De-Pinch

What Is De-Pinch?

De-Pinch fixes pole distortion (pinching) at the top and bottom of equirectangular 360 images. AI-generated panoramas often exhibit squeezed north/south poles where details compress into unnatural pinched bands. De-Pinch stretches the polar regions to correct this projection artifact, restoring natural proportions and straightening lines that should be straight.

When to Use It

After generating a 360 image, inspect both poles in the viewer. If they appear compressed, smeared, or unnaturally squeezed, apply De-Pinch. The tool is especially useful after diffusion renders where the model has no geometric awareness of equirectangular projection constraints.

How It Works

De-Pinch applies a latitude-dependent stretch to the polar regions, correcting the equirectangular projection distortion without affecting the equator. The result is materialized as a new render document — your original render stays intact.

Availability

De-Pinch is a viewer toolbar tool located in the transforms section. It is available only on render context — it does not appear on LoRA seed canvases or /input surfaces.

Lineage

The depinched result becomes a new node in the derivation graph, preserving a clean render-to-render lineage so you can always trace back to the source.

If the source has a depth channel, depth is carried along with the de-pinch so poles stay consistent. If it cannot follow, regenerate depth on the new node — the app will not quietly reuse a misaligned map.

See also: Channels | Modules & Compatibility | 360 Viewer