iPi Mocap Studio Kinect v2 requirements

Snapz · **Posted:** Tue Oct 27, 2015 9:30 am

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Wondering if you have any updates on your Kinect v2 setup, or anything you can share with other users about what you have discovered during setup?

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Greenlaw · **Posted:** Tue Oct 27, 2015 11:29 am

No, sorry. At the moment, we're too busy finishing our long-overdue 'B2' short film using the existing triple Kinect v1 system.

We had a problem getting the Kinect v2 devices to work with our four render boxes even though the MS Kinect tool verified the configuration for these machines. I'm thinking the problem might have to do with the motherboards in these computers but I'll need time to figure this out. I don't want to upgrade the motherboards as that would apparently invalidate the free Win 10 upgrade so hopefully the solution isn't that drastic.

What I'll probably wind up doing eventually is I'll build a bare bones computer with a fast CPU and plenty of RAM using new parts that meet the Kinect v2 specs. Once I get that working, I'll build additional boxes as I can afford them. Naturally, these boxes will be added to the render farm. That won't happen till after we're finished with 'B2' though. (I should start a 'B2 progress' thread in these forums.)

Sadly, building new render boxes will mean I'll have to give up on the new workstation I wanted to build next year. Oh, well. My old computer is now upgraded to a comfortable state so I can wait a bit longer. :p

Snapz · **Posted:** Tue Oct 27, 2015 12:17 pm

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Yeah, sorry to hear, that's what I ended up doing to, as I stated with an old Dell mATX, but to do 3 more for each Kinect, UGH!

Well, good luck on the new video, will watch it for sure once it's released :)

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HJghj · **Joined:** Thu Nov 05, 2015 8:28 pm **Posts:** 3

I guess I can safely say good-bye to the V1's, I just wish MS would have allowed at least 2 per computer, I am not sure what the issue is there so we could get a full 3D view, maybe a bandwidth issue.

Greenlaw · **Posted:** Sun Nov 08, 2015 12:54 pm

I think the decision may have been based on bandwidth. v2 pushes out a lot more data than v1 does.

That said, I'm not sure why MS restricted the v2 to one computer--surely, a system with enough horsepower could handle the data for at least two v2 devices anyway.

In anyway, I'm glad iPi Soft figured out how to work around this restriction. (Now, if only I can get my v2's to work with the computers I have here.) :p

G.

Greenlaw · **Posted:** Sun Nov 08, 2015 7:46 pm

Quick Followup:

I was rendering new scenes for Brudders this weekend and I ran into a curious problem with two of my render boxes--for some reason, these two computers refused to shut down properly with the Shutdown command. At first I thought this was related to a Windows 10 update and I tried every recommendation I could find online, but none of them worked. While poking around my system, I did notice that the USB 3 drivers were not installing correctly on these two boxes, so I tried updating them--but it turned out I already had the latest driver installed.

Finally, I physically removed the USB 3 card from the two computers, and now they shut down properly. I guess I never tested these two after installing the cards because I had assumed that all four computers were identical, and the cards were working fine with the other two. As it turns out, there is a slight difference in the motherboards of the two 'failing' computers because they were purchased a year earlier than the 'good' computers.

Anyway, the failed Kinect v2 test I ran a month or so ago was done using the two 'good' machines, so no real progress here. It's just the latest frustration with my v2 upgrade project. :(

On a more positive note, today I realized today that I was so focused on using our render boxes for mocap that I neglected to consider using our main workstations for Kinect v2. I have my current workstation of course, which did test positively for v2 capture, and I have an older workstation which is a similar model so it may work too. If I can get that machine to work, I may possibly have a dual v2 setup running here later this week.

Hmm. In theory, I could potentially have a triple setup because my wife's workstation is similar to mine. She probably won't go for it though since, understandably, she doesn't like me messing with her computer especially when she has her own work to do.

Well, I'm almost caught up with using all the Brudders mocap data recorded from over a year ago so I'll be recording new mocap for the next batch of scenes very soon.

More news after the next v2 tests. Hopefully, it will well this week. If not, at least I still have my multi-v1 setup on hand. :)

G.

Greenlaw · **Posted:** Sun Nov 15, 2015 2:53 am

I spent several hours tonight trying out a bunch of things for Kinect v2 compatibility.

