Batch script for automated photogrammetry tracking workflow

batch_reconstruct.bat

:: ================================================================
::  BATCH SCRIPT FOR AUTOMATED PHOTOGRAMMETRY TRACKING WORKFLOW
::  By polyfjord - https://youtube.com/polyfjord
:: ================================================================
::  USAGE
::    • Double-click this .bat or run it from a command prompt.  
::    • Frames are extracted, features matched, and a sparse
::      reconstruction is produced automatically.  
::    • Videos that have already been processed are skipped on
::      subsequent runs.
::
::  PURPOSE
::    This is a fully automated photogrammetry tracker for turning
::    videos into COLMAP sparse models with robust error handling,
::    clean directory setup, and clear ✖ / ✔ logging.
::
::  FOLDER LAYOUT (all folders sit side-by-side):
::    01 COLMAP   – Download the latest release from
::                   https://github.com/colmap/colmap
::                   and place colmap.bat (plus its dlls) here.
::
::    02 VIDEOS   – Put your input video files (.mp4, .mov, …) here.
::                   All framerates and aspect ratios are supported.
::
::    03 FFMPEG   – Drop a **static build** of FFmpeg
::                   (either ffmpeg.exe or bin\ffmpeg.exe) here.
::
::    04 SCENES   – The script creates one sub-folder per video
::                   containing extracted frames, the COLMAP
::                   database, sparse model, and TXT export.
::
::    05 SCRIPTS  – This batch file lives here.
::
:: ================================================================
@echo off

:: ---------- Resolve top-level folder (one up from this .bat) -----
pushd "%~dp0\.." >nul
set "TOP=%cd%"
popd >nul

:: ---------- Key paths -------------------------------------------
set "COLMAP_DIR=%TOP%\01 COLMAP"
set "VIDEOS_DIR=%TOP%\02 VIDEOS"
set "FFMPEG_DIR=%TOP%\03 FFMPEG"
set "SCENES_DIR=%TOP%\04 SCENES"

:: ---------- Locate ffmpeg.exe -----------------------------------
if exist "%FFMPEG_DIR%\ffmpeg.exe" (
    set "FFMPEG=%FFMPEG_DIR%\ffmpeg.exe"
) else if exist "%FFMPEG_DIR%\bin\ffmpeg.exe" (
    set "FFMPEG=%FFMPEG_DIR%\bin\ffmpeg.exe"
) else (
    echo [ERROR] ffmpeg.exe not found inside "%FFMPEG_DIR%".
    pause & goto :eof
)

:: ---------- Locate colmap.exe (skip the .bat) --------------------
if exist "%COLMAP_DIR%\colmap.exe" (
    set "COLMAP=%COLMAP_DIR%\colmap.exe"
) else if exist "%COLMAP_DIR%\bin\colmap.exe" (
    set "COLMAP=%COLMAP_DIR%\bin\colmap.exe"
) else (
    echo [ERROR] colmap.exe not found inside "%COLMAP_DIR%".
    pause & goto :eof
)

:: ---------- Put COLMAP’s dll folder(s) on PATH -------------------
set "PATH=%COLMAP_DIR%;%COLMAP_DIR%\bin;%PATH%"

:: ---------- Ensure required folders exist ------------------------
if not exist "%VIDEOS_DIR%" (
    echo [ERROR] Input folder "%VIDEOS_DIR%" missing.
    pause & goto :eof
)
if not exist "%SCENES_DIR%" mkdir "%SCENES_DIR%"

:: ---------- Count videos for progress bar ------------------------
for /f %%C in ('dir /b /a-d "%VIDEOS_DIR%\*" ^| find /c /v ""') do set "TOTAL=%%C"
if "%TOTAL%"=="0" (
    echo [INFO] No video files found in "%VIDEOS_DIR%".
    pause & goto :eof
)

echo ==============================================================
echo  Starting COLMAP on %TOTAL% video(s) …
echo ==============================================================

setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set /a IDX=0

for %%V in ("%VIDEOS_DIR%\*.*") do (
    if exist "%%~fV" (
        set /a IDX+=1
        call :PROCESS_VIDEO "%%~fV" "!IDX!" "%TOTAL%"
    )
)

echo --------------------------------------------------------------
echo  All jobs finished – results are in "%SCENES_DIR%".
echo --------------------------------------------------------------
pause
goto :eof


:PROCESS_VIDEO
:: ----------------------------------------------------------------
::  %1 = full path to video   %2 = current index   %3 = total
:: ----------------------------------------------------------------
setlocal
set "VIDEO=%~1"
set "NUM=%~2"
set "TOT=%~3"

for %%I in ("%VIDEO%") do (
    set "BASE=%%~nI"
    set "EXT=%%~xI"
)

echo.
echo [!NUM!/!TOT!] === Processing "!BASE!!EXT!" ===

:: -------- Directory layout for this scene -----------------------
set "SCENE=%SCENES_DIR%\!BASE!"
set "IMG_DIR=!SCENE!\images"
set "SPARSE_DIR=!SCENE!\sparse"

