GCam for Poco X3

[Picard20]

@Picard20 You got very good results even though all your samples in good light conditions.I liked it alot.Could you please save and share your cofiguration xml.I am not so experienced in tweeking GCams and for me only info about 5 frames for HDR+ is not enough information but I really want to try your tweeks.

---------- Post added at 12:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:27 AM ----------

Also,any samples from ultra wide angle camera? If you tweeked it too.

Sorry for the late reply. After further exploring settings and testing in non ideal lighting conditions, I realized that there was still room for improvement when shooting pics in bad light. Sure they are very nice in bright sunny day, but most of the shots I take are in less than ideal lighting, so I wanted to experiment further.

Within NGcam, there are 4 libraries to choose from: Google, NGCam, Etalon7+ and Alice.
The shots I posted earlier were made in NGCam lib, but they highlighted light too much and gave different colors from what I perceive with my eyes, when shot in bad lighting environment. I am very nitpicky, so this might not even bother some, as NGCam lib isn't rly bad, but I prefer as close to reality as possible.

The library that gave the most realistic pictures in darker environment is Etalon7+, and Alice as my second favorite.

I will continue to experiment further in my free time, but know this: surfers xml also uses Etalon7+, and he used the list of sensors posted by zpower, to optimize google AWB, so the color of pictures will be better than ever. I have done the same, so now my xml basically looks almost the same as surfers, with the exception of turned off Tone Curve and Lib Patcher settings (the custom sharpness is here), leaving them as default.

So instead of posting my xml here, I will tell you how to tweak the already good surfers xml, in case you dont favor the overprocessing and sharpness it has included.

Within Settings, go to Lib Patcher, turn off Tone Curve (not much of an impact, you can leave it on if you want), First Lens, Third Lens and Fifth Lens, enter all those three and turn off Lib Patcher for each. This will deactivate most customizations done by surfer and leave the settings default for this particular library (Etalon7+).

Note that you HAVE TO completely close NGCam and remove it from ram, in order for any of these changes to take effect.


I too had the issue you guys have reported. I entered GCam to take some pics, but there was a loading ring in the app, and shutter button was greyed out. Had to restart the app to make it working. I never had this with 1.7.

Can't wait to see results from Arnova.

 

[yanikan]

Thank you so much for your detailed reply.I was using Surfetbyter xml with medium sharpness and you suggested earlier I set hdr+e to 7.Then Surferbyter sugested to turn noise modeler off and I did since then I didn't have any issues with freezing even though I didn't use it extensively to be 100% sure issue disappeared.I will try your new suggestions.

---------- Post added at 06:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:25 PM ----------

The only thing I forgot to tell I switched to default JPEG settings becuse I don't like to have 15MB or so taken for one picture it is almost like my mirrorless Sony takes for RAW file.I know it will be abit lose in quality.I guess default JPEG is 90% or I am mistaken.If someone knows please correct me if i am wrong.

 

[Picard20]

Thank you so much for your detailed reply.I was using Surfetbyter xml with medium sharpness and you suggested earlier I set hdr+e to 7.Then Surferbyter sugested to turn noise modeler off and I did since then I didn't have any issues with freezing even though I didn't use it extensively to be 100% sure issue disappeared.I will try your new suggestions.

---------- Post added at 06:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:25 PM ----------

The only thing I forgot to tell I switched to default JPEG settings becuse I don't like to have 15MB or so taken for one picture it is almost like my mirrorless Sony takes for RAW file.I know it will be abit lose in quality.I guess default JPEG is 90% or I am mistaken.If someone knows please correct me if i am wrong.

Within Advanced settings there is an option called Super res zoom (Sabre). It's turned On with surfers xml, but I found that turning it off shaves 3 MB from file size.
Here is an explanation of what it does: "Super Res Zoom means that if you pinch-zoom before pressing the shutter, you'll get a lot more details in your picture than if you crop afterwards."

So basically, if you dont zoom in a lot (or at all like myself), you can safely turn that option off and save 3 MB every time you take a pic.

Thanx for that noise modeler tip. I had it turned on and set do IMX 686, thinking it would do something. Will see if turning it off fixes the problem.

---------- Post added at 11:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:29 PM ----------

For admin.

I am posting some xml for ngcam on this generic xda thread. I had tried to create my own specific one for that gcam so as to have the possibility of temporal indexes. They closed it for me by saying that the other already existed. Too bad that in the other to have updated XML you have to read hundreds of posts and find the right one ...?*
Sometimes too many rules imposed by inflexible admin do not help users and if users are not helped they go to other ways and places. You can't hope they'll stay on a thread where it's hard to get help. For the gcam on a device if you really want to keep it you have to create a discussion in which in the first post you have updatable references on the various versions and various xml.

For all that said above forgive me but I no longer find it useful to post my possible help here ...

