A number of new features related to the processing of aerial LiDARs have been added to the program in Agisoft Metashape 2.2, as well as the ability to improve the quality of orthomosaic based on data with more detailed resolution, the ability to save a geoid file in the project files, automatic generation of masks using AI and additional tools that will be described in the article below:


Download Agisoft Metashape 2.2


Agisoft Metashape 2.2 is available and can be downloaded from our website:


https://www.agisoft.com/downloads/installer/ 


Aerial LiDAR boresight calibration support

It is now possible to perform boresight calibration for aerial LiDARs. This process allows for better alignment between aerial LiDAR scans. A detailed workflow is described in our article - Aerial laser scans data processing in the "Aerial LiDAR boresight calibration" section.



Accuracy view for LiDAR point clouds comparison

To evaluate the accuracy of the alignment of LiDAR data sets, the Difference View tool has been added. Tool displays the area of overlap of LiDAR point clouds and query the points according to the error value. To use the tool, select the appropriate tool on the Toolbar (Show Laser Scans > Difference View):


Important! Keep in mind that when using this tool, Model view does not display the original point clouds, but clouds with errors that are needed to assess accuracy, and they cannot be edited (Selection tools for these areas are not available).


The legend displays the error value and is calculated for each project separately. The points are colored according to the error values in this area. Blue is the point with the least error, red is the largest error:



Measure point cloud accuracy using check point coordinates

The new tool helps to estimate the altitude error for control and check points. The dialog box will display the altitude values for the original marker (imported into the project) and the altitude values on the surface. To calculate this value, select the Measure Elevation command from the markers' context menu on the Reference pane:




The values will be calculated for those markers that are selected on the Reference pane. If you need to calculate the value for all markers, select them all on the Reference pane, and then use the tool.


The Surface alt. (m) column displays the altitude value for the marker on the selected surface, in our example, on the surface of a laser scan:




AprilTags coded-targets

In Agisoft Metashape 2.2, it is possible to automatically detect AprilTags. To start tag detection, select Tools > Markers > Detect Markers... and select the appropriate label type in the dialog box:



You can view information on the types of AprilTags on the following pages:
https://april.eecs.umich.edu/software/apriltag
https://github.com/AprilRobotics/apriltag


Align cameras by reference

Tool allows you to make unaligned images aligned according to the loaded reference. It is important that the cameras have the values of coordinates and angles, then the tool will work. To use the tool, select the unaligned images in the Reference pane and then select the Align Cameras by Reference command from the context menu:



This method is useful when there is a water surface with not aligned cameras corresponding to it. Aligning such images by the reference will help to fill the holes during the orthomosaic generation. That is, these images will only be used for building orthomosaic or texturing. But it is important to have the existing surface for the corresponding areas, i.e. if you use DEM as the surface, then the area corresponding to the not aligned cameras can be filled using either DEM editing tool or use Interpolation - Extrapolated when building a DEM.



Pansharpening 

Starting from Agisoft Metashape 2.2, it is possible to improve the quality of orthomosaic based on higher resolution data. Below is an example of orthomosaic before and after pansharpening (image on the left before, on the right after):



We have described the detailed workflow and processing parameters in our article - Pansharpening.



An experimental feature to improve the area near the edges of the roofs

In version 2.2, the test algorithm has been  developed that can help improve areas near the edges of roofs ("wavy" effect, white areas, and so on). The algorithm has been added in test mode and is available by tweak - main/enable_refine_roof_edges = True. 


Please note that the algorithm may take a little longer than the General refine seamlines algorithm.


To create a tweak, select Tools > Preferences and open Advanced tab. In the Advanced tab, click the Tweaks button:



And click OK button. Then a new parameter Refine seamlines - Roof edges will appear in the Build Orthomosaic dialog box (Workflow > Build Orthomosaic):




It is important to use DEM as a Surface for this parameter. It is also important to consider that the DEM surface and alignment will affect the quality of the resulting orthomosaic.


A comparison of the result is shown in the image below:


Before
After



Build texture from orthomosaic

Starting from version 2.2, it is possible to build textures using orthomosaic rather than the original images. You need to select Orthomosaic as the Source data in the Build Texture dialog window:



Build orthomosaic from textured model

It is also possible to build an orthomosaic from a textured model or a tiled model.  In this case it is important to select the Model (or a Tiled Model) as the Source data and to enable the Transfer model texture option:



Splitting the mesh model into blocks

If you have already built a mesh model, then you can divide it into blocks by building a block model based on the mesh model. In this case you need do select Source data - Model in the Build Model dialog window (Workflow > Build Model) when building the block model, i.e. have Split in Blocks option enabled:



Saving geoid files in a project

It is possible to save the geoid file that was used in the project. Select Tools > Geoids... command. The dialog box will display a list with the geoids that are saved on your computer and the geoid that is used in the project:



The used geoid will have a check mark in the Used column in the Geoids dialog window. You can also use the Show Used geoids only option for filtering:



To store the geoid file in the project files directly, select the desired geoid from the list and use Embed Geoids command from the context menu:


Geoid file will be copied to the project.files folder.


Added support for basemaps with non-Earth reference systems

Metashape Professional 2.2 supports non-earth reference systems (for other planets or the Moon) for basemaps.  


For example: 
https://www.openplanetary.org/opm-basemaps/opm-moon-basemap-v0-1



You can find detailed steps on how to set up basemap in our article - Configure custom basemap.



Multiple masks instances support

It is now possible to store several mask sets in different layers and choose whether to use masks during building depth maps, orthomosaic, texture or not. 


Layers with masks are displayed in the Workspace pane in the chunk's contents. In order for masks to be used during processing, you need to make the mask layer active. To do this, double-click on the desired layer with masks or select Set an active command from the layer context menu on the Workspace pane:




Only one mask layer can be made active at a time, if you need to use all masks, then the layers with masks need to be merged. Select masks on the Workspace pane and choose Merge... command from the mask context menu.




Automatic (AI) background masking

AI can be used to generate masks for the background. To use this method to create masks, select Tools > Generate Masks... option. In the Generate Masks dialog box, select Method - Automatic (AI), as shown in the screenshot below:



When using the tool for the first time, it is important that you have an Internet connection to download the AI model.


After the mask generation process is finished to display the mask in Photo view click Show mask on the Toolbar:


To see which image masks have been created, you can also click on the Show mask in the Photos pane:


Restart processing after power failure

The reconstruction algorithms include subtasks during processing. If there is a problem during processing related to the unexpected Metashape termination (crash, shut down, etc) now it is possible to continue the processing operation from the moment when the problem occurred. That is, after the problem occurred when reopening the project, processing will automatically continue from the previous saved task on which the failure occurred.


In order for this algorithm to be available, it is important that the processing of each stage is saved. For this, the Save project after each step parameter was added to the processing dialog boxes. It should be enabled when selecting the parameters in processing dialog, as in the example below for Align Photos dialog box:



If this option was not enabled before processing, then the failed processing operation has to be started from scratch.



Changes in network processing

Network processing server should be started from the dedicated utility now named "metashape-server" included to Metashape Professional package:

metashape-server.exe --server --host 0:0:0:0


All information related to the network batches is now stored in database on the server side, therefore the failover (slave) server feature is no longer needed and has been removed from 2.2.0 version. 


Starting from 2.2.0 version working nodes are started by default in paused state, if it is necessary to override this setting, use --resume-workers key when starting the server instance.