Current version (x86 and x64 versions included, Windows only): | multiblend0.6.2.zip | (470k) |
Source for Linux/Mac/FreeBSD etc: | multiblend0.6.2.tar.gz | (24k) |
multiblend is a multi-level image blender for the seamless blending of panoramic images, such as those created with PTAssembler (my personal favourite), Hugin, or PTGui. It is a significantly faster drop-in alternative to Enblend, although it lacks Enblend's advanced features.
Usage: multiblend [options] [-o OUTPUT] INPUT... Options: -l X X > 0: limit number of blending levels to x X < 0: reduce number of blending levels by -x -d DEPTH override automatic output image depth (8 or 16) --nocrop do not crop output --bgr swap RGB order --wideblend calculate number of levels based on output image size, rather than input image size --compression=X output file compression. For TIFF output, X may be: NONE (default), PACKBITS, or LZW For JPEG output, X is JPEG quality (0-100, default 75) --cache cache input images to disk to minimise memory usage --save-seams <file> Save seams to PNG file for external editing --no-output Don't perform blend (for use with --save-seams) --load-seams <file> Load seams from PNG file --bigtiff BigTIFF output (not well tested) --reverse reverse image priority (last=highest) --quiet suppress output (except warnings) Pass a single image as input to blend around the left/right boundary.
multiblend can intelligently open compressed uncropped TIFF files (such as those generated by older versions of PTAssembler) which itself can save a significant amount of time when dealing with large panoramas.
Enblend blends input images one at a time, calculating and optimising a new seam line for each new input image against the intermediate output image so far. Not only is this slow (due to the repeated seaming and Enblend's use of an exact but complex algorithm for seam generation), it also makes the routes of Enblend's seams (and the degree to which images are blended) dependent on the order that input files are provided to it.
In contrast, multiblend calculates a unique composite seam for all images simultaneously, using a simpler algorithm:
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Enblend | multiblend |
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Enblend similarly expends a lot of CPU cycles generating a full intermediate image for each new input image, with each intermediate image taking longer to generate than the last as the output image grows. This is where multiblend really wins out, as all images are (effectively) simultaneously blended:
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Enblend | multiblend |
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The following false colour images show how multiblend can blend images more smoothly than Enblend (this particular example used multiblend's --wideblend
option):
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Enblend | multiblend |
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Other differences in implementation mean that multiblend is able to blend images which have very little overlap - or even none at all:
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The download includes a 64-bit executable, which allows multiblend to use a greater amount of memory on computers running 64-bit versions of Windows.
multiblend is also compatible (as long as no Enblend-specific options are set) with EnblendGUI.
-w
option).