:: -------- Skip if already reconstructed -------------------------
if exist "!SCENE!" (
    echo        ↻ Skipping "!BASE!" – already reconstructed.
    goto :END
)

:: Clean slate ----------------------------------------------------
mkdir "!IMG_DIR!"   >nul
mkdir "!SPARSE_DIR!" >nul

:: -------- 1) Extract every frame --------------------------------
echo        [1/4] Extracting frames …
"%FFMPEG%" -loglevel error -stats -i "!VIDEO!" -qscale:v 2 ^
    "!IMG_DIR!\frame_%%06d.jpg"
if errorlevel 1 (
    echo        ✖ FFmpeg failed – skipping "!BASE!".
    goto :END
)

:: Check at least one frame exists
dir /b "!IMG_DIR!\*.jpg" >nul 2>&1 || (
    echo        ✖ No frames extracted – skipping "!BASE!".
    goto :END
)

:: -------- 2) Feature extraction ---------------------------------
echo        [2/4] COLMAP feature_extractor …
"%COLMAP%" feature_extractor ^
    --database_path "!SCENE!\database.db" ^
    --image_path    "!IMG_DIR!" ^
    --ImageReader.single_camera 1 ^
    --SiftExtraction.use_gpu 1 ^
    --SiftExtraction.max_image_size 4096
if errorlevel 1 (
    echo        ✖ feature_extractor failed – skipping "!BASE!".
    goto :END
)

:: -------- 3) Sequential matching --------------------------------
echo        [3/4] COLMAP sequential_matcher …
"%COLMAP%" sequential_matcher ^
    --database_path "!SCENE!\database.db" ^
    --SequentialMatching.overlap 15
if errorlevel 1 (
    echo        ✖ sequential_matcher failed – skipping "!BASE!".
    goto :END
)

:: -------- 4) Sparse reconstruction ------------------------------
echo        [4/4] COLMAP mapper …
"%COLMAP%" mapper ^
    --database_path "!SCENE!\database.db" ^
    --image_path    "!IMG_DIR!" ^
    --output_path   "!SPARSE_DIR!" ^
    --Mapper.num_threads %NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS%
if errorlevel 1 (
    echo        ✖ mapper failed – skipping "!BASE!".
    goto :END
)

:: -------- Export best model to TXT ------------------------------
if exist "!SPARSE_DIR!\0" (
    "%COLMAP%" model_converter ^
        --input_path  "!SPARSE_DIR!\0" ^
        --output_path "!SPARSE_DIR!" ^
        --output_type TXT >nul
)

echo        ✔ Finished "!BASE!"  (!NUM!/!TOT!)

:END
endlocal & goto :eof

I'm having a problem with the Qt platform plugin, getting this error:

[2/4] COLMAP feature_extractor ...

qt.qpa.plugin: COuld not find the Qt platform plugin "windows" in "" This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.

I'm also getting this for step 3/4.

Is there a prerequisite I need to install before I can run this?

I had the same issue, added the following line to the script after line 70 (After the "Put COLMAP’s dll folder(s) on PATH"):

set "QT_PLUGIN_PATH=%COLMAP_DIR%\plugins"

This resolved the qt issue for me, it was suggested in the colmap issues: colmap/colmap#475

this script has a file encoding problem.
On my win10 22H2 Chinese system, you have to save the bat in ANSI coding manually to run the script or you'll get piles of errors
wonderful automatical script anyway

Hello, guys. Help me please. When i push ctrl+s and choose all files , it saves text file, not this one with little gears on thumbnail, so when i push to launch , it just open text file...

@topazonanton, click the 'raw' button first (top right of script), then use ctrl+s

@PhoenixIllusion, your notes were very important in running in headless mode. I ran Debian 13 and found the following (found out later that this is because I was running an older version):

• You can install everything with the following code:
  sudo apt-get install ffmpeg colmap -y # Don't follow this, follow the guide below.
• Found the .use_gpu you use is wrong or out of date. I found these to work:
  • $COLMAP feature_extractor --SiftExtraction.use_gpu 0 # Find and change
    $COLMAP sequential_matcher --SiftMatching.use_gpu 0 # Add this

I got a whole guide here: AutoTracker_v1.4_Linux.sh

@PhoenixIllusion Thank you.
But i already solve this problem. Its was about saving the file. It was saving file as text file and letters txt were invisible by some reason...
So when i just removed few last letters and typed the again file became *.bat as needed.
Thank you again. I already made my first track using glomap, it works really cool)))
If to compare AfterEffects tracking with glomap, there is one negative thing in glomap , it doesnt connect fixed plane to tracked dots, but its not a big problem. It still works greate!!!

