A technical analysis of photogrammetry with reality capture

Abstract

Photogrammetry is a useful process to quickly and accurately create 3D assets. Although the aesthetic quality of a reconstructed 3D model is ultimately the most important factor, other factors like total reconstruction time and model size do play a role in objectifying success. The reconstruction software Reality Capture additionally provides three metrics that describe the photo alignment process. Through a series of photogrammetry sessions in a variety of environments, these three metrics - average track length, median reprojection error, and the percent of registered cameras - are tested for their correlation to the final quality of the model. It was concluded that these metrics do not provide meaningful insight to the model's quality.