Better Insta360 X3 support

Mapillary Desktop uploader 4.2.0 introduces better Insta 360 X3 upload support, give it a try and let us know what you think!

Here’s how it works:

  1. You can capture using the Insta360 X3 as usual (be sure to pair the camera with phone to get GPS coordinates for your captures)

  2. Stitch together the Insta360 X3 .insv captures to a 360 degree .mp4 file using Insta 360 Studio.

  3. Save the exported 360 .mp4 file in the same directory as the _00_ “.insv” file with the same name. This is important because Mapillary will use the GPS information contained in the .insv file to put your capture on the map.
    Note: Insta 360 studio also includes the option to “Export GPX file,” however we don’t recommend using this because the fidelity of this GPX file is lower than what Mapillary can extract from the original .insv file.

  4. Drag and drop the .mp4 file (or folder containing it) into the Mapillary desktop uploader. You’ll see a preview of the location on the map and can proceed to upload.

Let us know what you think and we hope this new process makes things a bit easier for you. Note that our recommended consumer 360 camera remains the GoPro MAX as it won’t require you to do stitching to upload to Mapillary, has built-in GPS, and is generally more affordable.

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FYI that we’ve now published an article on the help center with the recommended workflow and settings for the Insta360 X3.

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Hi @boris,

Thanks for the continue support on Insta360 X3! I’ve been following the development since last year, and it’s really impressive!

Using latest version (4.3.0) of the Uploader, I’m having some issues with GPX track: in the end, the images get a bit not-synchronized. This is my setup and workflow:

  • Connect phone with Insta360 X3 to get GPS (works fine)
  • Also collect GPX track with OsmAND in the background, with same phone (works fine)
  • Capture 360 video with camera (not time-lapse nor interval photos) (works fine)
  • Create MP4 video with Insta360 Studio (works fine)
  • Upload video with Desktop Uploader, either with GPX from OsmAND or with _00_.insv file (works fine)

However, since I’m driving, there are several moments that I have to stop at traffic lights etc. With that, the final result at mapillary.com have some offsets. For example, here after just 2 photos the resulted located photos are already very wrong.

I suppose there are some issues with interpolation and excluding photos at the same location, but then the final result seems very off from correct location.

Any tips here?

Thanks!

Hi @matheusgomesms - glad you’ve got this mostly going!

The GPS looks pretty good in the link you included - but you mean that the GPS track doesn’t match the imagery shown, correct? For example, I’m seeing the GPS track going around the rotary, but the imagery is in a parking lot. Is this what you mean?

Are you doing any trimming on the video file? If you are, that could explain it. The video file needs to be un-edited (unless you also edit the .GPX file to match).

If you’re not editing, could you share the .insv, .gpx, and .mp4 with us to take a look?

Exactly!

I didn’t trim anything, original video (just stitched in Studio) and original GPX (both from OsmAND and from .insv file).

Absolutely, you can have all files here: Microsoft OneDrive

Thanks a lot!

Hi @matheusgomesms - Thank you for providing these files! I took the .mp4 file you provided and uploaded it with the Mapillary desktop uploader. Note that you don’t need to extract .GPX from it yourself, and I didn’t use the .GPX files you provided, but rather let Mapillary handle it (from above " Save the exported 360 .mp4 file in the same directory as the _00_ “.insv” file with the same name. This is important because Mapillary will use the GPS information contained in the .insv file to put your capture on the map.")

Here is the end result, everything looks pretty well synced and I don’t seem to see a problem with this capture?

Note that the osmand .gpx file would likely cause a problem in this case because it doesn’t seem to exactly match the video. The video duration is 11:44 where as the osmand .gpx duration is 12:47 (screenshot below)

Hi @boris

Good to know, thanks! That’s a bit weird (but good!) that it worked. I ran several tests and in all occasions there was some unsync between photos/location.

I also capture the GPX track because Insta360 app is a bit unreliable, and UL2GSV tools can trim the GPX track to match the video duration.

Anyway, I’ll run some more tests today (just using MP4 and .insv file) and I’ll let you know!

Thanks a lot!!

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Hi Boris,

Sorry for taking a long time to answer, but I was checking properly all my data.

I saw another error (this time not Mapillary’s fault): sometimes (apparently when you stop for a bit), Insta360 X3 stop recording GPS. So, the resulting INSV files are wrong (GPS-wise), and Mapillary also becomes wrong, because is retrieving the GPX track from wrong INSV files.

I’ll try to contact them to see what could be the issue, but that was one of the reasons I recorded a separated GPX track.

(If you also wish I can send some files you could test as well).

Example (blue INSV; red own gpx track):

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Interesting, good find @matheusgomesms - let us know if you hear back from Insta360 on this one.

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