Oriented Imagery Classic—360 images not displaying properly? Here's the solution

[EmilyWindahl]

Content contributed by @RandallRebello 

With the release of ArcGIS Online in October 2023, some users of Oriented Imagery Classic have noticed their 360-degree imagery displayed incorrectly in the oriented imagery widget for Experience Builder. This happened because the widget started utilizing roll and pitch parameters that were previously being ignored for 360 images. Using these values results in more flexibility for Oriented Imagery Classic users to define pitch and roll for 360 images, but changed how existing catalogs displayed 360 images in some cases. The solution is for users to edit oriented imagery catalogs that are displaying incorrectly to include correct roll and pitch values.

In October 2023, Oriented Imagery Classic changed how it handles 360 images in oriented imagery catalogs in the Experience Builder widget. If an oriented imagery catalog’s feature service contains a CamOri field, nothing has changed; the CamOri parameters (which define the most accurate orientation available in the oriented imagery schema) will be used to visualize the images. However, before the October release, if no CamOri field was included, the Oriented Imagery Classic API assumed that the CamPitch and CamRoll values of 360 images were always 90 and 0, respectively. For 360 images, CamPitch and CamRoll parameters provided in the attribute table or in the oriented imagery catalog properties were ignored. With the October release, the CamPitch and CamRoll fields (in either the attribute table or the oriented imagery catalog properties) are now utilized to visualize 360 images. If you had values in these fields that were different from the Oriented Imagery Classic defaults, it may have changed how your 360 images are displayed.

If your 360 images are suddenly displaying incorrectly, the oriented imagery catalog should be revised to correct the pitch and roll of the images. To get the same rotations as before, you can set CamPitch to 90 and CamRoll to 0 in the attribute table of the oriented imagery catalog’s feature service or in the oriented imagery catalog’s properties. (Note the order in which orientation parameters are applied: if a CamOri string is available, that will be used to define the images orientation. If no CamOri string is available, the CamPitch and CamRoll values in the attribute table will be used. Finally, if the CamPitch and CamRoll fields are not present in the attribute table, the default CamPitch and CamRoll values defined in the oriented imagery catalog properties will be used.) Before making any corrections, we recommend backing up existing CamPitch and CamRoll values to new, unused fields in the attribute table, so you’re able to recover them if needed.

Note that editing your data to use the correct pitch and roll values will fix the issue in Experience Builder, and will not cause issues in the Pro add-in or Oriented Imagery Explorer app. Correcting your data will also prevent the same issue from occurring in the Pro add-in and the Explorer app in the next release. Currently, the Oriented Imagery add-in for ArcGIS Pro and the Oriented Imagery Explorer app are not affected—they are using the default CamPitch and CamRoll values of 90 and 0, respectively. However, with the next release of Oriented Imagery Classic, all Oriented Imagery Classic clients will utilize the CamPitch and CamRoll fields when displaying 360 images (if no CamOri string is provided).

For reference, it’s useful to understand how the oriented imagery catalog schema defines camera pitch and camera roll. Camera pitch starts at nadir (pointing straight down)—this is defined as 0 degrees. This pitch increases as the camera rotates counter-clockwise around the X axis, meaning the pitch is 90 degrees when the camera is pointed to and level with the horizon. Think of this as holding your phone and taking a picture of your feet (pitch = 0 degrees). Then rotate your phone up 90 degrees to take a picture pointing at the horizon in front of you (pitch = 90 degrees). For camera roll, in this example, because the phone screen is parallel with your body, and the top of the frame is parallel to the ground, camera roll is 0 degrees. If you tilt the phone to the left 45 degrees (still pointing at the horizon), the camera roll would be 45.

If you continue to have issues with this, or need additional support, you can contact OrientedImagery@esri.com.