Large Data set (41,000 images) having issue Aligning Photos

[kv3]

 Hi, we have 41,000 images (Micasense Dual Camera setup) we are trying to align and the Agisoft estimate on camera locations is 27 days.

Here are our settings:

Accuracy: Medium (would like to do High)
Location: Source:
   Pair preselection: REFERENCE
   Key point limit: 40,000
   Tie point limit: 4,000
   Adaptive camera model fitting: YES

CPU support for GPU is enabled, as this seemed to speed align photos up.

As well, we have a top of the line computer:

Windows 10
CPU: i7-3700KF, 3400 mHz, 16 cores
GPU: Nvidia RTX 4080
RAM: 128 GB

I could break into chunks, but I'm concerned it will impact accuracy. I feel like our computer should be able to handle this with the right settings. But maybe I'm wrong.

Thanks for the help.

[Alexey Pasumansky]

Hello kv3,

So far everything looks fine for me, except for the estimated camera alignment time.

How long did it took to detect the keypoints and perform image matching? Was the project saved in PSX format before Align Photos procedure has been started and if so, whether the project files are stored on local SSD, HDD, network or external drive (do you see high CPU activity or it is dropping to zero for quite a while)?

[kv3]

Hello Alexey,

Detect keypoints and image matching took about a day. I ran it on high (~26 hours) and medium accuracy (~18 hours).

The project was saved before the align photos step.

The file is on an HDD. I had it on a 2TB SSD where it was the only data on the drive. It took up about 1.4 TB before running align photos, and it ran out of space so I had to move it to our HDD.

Both CPU, GPU, and RAM usage drop to quite low after a while.

[kv3]

The align photos stage has finally finished. But now Metashape itself is very, very slow to operate. If I try an resize the region or select camera points, it takes 10+ seconds to do anything. There is a very long lag.