of the rdf:Description tag.
|
2022.02.09
| 2.01 »
| You can now change the image projection (between spherical and flat, so you can see the original image or force an image to be treated as spherical) by clicking on the Image → Set spherical projection menu item.
(This is a major change to the internals of PanGazer – please let
me know if you notice any anomalous changes.)
|
2021.12.31
| 1.95 »
| (Consolidates several ‘experimental’ releases.)
The Settings→Diagnostics→Log extra diagnostics menu item causes
certain progress reports to be written to the file ‘PanGazer-log.txt’
in the PanGazer log and data directory.
The Settings→Diagnostics→Log received messages menu item causes
Windows message reports to be written to the file ‘PanGazer-log.txt’
in the PanGazer log and data directory.
The Settings→Diagnostics→Open log folder menu item opens the
folder where logs (and other data) are stored; this may vary depending
on the version of Windows in use.
The −logextra command line option allows progress logging (as above)
to be initiated at startup.
The −logmsg command line option allows message logging (as above)
to be initiated at startup.
The −logall command line option turns on both −logextra and −logmsg.
Invalid instruction failure on some older AMD machine(s) traced
to CVTSSD2SI; the instruction code is correct and the arguments are
fully checked in test mode, so PanGazer now stops the compiler using
this instruction.
|
2021.11.04
| 1.87 »
| The Image Geography dialog now accepts location coordinates in UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) format.
Step-by-step instructions for making panoramas using PTGui are now
included.
Improved and updated instructions for adding 360° images to Google
Street View.
Image load from command line or ‘External Program’ from FastStone
Image Viewer is now reliable.
‘Show on satellite map’ is now automatically enabled after changing
coordinates in the Image Geography dialog.
Saved images now have 300dpi set in TIFF Exif data (this makes no
difference to the image but does reduce e-mail to the author).
|
2021.08.05
| 1.84 »
| The documentation (help file collection) has been fully reviewed and minor corrections and clarifications have been made.
There are no functional changes in this update..
|
2021.07.31
| 1.83 »
| New ‘nadir fill’ and ‘zenith fill’ actions added (e.g., to obscure a tripod or person holding a 360° camera).
The minimum zoom has been widened to 10mm equivalent.
|
2021.07.17
| 1.82 »
| If a JPEG (JFIF) image has an ICC profile then a new status line indicates this and whether it was applied or ignored. A setting allows this status line to be hidden.
The ‘General settings’ menu now has an ‘Initial load settings’ option
that allows changing both the initial zoom and ICC processing defaults.
|
2021.07.13
| 1.81 »
| When images are compressed before saving a JPEG Quality of 90% is used.
The ability to load a wide variety of image types (GIF, BMP, TIFF,
etc., not just JPEG and PNG) has been re-instated.
|
2021.07.07
| 1.79
| New ‘Initial zoom on load’ General setting sets zoom on new image load.
New ‘zoom level’ help page details zoom levels, angles of view,
etc.
Shift-O and Shift-I set minimum and maximum zoom
Zoom to 100% ratio from pop-up menu sets view to mouse position
on right-click.
|
2021.06.26
| 1.77
| Drag from Maximize → Restore no longer decouples mouse.
|
2021.06.25
| 1.76
| Space-bar (toggle status and overlays) improved; explicit Set sets all windows to that state.
Window state now preserves ‘last’ state, so that toggle to/from
Full Screen works as before PanGazer close.
Windows’ display of the desktop when toggling from Maximize to Full
Screen is now faster.
Sundry improvements and accelerations to window handling.
|
2021.06.14
| 1.75
| The dynamic (top-right) status display has been tweaked again (see General settings) to prioritise key statistics.
Updated window handling, including the following:
Window state (e.g., Maximized or Full-screen) is saved and used
when next starting PanGazer.
Esc will now toggle between Maximized (as well as Restore) and
Full-screen.
On starting, PanGazer no longer insists on placing the initial
window on Monitor 1.
Window placement is no longer surprising if the taskbar is at the
left or at the top of screen.
|
2021.06.04
| 1.74
| Distortions in X and Y at low (wide) zooms have been corrected, and angles of view display are now adjusted for both flat and gnomonic projections.
Space bar now toggles status and overlays on/off for current view
only.
The dynamic (top-right) status display has been improved and simplified.
Additional Exif data are copied when an image is copied.
|
2020.12.08
| 1.69
| This release primarily includes improvements to the reading of Exif metadata; in particular images from Canon cameras now have calculated focal lengths.
