I don't have any tips myself, I just want to open a discussion about how to improve fps.

Basically, I'm trying to get my daughter's HP laptop to work better with Kinect 2. The laptop is compatible and I can get the framerate to just barely 30 fps with this laptop but it's not steady. Even when I disable the RGB channel, it may randomly drop to 28 fps or lower. The other two computers I'm using can maintain a steady 30 fps. (Surprisingly, the steadiest framerate is with a Wacom Companion 2 tablet computer.)

I'm going to take another look at the laptop tonight and try tweaking a few things thing. I'm going to check the power settings, bios, graphics driver updates, and look any unnecessary processes that might be running in the background.

I was wondering, does anybody here have suggestions for what else I can try to improve the framerate?

Thanks in advance for any helpful ideas.

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Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | My Demo Reels (2013,) (2015,) (2017,) and (2019)

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Quickly researched other Kinect forums and it sounds like, if everything is otherwise compatible, two things have the biggest impact on framerate: power and lighting.

Obviously, room lighting only affects the RGB capture, which I had disabled the other evening, so I'll focus on the power settings.

Will post what I learn tonight, if anything.

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Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | My Demo Reels (2013,) (2015,) (2017,) and (2019)

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Okay, I'm back and here's where I'm at:

It's actually been a while since I've been able to fully focus on motion capture for our productions again, so I had to refresh my memory on a few things. But first things first.

Regarding my daughter's laptop, I went into the Power options as shown here, and clicked on Additional Power Settings:



Which led me to here. This may look differently on yours depending on your computer's manufacturer. I clicked on Change Plan Settings:



Which finally brought me here, where I found a handful of settings that I felt might improve the capture framerate for this computer, most notably the ones related to USB and Graphics performance:



I think the exact settings are going to vary between computer model and hardware options so use your best judgement in changing these settings.

After making the changes and rebooting the computer, I was able to better maintain a steady 30 fps on this computer. TBH, it still seems to struggle just a little when sitting idle (occasionally drops to 29.4 fps) but then again this is a fairily low-end i5 laptop. (Tip: if you're shopping for a laptop or tablet to use with Kinect 2, make sure you get it with an i7 processor. Looking back, I really wish I had spent a little more money on this laptop. Oh, well...my daughter is very happy with it.) :)

Anyway, I think we're good with this computer for now but if anybody has other suggestions, please let me know.

Well, I'm off to do some triple Kinect 2 tests. I'll post a new thread if I learn or create anything interesting with this.

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Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | My Demo Reels (2013,) (2015,) (2017,) and (2019)

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Just another followup on using the three Kinect 2 sensors with that low-end laptop in the chain.

The laptop seems to be working fine but I need to continue this test after dark because, even though the Kinect 2 sensors work much better than the old Xbox/K4W models in a brightly sun-lit room, the Maglite or PS Move Controller light is not as easily trackable as it should be. I can get ok results but it really should be much better for spot on results.

I'll try this again tonight and maybe start a new thread on the topic of capturing with Triple Kinect 2 sensors. For now, I'm thinking that using two Kinect 2 sensor is probably sufficient for the type of work I've been doing, and it's certainly much easier to work with. But I'm still wondering how the quality will compare between two and three Kinect 2 sensors.

Will post comparisons when I have them.

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Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | My Demo Reels (2013,) (2015,) (2017,) and (2019)

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Sorry for not following up sooner.

I don't think using this laptop is going to work out . Even though I got a little more performance out of it, it still struggles to keep up with the other computers on the network. As a result, my calibration results haven't been that great with three Kinect One sensors.

Oh, well. I'll revisit using triple Kinect One sensors next year when I can afford a suitable third computer.

That's too bad--working with three XBox/K4W Kinects was much easier. But then again, Kinect One has visibly cleaner data so maybe adding the third sensor wasn't really going to improve things that much. TBD.

Anyway, enough distraction--I need to get back to getting scenes completed. I'll start posting new production examples in the coming weeks so stay tuned. :)

_________________
Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | My Demo Reels (2013,) (2015,) (2017,) and (2019)

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!