Maybe you can open a thread specifically for sharing XMLs. This thread is general info about GCams out there, but there could be a separate XML one. I understand your frustration and I agree. I hope admin will understand and allow a new thread, so that everyone has easier time.

 

[yanikan]

Yes,Sabre is great to have and I don't want it off.What Picard20 suggesting is to turn off Lib Patcher per each lens which doesn't effect Sabre option.
On another topic.
Did somedoby tried to use and tweak Urnyx-Wichaya mode on Poco X3? It was mentioned earlier in the thread it has much more built-in options to tweak.I accualy tried it with OnePlus 7T and I liked it alot but it is older phone and there is much more mods and xmls for it.Please share your experience who tries different mods for our X3.

 

[Picard20]

Yes,Sabre is great to have and I don't want it off.What Picard20 suggesting is to turn off Lib Patcher per each lens which doesn't effect Sabre option.
On another topic.
Did somedoby tried to use and tweak Urnyx-Wichaya mode on Poco X3? It was mentioned earlier in the thread it has much more built-in options to tweak.I accualy tried it with OnePlus 7T and I liked it alot but it is older phone and there is much more mods and xmls for it.Please share your experience who tries different mods for our X3.

I tried Urny-Wichaya and first thing I noticed is crash when switching to front cam and wide angle. I managed to fix that by messing around with cam IDs and now it works great. For some reason, pic size on that GCam is 3-4 MB, even with Sabre on. It uses max resolution by default, but there is no option to set photo quality at certain %, so I wonder whats the default value, since the file size is that small.
It certainly has a lot of options. Maybe I'll mess around with it when I have time and see how it holds up against NGCam.

 

[rudix78]

I tried Urny-Wichaya and first thing I noticed is crash when switching to front cam and wide angle. I managed to fix that by messing around with cam IDs and now it works great. For some reason, pic size on that GCam is 3-4 MB, even with Sabre on. It uses max resolution by default, but there is no option to set photo quality at certain %, so I wonder whats the default value, since the file size is that small.
It certainly has a lot of options. Maybe I'll mess around with it when I have time and see how it holds up against NGCam.

I'm using Ngcam 7.4.104 v1.8 with 15 frame.xml from @surferbyter. I'm surprised how do you guys get 15MB or so pictures. I get arround 6MB for 3472x4624 (16MP res) and 3MB for 2160x3840 (8MP res). These are the highest resolutions for 4:3 and 9:16 in the settings.. JPG quality is set to 100%. I run custom rom. Maybe you run MIUI and get higher resolution pictures?

 

[surferbyter]

I try to give a cumulative answer to the questions you have discussed in the last posts. Let's start with a premise. It is great that each of you try to adjust the settings to your need trying to understand what they are for individually because I repeat XML is not law and everyone has their own needs and their own visual taste. My xml tend to make the most of the possibilities of gcam. Higher sharpness, saber, stream config etc etc. Obviously if for example someone doesn't care about zooming or printing photos but prefers smaller file sizes, they do well to turn it off as @ Picard20 did. I would add, however, that the saber becomes useful even without zooming in the photos to make macros using the appropriate option of the slider focus because by using this mode the photo to become a real macro must be cropped and possibly rotated in order to obtain the right shot. . Regarding the size of the files. They not only depend on the options, saber, compression, very high sharpness, but also on the information that the photos contain. For example, a photo with many trees covered with leaves will have so much information due to the micro details that it will weigh much more than a photo taken of a simple subject on a homogeneous background. Just as a photo that contains many areas in contrast between light and shadow will weigh more than one in which the exposure is homogeneous. Regarding a possible new thread, I honestly expected a reply to a private post in which I explained why I had opened the specific thread to ngcam asking for the possibility of being able to organize the sharing of apk and xml since this thread being where we are writing not mine here I can only share but do not edit the first post which obviously was created as a simple generic question and not with the intention of being able to organize and share the best experiences. I have not received any feedback and I have interpreted that the management of the forum does not care about an optimized thread. Obviously they want to devote themselves more to the Roma and the tricks of the system itself and not to the photographic sector. In my opinion it is a mistake because by now taking good photos with our mobile phones has the same importance as all the other social functions, called web, that they allow.

 

[Picard20]

I'm using Ngcam 7.4.104 v1.8 with 15 frame.xml from @surferbyter. I'm surprised how do you guys get 15MB or so pictures. I get arround 6MB for 3472x4624 (16MP res) and 3MB for 2160x3840 (8MP res). These are the highest resolutions for 4:3 and 9:16 in the settings.. JPG quality is set to 100%. I run custom rom. Maybe you run MIUI and get higher resolution pictures?

For comparison I used surfers NGCam 1.8 v5 medium sharpness xml and I get 14,4 MB for a 5 frame picture. Yes, I use MIU, but how can that affect it ? The resolution is always the same (3472 x 4624), and even the stock app produces 4,1 MB photo size. I honestly dont know why such a large file size.