When I run the script, it gives me the following output

==============================================================
 Starting COLMAP on 2 video(s) …
==============================================================

[1/2] === Processing "TEST FOOTAGE.mp4" ===
       [1/4] Extracting frames …
frame=  799 fps=353 q=2.0 Lsize=N/A time=00:00:26.78 bitrate=N/A dup=15 drop=0 speed=11.8x elapsed=0:00:02.26
       [2/4] COLMAP feature_extractor …
E20260119 19:04:51.626419 22212 option_manager.cc:976] Failed to parse options - unrecognised option '--SiftExtraction.use_gpu'.
       Γ£û feature_extractor failed ΓÇô skipping "TEST FOOTAGE".
--------------------------------------------------------------
 All jobs finished ΓÇô results are in "C:\Users\default\OneDrive\Documents\GAUSSIAN SPLAT\TRACKING\04 SCENES".
--------------------------------------------------------------
Press any key to continue . . .

this puts 2 folders in 04 SCENES, images, and sparse. the images folder has the frames extracted correctly, but the sparse folder is empty.

I think I've fixed it, apparently related to a colmap update. If anyone else has this open batch_reconstruct.bat in any editing program, and change

:: -------- 2) Feature extraction ---------------------------------
echo        [2/4] COLMAP feature_extractor …
"%COLMAP%" feature_extractor ^
    --database_path "!SCENE!\database.db" ^
    --image_path    "!IMG_DIR!" ^
    --ImageReader.single_camera 1 ^
    --SiftExtraction.use_gpu 1 ^
    --SiftExtraction.max_image_size 4096
if errorlevel 1 (
    echo        ✖ feature_extractor failed – skipping "!BASE!".
    goto :END
)

to

:: -------- 2) Feature extraction ---------------------------------
echo        [2/4] COLMAP feature_extractor …
"%COLMAP%" feature_extractor ^
    --database_path "!SCENE!\database.db" ^
    --image_path    "!IMG_DIR!" ^
    --ImageReader.single_camera 1 ^
    --FeatureExtraction.use_gpu 1 ^
    --SiftExtraction.max_image_size 4096
if errorlevel 1 (
    echo        ✖ feature_extractor failed – skipping "!BASE!".
    goto :END
)

SiftExtraction still exists for the image size i presume as if i switch that to FeatureExtraction aswell it breaks again. I'll update if that was the solution.

EDIT: this was the solution

For some reason ffmpeg was incorrectly detecting the video framerate for me.

It was extrating the images at 120 fps but my video was recorded at 30 (which means each frame was repeated 4 times). So I had to manually set the -fpsmax:v 30 flag (which was my framerate). This reduced the processing time by 75% already.

But if the video moves slow enough (which was my case) the software is capable of extrating good enough information with a much less framerate.

I successfully processed a (4k, 65 second) video in 5 minutes by setting the FPS down to 3.

I think I've fixed it, apparently related to a colmap update. If anyone else has this open batch_reconstruct.bat in any editing program, and change

:: -------- 2) Feature extraction ---------------------------------
echo        [2/4] COLMAP feature_extractor …
"%COLMAP%" feature_extractor ^
    --database_path "!SCENE!\database.db" ^
    --image_path    "!IMG_DIR!" ^
    --ImageReader.single_camera 1 ^
    --SiftExtraction.use_gpu 1 ^
    --SiftExtraction.max_image_size 4096
if errorlevel 1 (
    echo        ✖ feature_extractor failed – skipping "!BASE!".
    goto :END
)

to

:: -------- 2) Feature extraction ---------------------------------
echo        [2/4] COLMAP feature_extractor …
"%COLMAP%" feature_extractor ^
    --database_path "!SCENE!\database.db" ^
    --image_path    "!IMG_DIR!" ^
    --ImageReader.single_camera 1 ^
    --FeatureExtraction.use_gpu 1 ^
    --SiftExtraction.max_image_size 4096
if errorlevel 1 (
    echo        ✖ feature_extractor failed – skipping "!BASE!".
    goto :END
)

SiftExtraction still exists for the image size i presume as if i switch that to FeatureExtraction aswell it breaks again. I'll update if that was the solution.

EDIT: this was the solution

did ur fix , still the same problem , did u do anything else ?

