MPViewer
360° photos and video

Step inside
the frame.

Explore equirectangular panoramas on an interactive sphere, play 360° video, create Little Planets, hide the tripod and save exactly the view you want—all inside the same private, folder-first workflow.

Explore Live 360° Tour Demo Read the tutorial Tour Studio (1.5)

Introduced in MPViewer 1.4 • Photos + video • Local processing

Written by · Updated September 3, 2026

Before you begin

Use a stitched equirectangular file.

MPViewer automatically recognizes PhotoSphere metadata and the standard 2:1 equirectangular shape. It also recognizes supported 360° videos, including .insv files.

Unstitched 360° DNG RAW contains separate fisheye lenses and is therefore marked experimental. For a clean seam and corrected geometry, use a panorama stitched by the camera or stitching software—preferably JPEG or TIFF.

01 · OPEN

Enter the sphere from fullscreen.

Open a supported panorama from the gallery. When MPViewer detects GPano metadata or a 2:1 equirectangular image, a globe button appears in the fullscreen top bar.

  1. 1
    Open the file

    Double-click its thumbnail, or select it and press F, Space or Return.

  2. 2
    Choose the globe

    Click the globe button to change from the flat “360° 2D” preview to the interactive “360° sphere” view.

  3. 3
    Return whenever you want

    Use the same control to move back to the flat equirectangular view for conventional inspection.

Automatic detection

A standard 2:1 panorama usually works immediately even when its GPano metadata is missing.

03 · LITTLE PLANET

Turn the panorama into a world of its own.

Choose Little Planet from the 360° Pro tools. MPViewer switches to a live stereographic projection rendered on the GPU.

Little Planet stereographic projection created from a 360 degree photograph in MPViewer
One click to Little PlanetReframe interactively, then export at the panorama’s native resolution.
  1. 1
    Rotate the planet

    Drag horizontally to change yaw and vertically to change pitch, including swapping the Zenith and Nadir orientation.

  2. 2
    Set the scale

    Scroll until the planet and surrounding sky fill the composition the way you want.

  3. 3
    Export the result

    Choose the Little Planet export control to render a flat image at the source panorama’s full native resolution.

04 · NADIR PATCH

Hide the tripod in one click.

The Nadir is the point directly beneath the camera, where tripod legs often remain visible. Nadir Patch places a circular cover at that exact point.

Nadir Patch covering a tripod at the bottom of a 360 degree photograph
A clean floor in one clickUse the MPViewer mark, your own transparent PNG or a simple black disc.
  1. 1
    Choose a style

    Select the built-in MPViewer logo, a custom PNG or a solid black disc.

  2. 2
    Fit the cover

    Adjust disc size from 10 to 90 points and opacity from 10% to 100% while watching the result live.

  3. 3
    Bake a new panorama

    Export a new equirectangular file with the patch included. The original remains untouched.

Works with Little Planet.

Your active Nadir Patch is also included in the Little Planet preview and its 2D export.

05 · INITIAL VIEW

Choose what viewers see first.

Navigate to the angle that best introduces the scene, then choose Set Initial View from the 360° tools. MPViewer stores the current heading and pitch in the photograph’s XMP metadata.

Frame the viewSet Initial ViewReopen to verify

Non-destructive: The viewing direction is metadata. MPViewer does not rotate or resample the panorama pixels.

06 · 4K SNAPSHOT

Save the view as a conventional photograph.

Position the sphere, choose the camera-shaped 2D Snapshot control and MPViewer saves a flat 4K image of the current perspective beside the source file.

Frame

Drag and zoom until the view reads like a normal photograph.

Capture

Choose 2D Snapshot to render the visible perspective at 4K resolution.

Continue

Review, compare or export the resulting flat image like any other photograph.

07 · 360° VIDEO

Your 360° video belongs here too.

MPViewer places supported equirectangular video on the same interactive sphere and keeps a complete playback bar within reach. Supported detection includes Insta360 .insv files.

MPViewer playing a 360 degree video with a complete playback control bar
Immersive video, familiar controlsNavigate the sphere without giving up precise playback.
Space or clickPlay or pause
J / KSkip back or forward 10 seconds
, / .Step backward or forward one frame
SCycle playback speed
MMute or restore sound
Loop buttonRepeat playback continuously

The floating controls also provide a timeline, volume adjustment and auto-hide behavior so the interface moves out of the way while the video plays.

08 · ADJUST & EXPORT

Finish without flattening your workflow.

Quick Adjust updates the 360° sphere and Little Planet preview live. When you are ready, choose the output that matches the job.

360° panoramaExport the equirectangular image, including an optional Nadir Patch.
Little PlanetRender the stereographic composition at full native sensor resolution.
2D SnapshotSave a conventional 4K photograph from the current perspective.
Initial ViewKeep the panorama intact and store only its preferred opening direction.

Panorama export can retain the original JPEG, TIFF, PNG, HEIC or WebP format when supported, or convert to another available format with quality control. Supported EXIF, GPS, IPTC, MakerNote and GPano metadata are preserved.

10 · TOUR STUDIO (v1.5)

Build multi-room virtual tours on Mac.

MPViewer 1.5 introduces Tour Studio, turning your library of equirectangular panoramas into complete, interconnected virtual walkthroughs without cloud subscriptions or monthly hosting fees.

MPViewer 1.5 Tour Studio interactive node graph and blueprint wayfinding
Visual Tour Graph & Blueprint WayfindingConnect nodes with yellow link ports and align rooms on architectural floor plans.
  1. 1
    Visual Node Graph

    Drag 360° panoramas onto the infinite canvas. Drag yellow connection ports between rooms to create bidirectional doorway portals and navigation arrows automatically.

  2. 2
    Floor Plan & Radar Wayfinding

    Import architectural floor plans for multi-story buildings. Drop room pins onto the blueprint—a live field-of-view radar cone tracks the visitor’s exact heading and zoom.

  3. 3
    Voice Narration & Soundtracks

    Record room voice memos hands-free while looking around the sphere. Set background music with automatic speech ducking and spatial volume control.

  4. 4
    Export & Publish Anywhere

    Export self-contained WebGL folders that work offline or upload straight to your own SFTP server or Amazon S3 bucket. No monthly fees, no accounts, and zero cloud lock-in.

Experience Tour Studio Live

Test a real tour generated by MPViewer 1.5 Tour Studio directly in your browser: Open 360° Tour Demo (New Tab) ↗

09 · TROUBLESHOOTING

When the sphere does not look right.

The globe button is missing

Confirm that the photo is a stitched 2:1 equirectangular image or contains GPano PhotoSphere metadata.

The image has two circles or a broken seam

You are probably viewing unstitched dual-fisheye RAW. Develop and stitch the DNG first, then open the resulting TIFF or JPEG.

The tripod is still visible

Open the Nadir preset, increase the patch size and use full opacity—or choose a custom PNG designed for the floor area.

The starting angle is wrong

Frame the desired view and run Set Initial View again. The updated heading and pitch are saved to XMP.

MPViewer app icon
Ready to look around?

Open a panorama. Step inside.

MPViewer 1.5 brings Tour Studio, virtual tours and private photo tools to Apple silicon and Intel Macs running macOS 14 or later.

Download MPViewer Launch Live 360° Tour ↗See 1.5 What’s New →
Expanded MPViewer 360 degree screenshot