AutoTracker workflow using GLOMAP

AutoTracker_v1.4.bat

:: ================================================================
::  BATCH SCRIPT FOR AUTOMATED PHOTOGRAMMETRY TRACKING WORKFLOW
::  By polyfjord - https://youtube.com/polyfjord
::  GLOMAP mapping (faster), COLMAP for features/matching + TXT export
:: ================================================================
@echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions EnableDelayedExpansion

:: ---------- Resolve top-level folder (one up from this .bat) -----
pushd "%~dp0\.." >nul
set "TOP=%cd%"

:: ---------- Key paths -------------------------------------------
set "SFM_DIR=%TOP%\01 GLOMAP"
set "VIDEOS_DIR=%TOP%\02 VIDEOS"
set "FFMPEG_DIR=%TOP%\03 FFMPEG"
set "SCENES_DIR=%TOP%\04 SCENES"

:: ---------- Locate ffmpeg.exe -----------------------------------
if exist "%FFMPEG_DIR%\ffmpeg.exe" (
    set "FFMPEG=%FFMPEG_DIR%\ffmpeg.exe"
) else if exist "%FFMPEG_DIR%\bin\ffmpeg.exe" (
    set "FFMPEG=%FFMPEG_DIR%\bin\ffmpeg.exe"
) else (
    echo [ERROR] ffmpeg.exe not found inside "%FFMPEG_DIR%".
    popd & pause & goto :eof
)

:: ---------- Locate glomap.exe -----------------------------------
if exist "%SFM_DIR%\glomap.exe" (
    set "GLOMAP=%SFM_DIR%\glomap.exe"
) else if exist "%SFM_DIR%\bin\glomap.exe" (
    set "GLOMAP=%SFM_DIR%\bin\glomap.exe"
) else (
    echo [ERROR] glomap.exe not found inside "%SFM_DIR%".
    popd & pause & goto :eof
)

:: ---------- Locate colmap.exe (DB + TXT export) ------------------
if exist "%SFM_DIR%\colmap.exe" (
    set "COLMAP=%SFM_DIR%\colmap.exe"
) else if exist "%SFM_DIR%\bin\colmap.exe" (
    set "COLMAP=%SFM_DIR%\bin\colmap.exe"
) else (
    echo [ERROR] colmap.exe not found inside "%SFM_DIR%".
    popd & pause & goto :eof
)

:: ---------- Put binaries on PATH --------------------------------
set "PATH=%SFM_DIR%;%SFM_DIR%\bin;%PATH%"

:: ---------- Ensure required folders exist ------------------------
if not exist "%VIDEOS_DIR%" (
    echo [ERROR] Input folder "%VIDEOS_DIR%" missing.
    popd & pause & goto :eof
)
if not exist "%SCENES_DIR%" mkdir "%SCENES_DIR%"

:: ---------- Count videos for progress bar ------------------------
for /f %%C in ('dir /b /a-d "%VIDEOS_DIR%\*" ^| find /c /v ""') do set "TOTAL=%%C"
if "%TOTAL%"=="0" (
    echo [INFO] No video files found in "%VIDEOS_DIR%".
    popd & pause & goto :eof
)

echo ==============================================================
echo  Starting GLOMAP pipeline on %TOTAL% video(s) …
echo ==============================================================

set /a IDX=0

for %%V in ("%VIDEOS_DIR%\*.*") do (
    set /a IDX+=1
    call :PROCESS_VIDEO "%%~fV" "%%IDX%%" "%TOTAL%"
)

echo --------------------------------------------------------------
echo  All jobs finished – results are in "%SCENES_DIR%".
echo --------------------------------------------------------------
popd
pause
goto :eof


:PROCESS_VIDEO
:: ----------------------------------------------------------------
::  %1 = full path to video   %2 = current index   %3 = total
:: ----------------------------------------------------------------
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion

set "VIDEO=%~1"
set "NUM=%~2"
set "TOT=%~3"

for %%I in ("%VIDEO%") do (
    set "BASE=%%~nI"
    set "EXT=%%~xI"
)

echo.
echo [!NUM!/!TOT!] === Processing "!BASE!!EXT!" ===

:: -------- Directory layout for this scene -----------------------
set "SCENE=%SCENES_DIR%\!BASE!"
set "IMG_DIR=!SCENE!\images"
set "SPARSE_DIR=!SCENE!\sparse"

:: -------- Skip if already reconstructed -------------------------
if exist "!SCENE!" (
    echo        • Skipping "!BASE!" – already reconstructed.
    goto :END
)

:: Clean slate ----------------------------------------------------
mkdir "!IMG_DIR!"    >nul
mkdir "!SPARSE_DIR!" >nul

:: -------- 1) Extract every frame --------------------------------
echo        [1/4] Extracting frames …
"%FFMPEG%" -loglevel error -stats -i "!VIDEO!" -qscale:v 2 ^
    "!IMG_DIR!\frame_%%06d.jpg"
if errorlevel 1 (
    echo        × FFmpeg failed – skipping "!BASE!".
    goto :END
)

dir /b "!IMG_DIR!\*.jpg" >nul 2>&1 || (
    echo        × No frames extracted – skipping "!BASE!".
    goto :END
)