EDIT : the video title was in arabic , changed to english and it worked for me

For macOS using either the native Terminal app or Ghostty, a different approach, a script that can receive one or several videos and outputs the result in a folder with the same name as the input:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# ================================================================
#  AUTOMATED PHOTOGRAMMETRY TRACKING WORKFLOW
# ================================================================
#  USAGE
#    chmod +x colmap_photogrammetry.sh
#    ./colmap_photogrammetry.sh video1.mp4 video2.mov …
#
#  OUTPUT
#    Each input file produces a sibling directory named after the
#    file (without extension), containing:
#      images/      – extracted frames
#      database.db  – COLMAP feature database
#      sparse/      – sparse reconstruction + TXT export
#
#  DEPENDENCIES (must be on $PATH)
#    ffmpeg   – brew install ffmpeg
#    colmap   – brew install colmap
# ================================================================

set -euo pipefail

# ----------------------------------------------------------------
# Helpers
# ----------------------------------------------------------------
log()  { echo "       $*"; }
die()  { echo "[ERROR] $*" >&2; exit 1; }

# ----------------------------------------------------------------
# Dependency check
# ----------------------------------------------------------------
for cmd in ffmpeg colmap; do
    command -v "$cmd" &>/dev/null || die "'$cmd' not found on \$PATH. Install via: brew install $cmd"
done

# ----------------------------------------------------------------
# Usage check
# ----------------------------------------------------------------
if [[ $# -eq 0 ]]; then
    echo "Usage: $(basename "$0") <video1> [video2 …]"
    exit 1
fi

NUM_THREADS="$(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu 2>/dev/null || echo 4)"
TOTAL=$#
IDX=0

# ----------------------------------------------------------------
# Process one video
# ----------------------------------------------------------------
process_video() {
    local VIDEO="$1"

    [[ -f "$VIDEO" ]] || { log "✖ Not a file: \"$VIDEO\" – skipping."; return 0; }

    local BASE="${VIDEO%.*}"          # path minus extension
    local NAME="$(basename "$BASE")"  # filename only, for labels

    IDX=$(( IDX + 1 ))
    echo ""
    echo "[$IDX/$TOTAL] === Processing \"$(basename "$VIDEO")\" ==="

    # -------- Output directories ---------------------------------
    local SCENE="$BASE"
    local IMG_DIR="$SCENE/images"
    local SPARSE_DIR="$SCENE/sparse"

    # Overwrite: wipe and recreate
    rm -rf "$SCENE"
    mkdir -p "$IMG_DIR" "$SPARSE_DIR"

    # -------- 1) Extract every frame -----------------------------
    log "[1/4] Extracting frames …"
    if ! ffmpeg -loglevel error -stats -i "$VIDEO" -qscale:v 2 \
            "$IMG_DIR/frame_%06d.jpg"; then
        log "✖ ffmpeg failed – skipping \"$NAME\"."
        rm -rf "$SCENE"; return 0
    fi

    ls "$IMG_DIR"/*.jpg &>/dev/null || {
        log "✖ No frames extracted – skipping \"$NAME\"."
        rm -rf "$SCENE"; return 0
    }

    # -------- 2) Feature extraction ------------------------------
    log "[2/4] COLMAP feature_extractor …"
    if ! colmap feature_extractor \
            --database_path "$SCENE/database.db" \
            --image_path    "$IMG_DIR" \
            --ImageReader.single_camera 1 \
            --SiftExtraction.use_gpu 0 \
            --SiftExtraction.max_image_size 4096; then
        log "✖ feature_extractor failed – skipping \"$NAME\"."
        rm -rf "$SCENE"; return 0
    fi

    # -------- 3) Sequential matching -----------------------------
    log "[3/4] COLMAP sequential_matcher …"
    if ! colmap sequential_matcher \
            --database_path "$SCENE/database.db" \
            --SequentialMatching.overlap 15; then
        log "✖ sequential_matcher failed – skipping \"$NAME\"."
        rm -rf "$SCENE"; return 0
    fi

    # -------- 4) Sparse reconstruction ---------------------------
    log "[4/4] COLMAP mapper …"
    if ! colmap mapper \
            --database_path "$SCENE/database.db" \
            --image_path    "$IMG_DIR" \
            --output_path   "$SPARSE_DIR" \
            --Mapper.num_threads "$NUM_THREADS"; then
        log "✖ mapper failed – skipping \"$NAME\"."
        rm -rf "$SCENE"; return 0
    fi

    # -------- Export best model to TXT ---------------------------
    if [[ -d "$SPARSE_DIR/0" ]]; then
        colmap model_converter \
            --input_path  "$SPARSE_DIR/0" \
            --output_path "$SPARSE_DIR" \
            --output_type TXT &>/dev/null
    fi

    log "✔ Finished \"$NAME\"  ($IDX/$TOTAL)"
}

# ----------------------------------------------------------------
# Main loop
# ----------------------------------------------------------------
echo "=============================================================="
echo " Starting COLMAP on $TOTAL video(s) …"
echo "=============================================================="

for VIDEO in "$@"; do
    process_video "$VIDEO"
done

echo ""
echo "=============================================================="
echo " All jobs finished."
echo "=============================================================="

Similar scripts:
https://github.com/rodrigopolo/clis/tree/main/GaussianSplatting