Since I had a lot of extra parts available, I tried upgrading my old workstation, which I mainly use as a media server now. This almost worked but the verification tool reported that the USB 3.0 card didn't have the needed bandwidth. I think the issue is that the motherboard is just too old to fully support USB 3.0. That isn't surprising; this computer is probably over 7 years old now.

As verified earlier, my more recent workstation (which is actually about five years old, or two years 'newer' than my old workstation,) does work with Kinect v2, so I'm good there. This is the system I normally run with three Kinect v1 devices plus three PS Move controllers and the bluetooth adapter. I re-checked this system tonight just to be sure and, yup, this one will do just fine for v2.

Finally, I tried plugging a Kinect v2 sensor into my Wacom Cintiq Companion 2 Enhanced tablet and...we have a winner! This tablet appears to be perfectly compatible with Kinect v2.

Woo hoo! So it looks like I'll be able to capture with a dual Kinect v2 configuration after all. I'll see if I can make that happen tomorrow evening.

I think after the year is done, I want to find a relatively cheap desktop or laptop with DX11 support and USB 3.0 to use for a triple v2 configuration. When I'm not using it for mocap, I'd like to use it as a render box. Anybody have a good recommendation?

Seems like my multi-Kinect v2 system is finally coming together. More to report soon I hope.

G.

Snapz · **Posted:** Sun Nov 15, 2015 8:13 am

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Good to hear, now you can get your body rotations easier at least.

2-Kv2's also help a bit in the leg and foot stability.

Since you only need the 3rd comp for iPi Recorder, you don't need a very high end comp, refurb may suit you and they come fairly cheap from many suppliers, laptop or desktop loaded with Win 8.1.

It would be nice if you could record a quick test video of your first experiences with the dual Kv2's uploaded to youtube or other server.

Could you post if you experience when recording using only the Depth video capture, if you get and offset in actor to performer cloud scaling/alignment/floor issue?

I am curious to see if it was only me seeing this.

If calibrating with the board technique, post if you have camera 2 not flipping properly also, as stated I had this happen a lot with a FAILED report, but just re-clicked calibrate button, (several attempts most times), and finally the cam would flip to proper location and show PERFECT report and actor alignment on screen.

Good Luck!

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Greenlaw · **Posted:** Sun Nov 15, 2015 2:38 pm

Will do.

The latest development is that I found wifi is just too slow for transferring the files, so I picked up a USB 3.0 gigabit ethernet adapter for the tablet today. It's sooo much faster! I think this is going to work out well tonight. (Assuming I can get back to this project tonight.)

The camera flipping issue can come from the cameras facing each other too directly and not enough rotation or depth being applied to the motion of the board.

I'm positive this is what happened in your case, but I had this happen a few years ago I first started using dual Kinect v1. iPi Soft quickly determined what the problem was and, once I started making broader and deeper motions, Mocap Studio has never had a problem with correct camera placement for me.

More recently, I've been using Maglite method. It takes a little longer to do but I think it may be more accurate because the tracker has more specific data to work with. With fewer devices involved than with PS3 Eye, it's pretty easy to do too, meaning there's less chance of occlusion anyway.

G.

Greenlaw · **Posted:** Sun Nov 15, 2015 3:23 pm

You know, I'm going to have to take another look at the render boxes. Those computers are actually a bit newer than my workstation (the one that works with Kinect v2) and they're from the same manufacturer, so they really should be compatible. I'm beginning to suspect that I didn't have the latest USB 3.0 controller drivers installed. I had relied on Windows 10 to automatically install what was appropriate but maybe I need to force a driver update on it.

The reason I'm thinking this is because last night I swapped out an older USB 3.0 card from my current workstation for one of the cards I purchased for the render boxes. The newer cards draw power directly from the power supply so I assumed they would be more stable for Kinect v2 use.

At first the Verification Tool reported that the card didn't have sufficient bandwidth but after forcing a driver update, it worked fine in this computer.

Next, I went back and tried this with the older workstation but it still failed. In this case, I half expected this result because of the age of the computer. I shrugged and moved on to testing the tablet.

However, it just occurred to me that the render boxes are actually a couple of years newer than my current workstation so maybe the forced driver update will work for them.

Hopefully, I'll get a chance to test that tonight. With a little luck, maybe I'll be able to do that quad-Kinect v2 capture after all. :)

G.

iPi Mocap Studio Kinect v2 requirements

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