3DF Zephyr Dev Status (Eggplant)

The next version of 3DF Zephyr (Codename Eggplant) is already in development.

The tentative release date is still not being set.

Here's a brief report of the planned features in development and their status.

Note: this is not the final feature lists: new planned features will be unveiled as we get closer to release!

Major features and updates

Photoconsistency Improvements	The photoconsistency algorithm of 3DF Zephyr has been furtherly optimized to allow better management of high frequencies during the similarity check between pair of images.	Advanced Development (75%)
MVS Improvements	The Multiview stereo depth map extraction have been improved. Finer details and thin structures are recovered better. In addition, the aggregation phase is also faster than before.	Ready for testing (90%)
3DF Scarlet Improvements	3DF Scarlet’s user experience will significantly change thanks to a “non-blocking” rendering that will ensure a better and more fluid scan visualization within the software.	Ready for testing (90%)
Modular save	Zep project files have been reorganized in a modular way. Point clouds, meshes and textured mesh are now unloaded on disk and loaded only on demand. This lead to dramatic speed-ups of loading and saving time.	Ready for testing (90%)
Marker detection	3DF Zephyr already allows for automatic coded target detection; however, our latest implementation now improves the manual marker detection algorithm to find the cross pattern at their center more accurately.	Ready for testing (90%)
Python Console	The new Python console enables a brand-new way to interact with the 3DF Zephyr workspace and its objects. It’s not meant to supersede the batching tool but allow more experienced users to automate and simplify specific workflows	Advanced Development (75%)
Volume of Interest	The Volume of Interest (VoI) is a new experimental feature designed to aid users during the visualization and editing of huge datasets. The user specifies a three-dimensional clipping region by visually editing it (works very similar to the bounding box editing tool).	Ready for testing (90%)
Sphere detection	Sphere detection tool targeted to the forensics industry.	Ready for testing (90%)
New Control Point interface	New control points interface. You can now add multiple control points without closing the dialog. The toolbar has been reorganized in a more user friendly way and the image loading and caching is much faster and non blocking.	Ready for testing (90%)

Minor bug fixes and updates

General multithreaded improvements	Multithread algorithms that use a considerable amount of ram have been sped up, thanks to better memory management. This can lead to substantial speed-ups in some parts, especially on CPUs with a lot of cores.	In Development (50%)
SfM general accuracy improvements	Keypoints extraction and matching have been improved for increased accuracy during the structure from motion phase.	In Development (50%)
SfM speed improvements on large datasets	The sequential pipeline has been sped up with big datasets.	In Development (50%)
Map widget	A new map widget during the project creation makes it simple to split projects into subprojects.	In Development (50%)
Faster mesh decimation	The decimation algorithm has been speeded up. This intrinsically speed up also the photoconsistency initialization.	In Development (50%)
Advanced settings	The advanced settings dialogs for all the four reconstruction phases have been reorganized for better clarity.	In Development (50%)
Custom skybox	You can setup a custom skybox in the Zephyr viewport.	Ready for testing (90%)
Metadata.xml importing	Zephyr now imports metadata.xml files automatically specifying mesh and textured mesh reference system.	Ready for testing (90%)
Improved marker detection in Scarlet	Markers are detected in a more robust way in Scarlet.	Ready for testing (90%)
Improved multiicp in scarlet	The multiicp in scarlet has been improved by adding a prealignement step.	Ready for testing (90%)
Scarlet scan prefiltering.	Users will be able to automatically perform some basic preprocessing on a project’s scans such as: range filtering, sampling distance filtering , sampling limit filtering.	Ready for testing (90%)
New Scarlet gizmo	The new Scarlet gizmo will allow to add a pivot point and translate object on a fixed plane.	In Development (50%)
3mf export	You can export in the 3mf format.	Ready for testing (90%)
Improved import reference system dialog	The dialog for importing a custom reference system has been improved and now provides more information on importing errors.	Ready for testing (90%)
RCP import / export	You can now import and export in the Autodesk RCP format.	Ready for testing (90%)
Faster PNG saving	PNG texture saving is now faster	Ready for testing (90%)
Improved control points auto-matching	The automatching functionalities for control points has been improved both in terms of speed and accuracy.	Ready for testing (90%)
Better pure rotation photo handling	Photo groups with pure rotation, are now handled better during the SfM phase	Ready for testing (90%)
Can now import constraints from ptgui project	You can now import custom panorama view and constraints directly from ptgui project files	Ready for testing (90%)
Camera rig support	You can now import photos from camera rigs that share an (approximate) center	Ready for testing (90%)
Multiband functions bug	Fixed a bug on multiband functions definition, occurring with layer names composed only by numbers.	Ready for testing (90%)
NCN export format	You can now export dense point clouds and GCPs in the .ncn format.	Ready for testing (90%)
DGN export format	You can now export drawing elements in the .dgn format.	Ready for testing (90%)
LAZ export format	You can now export dense point clouds in the .laz format.	Ready for testing (90%)
AVI export format	You can now export video animations in the .avi format.	Ready for testing (90%)
Automatic DJI multispectral data	Zephyr now automatically detects different bands and creates multiple layers when importing multispectral images taken by DJI drones.	In Development (50%)
GCPs placement over lidar data bug	Fixed a bug occurring when placing control points on laser scans. GCPs were slightly shifted relative to the position assigned by the mouse cursor.	Ready for testing (90%)
Drawing elements and orthophotos export to Autocad	You can now automatically assign the same position for drawing elements and orthophotos when exporting and loading them in Autocad.	Ready for testing (90%)
Drawing elements merging	You can now merge different drawing elements in a single polyline or spline element.	Ready for testing (90%)
Mesh and dense point cloud filters	Filters affecting meshes or dense point clouds can be now renamed according to the used filter.	Ready for testing (90%)
Hole filling filter	You now have the option to select the single mesh holes in the 3D workspace and fill them.	Ready for testing (90%)
Horizontal distance	The "quick measurements" tool now allows to calculate both the horizontal and the slope distance.	Ready for testing (90%)

Other stuff

Improved FlowEngine interface	More functions have been exposed in FlowEngine	Advanced Development (75%)