New node to generate sfmData views from folders

[servantftransperfect]

This pull request introduces a new utility for generating SfMData files from sets of images, along with improvements to image discovery and view initialization logic throughout the codebase. The most important changes are grouped below by theme.

New SfMData Generation Utility

• Added the aliceVision_generateSfmData command-line tool and corresponding pipeline node (GenerateSfmData.py, main_generateSfmData.cpp, and build integration), enabling users to generate an SfMData file from a set of image files or folders. Note that only views are generated with this node. No intrinsics, no colorspace management, etc. [1] [2] [3]

Image Discovery Improvements

• Introduced the listImages function in image/io.cpp and image/io.hpp, which recursively finds all supported image files in a given directory or accepts a single file, improving image input handling for the new tool and other utilities. [1] [2]

View Initialization Refactor

• Replaced the updateIncompleteView function with bootstrapView in viewIO.cpp and viewIO.hpp, providing clearer logic for initializing views and ensuring minimal identifiers and metadata are set; updated all usages across the codebase. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

• Added the isFullySetup method to the View class, allowing checks for minimal required identifiers before processing, and used it in the refactored view initialization logic.

Minor Code Cleanups

• Adjusted includes in image/io.cpp to improve organization and remove redundancy. [1] [2]

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These changes collectively provide a robust utility for generating SfMData from arbitrary sets of images, improve image input handling, and clarify the process of initializing views for SfM pipelines.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This pull request introduces a new command-line utility aliceVision_generateSfmData that generates SfMData files containing only view information from image files or directories. The PR also refactors view initialization logic by renaming updateIncompleteView to bootstrapView and introduces a new listImages utility function for recursive image discovery.

Changes:

• Added aliceVision_generateSfmData utility to create minimal SfMData files from image sets
• Introduced listImages() function for recursive image file discovery in directories
• Refactored updateIncompleteView() to bootstrapView() with improved code organization

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 12 out of 12 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
src/software/utils/main_generateSfmData.cpp	New command-line tool to generate SfMData from images; creates views with IDs and frame detection
src/software/utils/CMakeLists.txt	Build configuration for the new generateSfmData utility
src/aliceVision/image/io.cpp	Implementation of listImages() function for recursive image discovery
src/aliceVision/image/io.hpp	Declaration of listImages() function
src/aliceVision/sfmDataIO/viewIO.cpp	Refactored updateIncompleteView to bootstrapView with extracted helper function
src/aliceVision/sfmDataIO/viewIO.hpp	Updated function declaration for bootstrapView
src/aliceVision/sfmData/View.hpp	Added isFullySetup() method to check if view has minimal required identifiers
src/software/pipeline/main_cameraInit.cpp	Updated to use bootstrapView instead of updateIncompleteView
src/aliceVision/sfmDataIO/jsonIO.cpp	Updated to use bootstrapView instead of updateIncompleteView
src/aliceVision/sfmDataIO/gtIO.cpp	Updated to use bootstrapView instead of updateIncompleteView
src/aliceVision/keyframe/KeyframeSelector.cpp	Updated to use bootstrapView instead of updateIncompleteView
meshroom/aliceVision/GenerateSfmData.py	Python pipeline node definition for the new utility

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (12)

src/aliceVision/sfmData/View.hpp:244

• The isFullySetup() method should be marked as const since it does not modify the object state. This would allow it to be called on const View references and is consistent with best practices for getter methods.

    bool isFullySetup()

src/aliceVision/image/io.cpp:1492

• When a file path is provided but it's not a supported image extension, the function should return false to indicate an error (similar to how it returns false when the path is neither a file nor a directory). Currently, it falls through to check if it's a directory, which will fail for a file with an unsupported extension, but this is less clear. Add an else { return false; } after line 1491 to handle this case explicitly.

    if (fs::is_regular_file(paramPath))
    {
        if (isSupportedImageExtension(paramPath))
        {
            images.push_back(path);
            return true;
        }
    }

src/aliceVision/image/io.cpp:1481

• The lambda isSupportedImageExtension iterates through all supported extensions for every file checked. For better performance, consider using a std::unordered_set for O(1) lookups instead of O(n) linear search, especially when processing directories with many files.

    auto isSupportedImageExtension = [&oiioExtensions](const fs::path& filePath) -> bool 
    {
        std::string currentExtension = filePath.extension().string();
        std::transform(currentExtension.begin(), currentExtension.end(), currentExtension.begin(), ::tolower);

        for (const auto& oiioExtension : oiioExtensions)
        {
            if (oiioExtension == currentExtension)
            {
                return true;
            }
        }
        return false;
    };

src/aliceVision/sfmDataIO/viewIO.cpp:56

• The error message has an extra apostrophe before "to be used as viewId". The message should read "...in the filename " + filename + " to be used as viewId." without the apostrophe after filename.

