Set up a manual panorama projection

Last updated 7 August 2026

Align several projectors into one panorama by warping each output by hand. Use this where camera-based calibration is not available — the result is built up in passes, from the corners inwards.

Before you start

  • Create Scene for Projection, optionally Stereoscopic with the surface and one projector object per physical projector.

  • Every part of the surface covered by a projector, with overlaps positioned as closely as you can to the real ones — the blend zone widths come from the scene, so the closer they start, the less warping is left to do.

Steps

1. Turn blending off

Warping is far easier to judge against hard edges than through a blend.

  1. Select Main group in Scene Objects.

  2. Expand Blending and clear Enable blending.

2. Open the mesh warping window

  1. Open Video Routing.

  2. Click the double wave icon on your leftmost projector.

  3. The mesh warping window opens — dock it alongside the others if you prefer.

The Grid control in the top strip sets how many control points the mesh has, horizontally and vertically. The default is enough for most manual work; raise it only where you need finer local control. Odd numbers are easier to work with because they give you a true centre point.

3. Match the corners

Start with the leftmost projector and adjust only the four corners, so each projector roughly covers its part of the screen.

  • Click a control point to select it, Ctrl+click to add to the selection, Alt+arrow to step the selection to the neighbouring point.

  • Drag a selected point, or move it with the arrow keys — Ctrl for fine steps, Shift for coarse ones.

Repeat for every projector before going further. The whole panorama should now sit roughly in place with overlaps approximately where they belong.

4. Match the borders

Starting from the left again, work along the edges of each projector:

  1. Move the centre point of the left border onto the screen border.

  2. Do the same for the top and bottom centre points.

  3. Move the centre marker inside the blend zone so it lines up with the neighbouring projector's image.

  4. Move on to the next projector — screen borders first, then blend zones.

Go round again until very little error is left.

5. Fine warping

  1. Use the red crosshair in the output to find which markers sit closest to the remaining error.

  2. Drag a rectangle around those markers to limit editing to that area.

  3. Warp the area until double images in the blend zones are gone and the borders land exactly.

6. Turn blending back on

Re-check Enable blending in the Main group. The overlaps should now blend smoothly and the panorama is ready to use.

7. Export the meshes

In each warping window, click Export to write the warp to a .bsmesh file. That protects the work against accidental deletion, and the same mesh can be imported into another project.

Common Mistakes

  • Warping fights the scene — if a projector needs extreme warping to reach its corners, its position in the scene is wrong. Fix the 3D placement rather than compensating in the mesh.

  • Blending was left on while warping — the soft edge hides exactly the misalignment you are trying to see. Turn it off first, on again last.

  • Fine points adjusted before the corners — every pass builds on the one before, so local fixes made against wrong corners have to be redone.

  • A part of the surface no projector covers — no amount of warping creates light where there is none. That has to be solved by moving or adding projectors.

Tips

  • Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y undo and redo warping steps.

  • When one projector will not come right, backtrack rather than push on — often the 3D placement needs improving, or the grid needs more points. Resetting the mesh and starting that projector again is frequently faster than rescuing a warp that has gone wrong.

  • Export as soon as a projector looks right, not at the very end. A mesh file per projector costs nothing and removes the risk of losing an hour's alignment.

Output Warping — the warping window in full, including its keyboard shortcuts

Create Scene for Projection, optionally Stereoscopic — the scene this alignment starts from

Edit Mappings — how content is placed on the surface

Blend Multiple Projectors — blending for multi-projector installations