A new line has been added to the static (bottom-right) status, showing
the camera crop factor, make, and model, as available; as usual,
this can be hidden using General Settings.
Cosmetic improvements to dynamic (top-right) status.
|
2020.11.20
| 1.67
| The dynamic (top-right) status display has been re-worked to show key information in three lines: ‘Coverage’ includes lens equivalent length, angles of view, and pel (pixel) ratio; ‘View’ shows yaw and pitch of the view (virtual camera), or bearing and tilt if known; and ‘Cursor’ shows yaw and pitch of the mouse cursor, or bearing and tilt if known.
The View and pop-up menus offer a Zoom to 100% ratio option,
which sets the view pel size to be the same as the image pel size,
if possible.
Calculations for view and cursor bearing and tilt of all images
are now accurate to the nearest pel for all images, even on very
large monitors.
|
2020.10.28
| 1.65
| The pop-up menu options Show direction using GPX (map) viewer and Show direction using KML (earth) viewer display a 5km line in the direction clicked, using the selected viewer.
Show North line overlay shows North as a line on the current
view.
|
2020.10.17
| 1.61
| Space bar shortcut toggles hide/display of all status and overlays.
When viewing full-screen the displayed image may now have borders
(that is, it is no longer required that the image fill the screen).
When viewing a non-360° image in full-screen you can now zoom out
to a 1:1 (100%) pel ratio.
Fit height to window and Fit width to window added to Window
menu and pop-up menu.
New shortcuts Ctrl-f, Ctrl-h, and Ctrl-w fit window to image aspect
ratio, fit height, or fit width.
North can now be set for all images, not just 360° images.
Status information is only shown if it fits in image quadrant (this
mostly affects only small images or windows).
More accurate calculation of displayed pel (pixel) ratio.
‘Underline’ shortcuts in menus removed. Minor wording changes
in menus for clarification.
|
2020.09.25
| 1.56
| ‘Reset viewpoint’ (or ‘r’ key) resets the viewpoint of a spherical image to that saved in the image file (or centres it if it has no saved viewpoint). For all other images, it centres the image; ‘Centre viewpoint’ has therefore been removed.
‘Set viewpoint to horizon’ (or ‘h’ key) resets the tilt of a spherical
image to zero.
‘Fit window to aspect ratio’ can now be be invoked using the ‘Ctrl-f’
key.
|
2020.09.23
| 1.55
| The shortcut keys ‘Ctrl-PageDown’ or ‘Ctrl-PageUp’ show the last or first image in the same directory as the current image (as determined by Windows).
Opening a new image or changing the image when in full-screen no
longer drops out of full-screen.
|
2020.09.16
| 1.5]
| The ‘PageDown’ or ‘PageUp’ keys show the next or prior image in the same directory as the current image; the order in which images are shown is determined by Windows.
|
2020.09.05
| 1.52
| The ‘starter’ image is now the 43MB ‘best-resolution’ image. (This even works on XP, with patience.)
|
2020.08.21
| 1.48
| This a ‘packaging’ release.
PanGazer can now be installed from a .msi file – if installed
this way it can also be uninstalled from the Control Panel. The
.zip version of this and earlier versions remain so you can revert
to any earlier version, or manually install, as preferred. You can
also use the .msi version to update an existing .zip install.
Pangazer.exe is now just a ‘stub’ – it will invoke either PanGazer32.exe
or PanGazer64.exe, depending on which version of Windows you are
running.
The stub, and PanGazer32.exe, both run on Windows XP, and therefore
many emulators. This is neither formally tested nor guaranteed.
|
2020.06.09
| 1.46
| Image → Save image ... (Ctrl-s) requests now open the file save dialog immediately.
The new Image → Resize image and save as ... menu selection
(or Ctrl-r) opens the resize dialog before the file save dialog
The resize dialog pre-checks the Expand .. to full sphere option
for part-spherical images.
XMP bearing data are written relative to 0° if North is not
set explicitly (this does not affect the Exif metadata).
Image → Expand image to full sphere will convert a part-spherical
image to full 360°×180° without saving the image.
Set viewpoint to nadir/zenith have been added to the View
menu, with ‘n’ and ‘z’ shortcuts.
|
2020.04.22
| 1.43
| Instead of showing zoom (magnification) as a multiplier the pel (pixel) ratio is displayed.
For lower-resolution spherical images the initial centred image
is shown as 100% (1:1) instead of using Zoom ×1 if the latter would
enlarge pels.
|
2020.02.20
| 1.42
| Save image as ... menu item now opens a dialog that lets you both change the size of the image and (if part-spherical) expand it to a sphere (instead of requiring multiple menu selections).
