Migrating from Legacy Photo Mosaic Wall to PMWall
PMWall replaces the legacy Photo Mosaic Wall software. If you have run mosaic activations before, most of your experience carries over -- the same main image, grid, blending, and matching decisions still shape the wall. What changes is where those decisions live and how photos reach the mosaic.
This article maps the old workflow onto the new one. For pricing and what legacy customers are entitled to, see Photo Mosaic Wall Pricing: Legacy vs. Current PMWall.
What Changed
| Legacy Photo Mosaic Wall | PMWall |
|---|---|
| A local activation created on the event PC | A Cloud event with a PMWall template |
| Settings configured in the app, per machine | Settings authored in the Cloud template, synced to the app |
| Photos arrive via Photo Mosaic Agent or a local folder | Photos arrive through the Foto Master Cloud event gallery |
Local folders under C:\PhotoMosaicWall | Event folders under C:\PMWall\Events |
| Digital Mosaic shown from the event laptop | Virtual Mosaic, hosted and shareable online |
| Nothing to sync | Sync Event pulls the template before each run |
The single biggest change: the event is defined in the Cloud, not on the machine. You can build and approve a whole activation before the event computer is on site, and a replacement machine only needs PMWall, a sign-in, and a sync to be ready.
Terminology
- An activation is now an event.
- The target picture is the main image.
- A grid position is a cell; a photo placed in one is a tile.
- Incoming guest photos are raw photos; the rendered output are mosaic tiles.
- The settings bundle is a template, authored in the Cloud.
The Photo Mosaic Agent Is Gone
The legacy Agent copied photos from a booth PC to the mosaic PC over the local network. PMWall does not use it, and there is nothing to install on the booth.
Instead, every capture product uploads to the Foto Master Cloud event gallery, and PMWall downloads from there. Point the booth and PMWall at the same Cloud event and the connection is made.
This removes venue LAN configuration from the setup entirely, but it does mean the mosaic depends on internet access rather than a local network. Plan connectivity accordingly.
Supported sources: FMX for Windows, FMX for iPad, and Selfie Wi-Fi. You can still drop files directly into the event's raw folder for USB or SD card imports.
Settings You Already Know
Your existing instincts transfer, but some controls were renamed or reshaped:
- Grid and main image work as before, with the addition of a framing tool so you choose the crop rather than accepting an automatic one.
- Blending still has separate zones, now named Background, Body & clothing, Skin, and Face.
- Matching weights are the same idea. Scatter is the legacy "best fit fuzziness", and Mirrored tiles is the legacy mirror option.
- Fill behaviour is now a single When the wall is full choice with three options, replacing the old participation settings. New templates default to Stop: freeze the finished wall.
- Contest mode returns, with winning cells shuffled in the Cloud template.
- The C/R wall-position label on printed tiles is still there, and still on by default.
Some legacy features were not carried over: per-tile overlay PNGs, alpha-shaped mosaics, and filler photo pools. Green screen and AI photo preparation are handled upstream by AI Hot Folder rather than inside the mosaic software.
Digital Mosaic vs Virtual Mosaic
Digital Mosaic was the legacy local display driven from the event laptop. It is not part of PMWall.
Virtual Mosaic is the current hosted experience: guests open a shareable event link, explore the wall in a browser, find their own tile, and share it. It is a paid account add-on and uses your Foto Master Cloud storage.
If you offered clients a digital or online mosaic before, Virtual Mosaic is what you offer now. See Configuring PMWall Virtual Mosaic in Foto Master Cloud.
Making the Move
- Confirm your Foto Master Cloud plan and PMWall license. Eligible legacy customers can upgrade without repurchasing the software license.
- Install PMWall on the event computer and activate the license. See PMWall Licensing and Activation.
- Rebuild one of your standard activations as a PMWall template in the Cloud. Start from a past event you know well, so you can compare results.
- Run a full rehearsal: sync the event, feed test photos from a booth, start the mosaic, print a tile, and export the final image.
- Compare the output against a previous mosaic and adjust blending and matching to taste.
Do the rehearsal before a client event. The workflow is straightforward, but the first sync-and-start cycle is worth doing without a room full of guests.
Can I Still Run the Legacy Software?
Yes. Legacy Photo Mosaic Wall customers may continue running the legacy software locally under the original license terms, outside Foto Master Cloud. Documentation for it remains available in the archived Photo Mosaic Wall section of this knowledge base.
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