I dont know if it is possible but for systems that have a lot of ram (12gigs in my case) would it be possible to capture to ram to ensure frame rate and also less usage of the harddrives, so they last longer :) . That way if we like the capture we can save it to the hd but if we dont we can recapture without having to use the drives.

thank you for listening,

Stuckon3d

Hi,

you can use RAM disk drive. E.g. this one: http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk.

May be we add support for recording into RAM without need to install RAM disk drivers in future version of iPiRecorder. Thank you for idea!

Hello,

I am a new user with the express edition and the kinect sensor.

Having a lot of fun!

However I am looking at ways of speeding up the tracking process (averaging 4 secs a frame), would a Ram disk help in this respect? If so by how much would you estimate? (rough guess)

I should add that I am working from a Vista 64-bit Pc, 8GB ram (I would buy more), 2x solid state HDs, Intel Quad core 2.83GHZ, Nvidia Geforce 9500GT g/card.

Many thanks for the Ram disk suggestion.

Tracking speed is very dependent on the graphics card. I would suggest getting an Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 or better if you're computer can accept it. With the GTX 260 I was getting about 2 to 3 seconds per frame; I recently upgraded to a GTX 460 and now I'm getting about 0.6 second per frame! (Wow!) :)

(Edit: My tracking time above with the GTX 260 was with an older iPi Studio version; it's probably even faster with the current release.)

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

wowie!

Thanks for that insight.

Ok sold! Can you tell me which make you bought? I see Palit, Zotac, Pny GTX 260s for sale for about £106-£126 +VAT depending on make

Does it make any difference? I would rather buy the one you have as it clearly works well.

My choice was limited because of my motherboard and the size of my case and power supply. I wound up getting this one by MSI:

MSI N460GTX CYCLONE 1GD5/OC GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

I like this model because it has been very quiet and because of lower power requirements, I didn't have to upgrade my power supply. The downside is that it has less RAM than my old GTX 260 but so far that hasn't been a problem for me.

If you have a bigger/newer computer, you might have better options to choose from, so definitely shop around. Check the specs carefully before buying one to be sure it will fit inside your computer (some of these cards are HUGE.) Also, be sure to read comments from users regarding noise, heat, etc.

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Many thanks greenlaw

I will look at my options carefully. You have to spend wisely these days in this era of financial uncertainty. However having any kind of mocap is a dream come true for me and hopefully will speed up the production of my film.

Hence the importance of quick tracking.

btw just finished my 2nd ever mocap have a thread for it viewtopic.php?f=12&t=5012

Graphics card all the way. I concur with Greenlaw about the GTX460, I had those times but now use a GTX560Ti OC and get about 0.4s per frame.

Very nice! I looked around but couldn't justify the extra spend went with a EVGA 01G-P3-1372-ER Graphics Card GeForce GTX 460 1024MB PCi-E HDMI DVI

Pausing mocap now until it arrives and I've installed it.

btw - did you try a ram disk as well? Any further improvement in speed?

I record to SSD and see no benefit from capturing to ramdisk. Even with 12GB of ram, you may find you run out very quickly and then have to stop and copy it all to disk. Saving to SSD with 6 PS3 cameras at full resolution, full frame rate hasn't been a problem and is the better solution I think.

I've also tried tracking the video from either hard disk or SSD and noticed no difference, again, the graphics card being the most significant component for tracking. I'm not sure where the bottleneck is now since my graphics card is only about 30% busy and the processor even less so.