A view’s window title now shows ‘360° sphere’ for a full-sphere
image and ‘360° spherical’ for a part-spherical image.
The algorithm for fitting a window to the aspect ratio of a non-spherical
image has been improved to increase the accuracy of fit and better
maintain an approximately constant area.
|
2020.02.04
| 1.39
| As a simplification, XMP metadata is now written when saving any spherical image; if this would set a default North (0° at the image centre) then confirmation will be requested first.
New ‘Setting North’ help page collects the information about setting
an image’s bearing.
Other pages (‘Saving images’, ‘Sharing images’, and ‘Image geography’)
have been revised and extended to reflect the simplification.
|
2020.01.28
| 1.38
| ‘Save image as sphere’ saves a part-spherical image with smoothed filling to make it a full ‘360° × 180°’ sphere.
‘Save image at reduced size’ saves a reduced size version of an
image (especially useful when uploading to ‘social media’).
PanGazer will now write XMP metadata when saving spherical images
if there is none or if the image geometry is changed.
Saved XMP metadata includes the current camera stance (which will
then normally be used on loading the image).
New ‘Sharing images’ Help page summarises sharing images on some
popular platforms.
New ‘Shortcuts’ Help page lists keyboard shortcuts.
|
2019.12.09
| 1.32
| XMP metadata in JPEG files is now parsed and used as appropriate; in particular ‘pose’ information in JPEGs from Ricoh Theta cameras, etc., is used to set North and Tilt angles.
The space bar now toggles between hiding and showing all status
and overlay data.
PanGazer now uses the libjpeg-turbo library for loading and saving
JPEG images where possible; this almost always loads or saves images
in half the time taken by the older library (libjpeg).
|
2019.10.07
| 1.29
| The new Aspect Ratio dialog allows direct setting of a window’s aspect ratio, as well as rapidly snapshotting views.
|
2019.10.01
| 1.27
| Zoom out can now include wider angles of view (with increased distortions).
‘Fit aspect ratio’ is now allowed whenever not viewing an image
as 360°.
‘s’ shortcut key takes a ‘snapshot’ of current view.
New algorithm for calculating the tilt overlay is more accurate
and is stable at high zooms and near −90°.
Improved framing of non-360° images.
|
2019.08.27
| 1.23
| Aspect ratio of zoomed-out images is preserved regardless of window shape.
Window shape, zoom, etc., are preserved when reloading ‘flat’ images
(not just spherical images).
Larger ‘starter image’ – although still smaller than the full-size
available (see above).
Improved display of 360° non-spherical images.
Improved heuristics for detecting 360° and spherical images.
Minor performance improvements.
‘Birthday edition’ :-).
|
2019.08.20
| 1.20
| If a panorama quacks like a panorama then PanGazer treats it as a panorama even if Exif metadata suggests otherwise (e.g., Theta V JPGs); you can turn off ‘view as 360°’ if this is wrong.
Wide-angle images now fill the window when first loaded (instead
of being zoom ×1).
Lens status line adds visual magnification factor, and zoom is shown
as magnification factor if lens detail available.
|
2019.06.13
| 1.18
| Improved algorithms for checking wrap in X and whether
bottom is a ‘South pole’, etc.
|
2019.05.02
| 1.17
| Exif dates are now shown in ISO format (yyyy-mm-dd).
Increased shared code with MapGazer ».
Multiple windows failed – now corrected.
Minor cosmetic and performance improvements, and reduced .exe
size.
|
2018.12.12
| 1.12
| New ‘Set image geography’ dialog allows editing the location, elevation, bearing, and tilt data for images.
New ‘Show tilt angles’ overlay optionally shows an ‘angle strip’
on the left of a view (similar to the compass points for bearings).
The compass points and tilt angles overlays are shown automatically
when the Image Geography dialog is open.
New ‘Set horizon’ in pop-up menu allows setting the horizon for
images (similar to ‘Set North’).
Elevations can now be displayed in metres and feet (or both), and
can be edited in either unit.
Dragging an image to an open PanGazer window now opens a new window
instead of replacing the existing image.
|
2018.11.16
| 1.01
| ‘Browse satellite view’ is now called ‘Show location on satellite map’ and has been moved from the View menu to the Image menu.
‘Show location on regular map’ uses Google Maps (plain layer).