    ALICEVISION_LOG_ERROR("The Regex '" << viewIdRegex << "' must match a unique number in the filename " << filename << "' to be used as viewId.");

src/aliceVision/sfmDataIO/viewIO.hpp:63

• The documentation comment still refers to "update an incomplete view" which was the old function name updateIncompleteView. Since the function was renamed to bootstrapView, the documentation should be updated to reflect the new name and purpose, such as "Initialize/bootstrap an incomplete view (at least with the image path)".

/**
 * @brief update an incomplete view (at least only the image path)
 * @param view The given incomplete view
 * @param[in] viewIdMethod ViewId generation method to use
 * @param[in] viewIdRegex Optional regex used when viewIdMethod is FILENAME
 */

src/aliceVision/sfmDataIO/viewIO.cpp:65

• There are two consecutive spaces between isFullySetup() and the && operator. This should be a single space for consistency with the rest of the codebase.

    if (view.isFullySetup() &&  view.getImage().getHeight() > 0 && view.getImage().getWidth() > 0)

src/software/utils/main_generateSfmData.cpp:73

• After processing all input paths, there's no check for whether any images were found. If all input paths are invalid or no images are found, the code will create an empty SfMData file without warning the user. Consider adding a check after line 72 to validate that allImagesItems is not empty, and log a warning or error if no images were found.

    std::vector<std::string> allImagesItems(allImages.begin(), allImages.end());

src/aliceVision/image/io.cpp:1512

• The fs::recursive_directory_iterator can throw exceptions (e.g., for permission denied, symbolic link loops, or other filesystem errors). Consider wrapping the iteration in a try-catch block or using the error_code overload to handle potential errors gracefully instead of letting exceptions propagate.

    for (const auto& entry : fs::recursive_directory_iterator(path)) 
    {
        if (!entry.is_regular_file())
        {
            continue;
        }

        if (isSupportedImageExtension(entry.path()))
        {
            images.push_back(entry.path().string());
        }
    }

src/software/utils/main_generateSfmData.cpp:58

• The loop variable path should be captured by reference (const auto& path) to avoid unnecessary string copies for each iteration. This is a performance optimization that's standard practice when iterating over containers of non-trivial types.

    for (const auto path : inputPaths)

src/aliceVision/sfmDataIO/viewIO.cpp:68

• The bootstrapView function checks view.isFullySetup() which requires intrinsicId != UndefinedIndexT, but bootstrapView never sets the intrinsicId. This means that for views created by this tool (which start with intrinsicId = UndefinedIndexT), the early return condition will never be met, and the function will always read the image metadata even if the view is otherwise complete. While this may be intentional for this use case, consider documenting this behavior or adjusting the early return condition if metadata reading is the only missing piece.

    if (view.isFullySetup() &&  view.getImage().getHeight() > 0 && view.getImage().getWidth() > 0)
    {
        return;
    }

src/aliceVision/sfmDataIO/viewIO.cpp:57

• The error message has an extra apostrophe before "to be used as viewId". The message should read "...in the filename " + filename + " to be used as viewId." without the apostrophe after filename.

    throw std::invalid_argument("The Regex '" + viewIdRegex + "' must match a unique number in the filename " + filename + "' to be used as viewId.");

src/software/utils/main_generateSfmData.cpp:43

• The command-line description incorrectly says "AliceVision maskEroding" instead of describing this generateSfmData tool. This should be updated to something like "AliceVision generateSfmData" to accurately reflect the purpose of this utility.

    CmdLine cmdline("AliceVision maskEroding");

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[fabiencastan]

I would name it "main_listImages".

generateSfmData looks like we are generating synthetic scenes for unit tests.