HDR renders and stitching

[bigben]

Repeating some old tests to check out the performance of newer versions of my software. Looking at HDR equirectangular images this time.  Everything's working better than the last time but I'm getting some variation between tiles (no GI used for this test). Whether this is due to PTGui or TG I'm not really sure so I've attached the TGD (very basic test) in case anyone can see something in the render settings.

The TXT file is the PTGui project if anyone wants to look at the settings for stitching in this application (HDR requires the Pro version). Just rename it to .pts and swap in your images.

[bigben]

Never mind... partly answered with a second test, but I'll post here for reference.

It's an edge effect from one of these applications. regardless of which it is, increasing the camera FOV to 100° produced an almost imperceptible difference without feathering in PTGui, and now that the images overlap you can set the feathering in PTGui back to the default (middle) position for a perfect result.

PTGui puts a dark edge around the sun on tone-mapped TIF/JPG outputs, but the EXR output is fine.

Final PTGui project attached.

[rcallicotte]

BEN!!!  Where have you been?  Ben.     Missed your usual analytic research here.

Can't wait to check out what you're talking about.

[bigben]

Here's a blast from the past (unmaintained archive) to refresh your memory  ;-)
http://archive.bigben.id.au/terragen/hdr/index.html  Not sure if it's possible to avoid the artefacts around the sun as it may be a result of the conversion to floating point JPEG.

... and these are also used for other rendering applications Just search for "HDR envirnment maps" and you'll see people trying to make money selling panoramas..

Some people used to (and may still) render as HDR images for tweaking exposure and tone mapping but it's both an art and a science and isn't necessarily for everyone.

JPG created directly from PTGui
[attach=1]
EXR image loaded into Photoshop with some adjustment
[attach=2]

EXR with no adjustment in Photoshop
[attach=3]
EXR with exposure adjusted -7EV
[attach=4]

[rcallicotte]

Really nice.  Looking into it now.