:: -------- 2) Feature extraction (COLMAP) -------------------------
echo        [2/4] COLMAP feature_extractor …
"%COLMAP%" feature_extractor ^
    --database_path "!SCENE!\database.db" ^
    --image_path    "!IMG_DIR!" ^
    --ImageReader.single_camera 1 ^
    --SiftExtraction.use_gpu 1 ^
    --SiftExtraction.max_image_size 4096
if errorlevel 1 (
    echo        × feature_extractor failed – skipping "!BASE!".
    goto :END
)

:: -------- 3) Sequential matching (COLMAP) ------------------------
echo        [3/4] COLMAP sequential_matcher …
"%COLMAP%" sequential_matcher ^
    --database_path "!SCENE!\database.db" ^
    --SequentialMatching.overlap 15
if errorlevel 1 (
    echo        × sequential_matcher failed – skipping "!BASE!".
    goto :END
)

:: -------- 4) Sparse reconstruction (GLOMAP) ----------------------
echo        [4/4] GLOMAP mapper …
"%GLOMAP%" mapper ^
    --database_path "!SCENE!\database.db" ^
    --image_path    "!IMG_DIR!" ^
    --output_path   "!SPARSE_DIR!"
if errorlevel 1 (
    echo        × glomap mapper failed – skipping "!BASE!".
    goto :END
)

:: -------- Export TXT **inside the model folder** -----------------
:: Keep TXT next to BIN so Blender can import from sparse\0 directly.
if exist "!SPARSE_DIR!\0" (
    "%COLMAP%" model_converter ^
        --input_path  "!SPARSE_DIR!\0" ^
        --output_path "!SPARSE_DIR!\0" ^
        --output_type TXT >nul
)

:: -------- Export TXT to parent sparse\ (for Blender auto-detect) --
if exist "!SPARSE_DIR!\0" (
    "%COLMAP%" model_converter ^
        --input_path  "!SPARSE_DIR!\0" ^
        --output_path "!SPARSE_DIR!" ^
        --output_type TXT >nul
)

echo        ✓ Finished "!BASE!"  (!NUM!/!TOT!)

:END
endlocal & goto :eof

Waiting for someone to create a mac compatible version!

Waiting for someone to create a mac compatible version!

Hi! I actually created a macOS-compatible fork of this AutoTracker v1.4 Batch Script, tested on my MacBook Air M4. You can check it out in the Forks tab of this gist (Click here to redirect). By the way, the README is pretty much self-explanatory but I’ll also be uploading a tutorial soon showing how to use it on macOS.

Hey the "animated camera" in the blender imported project doesn't actually have any keyframe to animate it and when i select it as camera there is also no background image showing my footage anywhere, could be that my video isn't that much good, but it still has hundreds of cameras placed with a lot of tracking points so i don't understand

I have lightly adapted @celestial-33 's wonderful Mac version to work in Linux. I haven't provided advice for installing the requirements, however (not convinced I'd do a good, broadly applicable job).

https://gist.github.com/Norgus/9e877924949d778db12c534ff1bafe36

I forked and updated the script a bit: https://gist.github.com/aidv/05779c76401ae55ee6b227ee0c1e47f9

Apparently AMD GPU's are very wonky with COLMAP/GLOMAP, so forcing CPU usage is better.

This is so good!! Thank you

I ported to PowerShell because I having problem running with cmd on my PC

https://gist.github.com/rinme/db6001673e32fbf70338803bd711e39c

I had to add a few lines to make the bat work for me... Hoping to save someone some time:

I had to add COLMAPS dll folder to PATH (Add after set "SCENES_DIR=%TOP%\04 SCENES")

:: ---------- Put COLMAP’s dll folder(s) on PATH -------------------
set "PATH=%SFM_DIR%;%SFM_DIR%\bin;%PATH%"

And QT would return errors if I did not define the plugin folder...

:: ---------- Tell Qt where its plugins live -----------------------
set "QT_QPA_PLATFORM_PLUGIN_PATH=%SFM_DIR%\plugins\platforms"
set "QT_PLUGIN_PATH=%SFM_DIR%\plugins"

Lastly, the UTF-8 symbols wouldn't display correctly. (Add after @echo off)

rem Force UTF-8 so Unicode symbols display correctly
chcp 65001 >nul

can you make a new version so its works with new colmap and glomap and new blender version.please

I made a docker based solution for the pipeline mainly for my mac that builds GLOMAP and COLMAP from source. Repo here.

If your computer is not in English you might run into the trouble of the bat file not working like me (My PC is Japanese, cmd appears for a second and crashes). What worked for me is to open the bat file in windows own basic notepad (not notepad++) and save the file again in ANSI (the drop down menu is at the bottom right corner of the 'save as' window).

Here is the step by step:
The Fix: Save as ANSI/Plain UTF-8

1. Open the standard Windows Notepad app.
2. Copy the original batch script text from your very first message and paste it into the blank Notepad window.
3. Click File > Save As...
4. Set the "Save as type" dropdown to All Files (.).
5. The Most Important Step: Look at the Encoding dropdown at the very bottom of the Save window. Change it to ANSI (If ANSI isn't available, select plain UTF-8, but strictly avoid "UTF-8 with BOM" or "UTF-16 LE").
6. Click Save (overwrite your old file if necessary).
7. Run the bat file again.