Changing library from Etalon7+ to Google, produces 10 MB pictures, so 4 MB less. Still doesn't explain why we have different file size using same xml and settings. Did you tweak anything on your own ?

 

[slipstreamer88]

For the OnePlus 3 we had a thread by S4turno who maintained a really nice first post with all relevant information. Suggested versions, XML files, links everything. It reduced clutter and unnecessary "best gcam?" replies.
Request to mods to allow surferbyter to make a new thread

 

[farsang]

I think stock camera is very good with skin tones as compared to gcam as most of the time we will be taking pictures of people as compared to landscapes. While gcam has its advantages wrt detail and low night performance but still not good with skin tones. Hopefully Arnova version may address this issue..

 

[rudix78]

For comparison I used surfers NGCam 1.8 v5 medium sharpness xml and I get 14,4 MB for a 5 frame picture. Yes, I use MIU, but how can that affect it ? The resolution is always the same (3472 x 4624), and even the stock app produces 4,1 MB photo size. I honestly dont know why such a large file size.

Changing library from Etalon7+ to Google, produces 10 MB pictures, so 4 MB less. Still doesn't explain why we have different file size using same xml and settings. Did you tweak anything on your own ?

No tweak, but I can see difference when I take pictures of trees and leaves. Now I can see 11MB for 3:4 and 6MB for 9:16 ratio respectively. So now I believe it can be even as much as 15MB per picture for the "full frame".

Edit: on my old Redmi Note 3 phone that also has 16MP main sensor I can get same resolution as poco x3 in 4:3 format but in 16:9 it is capable to shoot 11.9MP. Will it improve in future updates or there is some hardware limitation in our Poco?

 

[Picard20]

No tweak, but I can see difference when I take pictures of trees and leaves. Now I can see 11MB for 3:4 and 6MB for 9:16 ratio respectively. So now I believe it can be even as much as 15MB per picture for the "full frame".

Edit: on my old Redmi Note 3 phone that also has 16MP main sensor I can get same resolution as poco x3 in 4:3 format but in 16:9 it is capable to shoot 11.9MP. Will it improve in future updates or there is some hardware limitations in our Poco?

My NGCam produces 2160x3840 resolution in 16:9, which is more than 6 MP. It's 8.3 MP to be precise, while Stock cam 2604x4624 in 16:9.
No hardware limitation, we just need a good GCam port.

 

[Picard20]

Good news guys. BSG released a GCam and Poco x3 is supported. It's in alpha right now and cam preview is frozen (there is an exclusive version that you can get if you donate, that fixes this problem). It's based on the newest GCam 8 ! We should get the fix in the next version. Current version is very bare bones, but hopefully we will witness it mature with much more features, as GCam 8 just got released.

Check for updates every 3-4 days on this link: https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/dev-bsg/

 

[Black_ice_Spain]

My NGCam produces 2160x3840 resolution in 16:9, which is more than 6 MP. It's 8.3 MP to be precise, while Stock cam 2604x4624 in 16:9.
No hardware limitation, we just need a good GCam port.

Surfer published mjl 5.0 miniqueta, that one takes photos at the same resolution than stock

 

[alirazaagha]

We Android users are too concerned about updates rather than workability of Gcam. X3's built and camera setup is very much identical to X2. Hence, Gcam for X2 are supported by our devices. I tried all new updates and found them to have paint sort of results in all scenarios. After trying all of them, I gave a try to stable build by sannn111ty which is based on Gcam 6.2. And, I found crisper pictures and more polished video captures without tinkering with a whole bunch of settings. Give this one a try and you will like the results.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/poco-x2/themes/port-modded-google-camera-hdr-night-t4068701/amp/

 

[Gowcoizer]

You are quite right my friend. Back then when I firstly discovered 6.2 for Poco F1 I was impressed and made my best pictures, after that I was chasing the latest update and the true is the results got worse. Now for Poco X3 I am again looking for beat version to fit (mainly to work with all the cameras) and lost in the info

 

[Skeuomorphic]

We'll just wait until arnova gets his hand on the poco x3 and will build the gcam8 specifically our device

 

[Gowcoizer]

And it will be possible to utilize 64mp sensor?

 

[rudix78]

And it will be possible to utilize 64mp sensor?

As far as I know Poco X3 has 16MP main sensor. Advertised 64MP is just ... advertisment.

 

[Picard20]

As far as I know Poco X3 has 16MP main sensor. Advertised 64MP is just ... advertisment.

IMX 682 is an actual 64MP sensor. But, the default output is 16MP, bcs it does pixel binning which takes 4 smaller pixels and reads them as 1 larger pixel. 64/4=16

Its so good that its almost pointless to take 64MP in the stock cam app, because the difference is very small at best, but the file size is much larger.

The sensor is basically the same as IMX 686 (a sensor used in a lot of flagships, and poco x2 also), with only difference being it cant do 4k 60fps. But pocos chipset isnt rly capable of that in the first place, so no loss there.