‘Show location using GPX (map) viewer’ and ‘Show location using
KML (earth) viewer’ use an application (e.g., MapGazer or Google
Earth) to show the location.
‘Save location as ...’ saves a location as a GPX or KML file.
‘Open image in new window ...’ preserves the current view when opening
an image.
Improved and faster geometry for non-panoramic images.
|
2018.10.29
| 0.55
| (Final ‘beta’ release.)
String as well as numeric Exif metadata are now read by PanGazer;
static status now shows (by default) image descriptions, copyright,
and timestamp.
More Exif metadata are copied when an image or view is saved (e.g.,
camera make and model).
GPS altitude is shown in status.
‘Size’ status now includes horizontal and vertical angles of view.
Zoom effect is also displayed as 35mm-equivalent focal length, if
possible.
‘Image’ main menu split to ‘Image’ and ‘View’ to avoid confusions.
|
2018.10.22
| 0.53
| PanGazer can now modify Exif metadata in JPEG images, so the North point can be saved for an image.
Similarly, when you save views to disk the saved image includes
metadata such as the effective lens focal length of the view, the
camera tilt and also, if known, the location and bearing of the saved
image.
Dynamic status now shows the yaw as a bearing if North has been
set, and pitch is shown as tilt if the horizon is known.
Colour management is applied to images as appropriate, and a wider
variety of image types can be loaded.
Images are always saved in JPEG format so that Exif metadata is
included.
The dragging and zoom algorithms have been improved, especially
at extreme pitch (near −90°).
Fit aspect ratio is more flexible and can move the window if necessary.
|
2018.09.23
| 0.47
| New Set North action allows adding compass points (N, S, SSW, etc.) to a view.
Fixed a problem in libexif which prevented it finding Exif
information in some images.
‘Dynamic’ status is now all off by default, and is shown at top
right of the view.
|
2018.09.19
| 0.46
| Image files can now be dragged to any MapGazer window to open them; if more than one, new windows will be opened for them.
Coordinates can now be displayed in UTM format.
|
2018.09.18
| 0.44
| Added view enhancements: brightness, contrast, warmth, and saturation.
Various minor improvements and enhancements to the user interface.
|
2018.09.08
| 0.43
| (First web release.)
Window → Save window image as ... saves current view’s image
as a file.
|
2018.09.04
| 0.42
| New imaging code includes
– Gnomonic (rectilinear) projection so
that horizons are straight lines
– Interpolation for better-looking zoomed-in or low-resolution
images
– Multi-thread drawing (almost 4× faster on a 4-core processor).
Performance statistics can be displayed as status (use Settings
→ Status display → Show performance statistics).
Extended zoom-in and zoom-out range.
New Fit aspect ratio window option for images that are not 360° panoramas.
Many minor improvements and enhancements to the user interface.
|
2018.08.08
| 0.36
| Additional performance improvements: now about 6.3 times faster than
0.34, and 25 times faster (using interpolated pels) when dragging.
Improved ‘Loading’ messages.
Improved fitting of images allows more ‘zoom out’ than before.
Added Making panoramic images help page.
|
2018.07.24
| 0.35
| Spherical projection now about 3.5 times faster than 0.34.
View as 360° and view spherically now independent (and saved in .ini
file).
|
2018.07.11
| 0.34
| 360° panoramas are now projected spherically (rather than cylindrically) so you can now view a correct straight-down aspect.
‘Centre viewpoint’ now sets the zoom (as well as yaw and pitch)
to default.
|
2018.06.07
| 0.33
| Exif information in an image is now read and selected fields displayed (GPS, exposure, etc.).
‘Browse satellite view’ will open google maps if GPS data available.
New starter image (Bejes, Spain).
|
2018.05.02
| 0.30
| Show yaw as bearing now includes compass point (e.g., NNW).
‘View image as 360°’ in main and pop-up menus can be used to switch
between 360° view and plain image view.
Large images will have a ‘Loading’ message displayed while processing.
|
2018.04.25
| 0.25
| Status information now controlled by Settings: show mouse yaw & pan, show yaw as bearing, show image full path, show image full size (also test status expanded).
Improved wrap-detection algorithm for 360° panoramas (scaled by
brightness).
|
2018.04.23
| 0.22
| Greatly-improved support of large JPEG images for 32-bit Windows (16,000 × 8,000 or larger).
64-bit version included, with better handling of multiple large
images.
Automatic detection of wrapped 360° panoramas.
Command line now allows an image file to be specified/loaded.
New icon and other user-interface tweaks.
|
2018.04.18
| 0.15
| Preview release.
|