FLYTHROUGH VIDEO
A terrain flythrough video shows a site the way a drone would — except the camera flies over your own DEM, orthophoto and design surfaces, and every frame is rendered from the data you already have in the project. STREAM's Camera Flight panel collects the views you capture, smooths the camera between them, adds layer cues and terrain-scenario transitions, draws a title, north arrow, scale bar and logo into the frame, and writes an H.264 MP4 or a PNG sequence at 720p, 1080p or 4K. No cloud, no plug-in, no upload.
A flythrough is a camera path through a 3D terrain model, recorded as video. It is the fastest way to explain a site to someone who will not open GIS software: a quarry's benches, a road corridor over real ground, the before and after of an earthwork, a stockpile yard at the end of the month.
In STREAM the path is a storyboard of captured views. Each view is a camera position and direction; the panel flies between them over a duration you set, can pause on a view, can switch which layers are visible and which terrain scenario is shown at a given second, and can fade from and to black. A framing guide on the viewport shows exactly what the recorded frame will contain.
Recording is honest about detail: it uses the terrain streamed on screen, so a 4K file is larger but not sharper than what the window shows. Enlarge the window for a sharper recording, and STREAM tells you if a frame was written before the terrain had fully loaded.
Move to a viewpoint and press Capture View; each capture becomes a numbered diamond on a timeline. Reorder views, duplicate one, update one to the current camera, set a dwell on a view, and drag a diamond to trade duration between neighbouring legs. The panel badges show the number of views, total seconds, and frames at the output size.
Flight time between views is 0.5 to 60 s in the box, or 0.1 to 600 s per leg from the view's menu; a dwell of up to 600 s can be added on any view. Motion is ease-in-out or linear; an end dwell keeps the last view on screen so the video does not cut; a fade-in and fade-out of up to 5 s sits on the first and last seconds.
Add Cue places a marker at the playhead: a layer cue shows a layer at that second and a drag of the block's right edge sets where it hides again; a scenario transition switches the terrain to another Terrain Scenario with a 0.8 s dip to black — the way to show a design against the survey, or this month against last month.
Add Clip builds a whole clip from one capture: Orbit flies a full 360° turn around the current view (six seconds by default; a nadir view is refused because its radius would be zero), Route flies along a selected line's vertices at the current eye height above ground.
720p, 1080p or 4K on the short side; 24, 30 or 60 frames per second; landscape 16:9, square or vertical — 1080p vertical is 1080 × 1920 for a phone. A framing guide with the pixel size appears on the viewport as soon as you change these.
A title and subtitle at top left; a north arrow at top right that follows the camera's true heading; a scale bar at bottom left computed like the live viewport's, in your unit system, and omitted when the camera cannot give an honest scale; the date; the STREAM watermark with adjustable opacity; and your company logo from Settings ▸ Report, the same one your PDF reports carry.
Frame Preview renders the frame at the playhead at recording resolution, with the overlays, and can save it as PNG. It warns if the terrain had not finished streaming for that frame, or if the frame lies inside a fade window.
Record Video writes an H.264 MP4 through Windows Media Foundation — no extra codec to install — or a numbered PNG sequence. Progress shows frames done and time remaining; cancelling keeps the frames written as a valid short MP4. The file carries title, subtitle, description, author and encoder metadata, and the camera returns to where you left it.
EXPORT ▸ Presentation ▸ Camera Flight. The storyboard panel docks at the bottom; other bottom panels give way to it.
Fly to the first viewpoint and press Capture View. Change the angle, capture again. Two views make a flight; five or six make a story.
Give the legs a duration, add a dwell where the viewer should look longer, and choose smooth or linear motion. Press Space to preview in real time at ½×, 1× or 2×.
Put the playhead where a layer should appear and add a layer cue; add a scenario transition where the design should replace the survey.
Pick 720p, 1080p or 4K, the frame rate and the aspect. Enlarge the window if you want more terrain detail in the frame.
Title, subtitle, north arrow, scale bar, date, logos. Press Frame Preview to see one frame exactly as it will be recorded.
Record Video as MP4 or a PNG sequence. Show in Folder opens the result.
| Element | How it is added | What the viewer sees |
|---|---|---|
| View | Capture View at any camera position | A camera stop the flight passes through or dwells on |
| Leg | Automatic between two views | The camera moving from one view to the next over the leg's duration |
| Dwell | Right-click a view ▸ Dwell on this view | The camera holding still on that view |
| Layer cue | Add Cue ▸ Layer Cue at the playhead | A layer appearing, and hiding again where the block ends |
| Scenario transition | Add Cue ▸ Scenario Transition (needs two terrains) | A 0.8 s dip to black into another terrain scenario |
| Orbit clip | Add Clip ▸ Orbit | A full 360° turn around the current view |
| Route clip | Add Clip ▸ Route along the selected line | The camera following the line's vertices at the current eye height |
| Fade | Flight ▸ Fade in/out | Black opening and closing over the first and last seconds |
A camera path through a 3D terrain model, recorded as video. In STREAM the path is a storyboard of views you capture on your own DEM, orthophoto and design surfaces; the panel flies between them, adds cues and overlays, and writes MP4 or PNG frames.
A DEM and, if you want the site to look like the site, an orthophoto draped on it — the same GeoTIFFs you already have. Point clouds rasterised in STREAM, design surfaces, CAD layers and analysis overlays are recorded as they appear on screen.
Yes. Keep the two states as Terrain Scenarios in the project and add a scenario transition at the second where the switch should happen; the video dips to black for 0.8 s and comes back on the other terrain. It needs at least two terrains, and the menu says so when there is only one.
Yes. A layer cue at the playhead shows a layer at that second; dragging the block's right edge sets where it hides again. Layer visibility and the scenario are restored when recording finishes.
Add Clip ▸ Orbit builds a full 360° turn around the current view — tilt the camera first, a straight-down view has no radius to orbit. Add Clip ▸ Route flies along a selected line's vertices at the current eye height.
720p, 1080p or 4K on the short side, at 24, 30 or 60 fps, in 16:9, square or vertical aspect. Vertical 1080p is 1080 × 1920. Recording uses the terrain detail loaded on screen, so enlarge the window for a sharper 4K.
Title and subtitle, a north arrow that follows the camera's true heading, a scale bar computed like the viewport's own and omitted when it would not be honest, the date, the STREAM watermark with adjustable opacity, and your company logo from Settings ▸ Report.
No. Rendering, encoding and writing all happen on your machine. MP4 is encoded through Windows Media Foundation's H.264 encoder, which Windows already has; nothing is uploaded.
The frames already written are closed as a valid, shorter MP4 and the file is kept; STREAM tells you how many frames it holds. If no frame was written the empty file is removed.
Yes. Frame Preview renders the frame at the playhead at recording resolution with the overlays and lets you save it as PNG. It warns if the terrain had not finished streaming or if the frame is inside a fade.
The recorder waits for terrain streaming to settle on each frame. If a frame still had to be written before the terrain was complete, the result box says how many — a quality loss is never silent.
Free beta for Windows x64. Works fully offline with GeoTIFF, LAS/LAZ and DXF.
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