Owl3D v2.6.0 brings Converter V2 to Windows: two new 3D models, StereoGen V2 for our best 3D quality and Balanced for fast, steady depth, on one simple converter screen. Drop a video or photo, pick the 3D model, the 3D format and the 3D strength, then Convert.
If you are updating from v2.4.2, you also get everything from v2.5.0, including the app in eight languages. New to converting? Our guide to turning 2D video into 3D walks through the formats.
Stay tuned on our Discord channel for upcoming updates and feature announcements!
What's New in v2.6.0
🎮 New Features
- StereoGen V2: our best 3D quality (Windows) — For NVIDIA RTX 30-series or newer graphics cards with 12 GB+ VRAM, on Plus and above. The first run downloads the model once, with its progress on the card; later runs start right away. On other computers the option is greyed out and says what it needs.
- Balanced: fast, steady depth — Runs on any GPU: NVIDIA, AMD and Intel.
- New converter screen — Pick the 3D model, the 3D format (Full side-by-side, Half side-by-side, Top-bottom), the 3D strength (Subtle to Maximum) and the output resolution. Codec and file type are under More.
- HDR10 output — Keep an HDR video as HDR10 (10-bit H.265), or convert it to standard range.
🎨 Enhancements
- Clearer progress — The converter shows each preparation step, such as reading the video, copying video and audio, and detecting black bars, instead of one line for minutes.
- Plain error messages — When a conversion stops, the app says why: disk full, out of system or GPU memory, an engine blocked by antivirus, or a plan or GPU that can't run StereoGen V2. A converter that stops responding for 10 minutes is stopped with a message instead of hanging.
- Free plan photos — Free users see that photos are converted at up to 1280 px.
✨ Improvements
- Your queue carries over — Jobs queued in v2.5 move to Balanced or StereoGen V2 with the new settings. A job that had already started begins again, with a note before Resume.
- A StereoGen V2 job your plan or GPU can't run waits at the end of the queue, and the other jobs still run.
- Less disk space — AI models the app no longer uses are removed once (up to about 14 GB on computers that used the v2.5 models), and fewer models are downloaded.
- Download fallback — If a download server fails, the converter engine, AI models and the Shift 3D engine download from another server by themselves.
- Shift 3D engine updates — If its download fails, the app retries by itself, also as soon as the network comes back. An update never leaves your Shift without a working engine.
- Shift card — Shows Connected while the Shift 3D engine downloads for the first time, instead of "Not connected".
- Calibration — When calibration fails, the message now names the reason.
🐛 Bug Fixes
- Shift on a 1080p-only connection (Windows) — When an adapter, dock or cable can't carry 4K at 60 Hz, Live 3D now says so and how to fix it, instead of returning to Start with no message.
- Older NVIDIA cards (Windows) — A GPU older than the GTX 750 gets a clear message instead of a failed conversion, and GPU detection on workstation and newer cards is more reliable. Photo to 3D is shown as unavailable, with the reason, on cards older than the RTX 30-series instead of crashing.
- Letterboxed films — With Detect black bars on, a letterboxed film converted to a lower resolution (for example 4K to 1080p) keeps its shape; before, the picture came out about 7% too tall.
Download Owl3D and try the update. On Mac, Converter V2 comes in the next update, v2.6.1.
Happy Owl3Ding! 🦉
