You can capture using the Insta360 X3 as usual (be sure to pair the camera with phone to get GPS coordinates for your captures)
Stitch together the Insta360 X3 .insv captures to a 360 degree .mp4 file using Insta 360 Studio.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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)
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!
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).
Hi Boris,
This message just to share my experience with Insta X3
It is true that the gpx file exported via Insta 360 studio has a low coordinate density. You say that in the insv file things improve but I have the doubt that this is not the most precise way to synchronize the mp4 file. This is because there is still the need to transfer the position data from the smartphone to the camera and this process can generate delays in the position log in the insv file. For this reason I tried to record the gpx file via the orux maps app setting it to the maximum sampling frequency (1 second) then I proceed in this way (I state that I record the tracks by bicycle with insta X3 mounted on the helmet):
1- before reaching the starting point of the track to be mapped on mapillary I start recording the gpx track on orux and the video on the insta X3.
2-I reach the starting point of the mapping already at the speed that I will maintain during the recording. This is to prevent orux from starting from recording pause mode due to too low movement speed (I guess this auto pausing feature is a default set also in Osmand app and many other apps)
3-I keep the phone in view with the time shown on the screen (seconds included)
4-in post processing and with Insta 360 studio I cut the video between the start point and the end point taking note of the start time recorded directly from the video by looking at the phone.
5-in the gpx file I delete all the points before the video start time that I detected by looking at the phone at the first frame of mp4. To do this I use notepad++ because I found that if I use the compegps program the gpx file cleaned in this way is not accepted by mapillary desktop uploader.
6-I put the mp4 file and the gpx file in the same folder giving them the same name and I proceed with the upload via mapillary desktop uploader (rev.4.6.0)
From the preview of the first upload this procedure seems to have been successful. The advantage is that you don’t need great programming skills or various scripts, just Insta360 studio and a text file editor.
A question: I saw that using this system mapillary samples about one image per second or even more and this seems like a waste to me. Is this a fixed feature or by varying the speed of the bicycle or the sampling frequency of the gps points can I reduce the number of samples displayed on mapillary?
Thank you for sharing your workflow! Glad it is working for you.
In terms of sampling, mapillary samples uploaded video at 1 image very 3 meters - which is done so that there are enough frames to read store signs, house numbers, etc. It is probably too much for some use cases, but as a general purpose solution it tends to work well.
