Yes, all our home studio computers, except for one old laptop, was upgraded from Win 7 Pro to 10. It was necessary for Kinect v2 of course, but we decided to do all of them to maintain consistency across our network and render farm. Plus it was free of course. The upgrade hasn't been without problems but I think we have all that sorted out now.

Thanks for the graphics card tips. Yeah, I don't really want to spend much more than $50 (preferably less) since the cards are only going to be used for compatibility, not performance. Will let you know what I go with.

Re: the new motherboard invalidating the Windows 10 license: I wonder what the procedure is if you have to replace the board because the old one stopped working. Surely, MS needs to make an allowance for that? (I haven't looked it up yet, just asking.)

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

...

Well from what I read in different links, is if that happens, you are SOL! and have to purchase a retail copy for $199 or buy a license key from the MS online store.

MS considers that a computer issue, not their software, but you can research it more yourself, but an added drive to the same machine you can use the USB installer, but only for a clean install of Win 10.

I know when I did it, it invalidated the free upgrade and on top of that, they tried not to let my retail copy of Win 7 Ult. to be activated when I tried reinstalling it by disk, but I contacted them first and that's what they said to do!

So, I had to get them from tech support and explain the issue was caused and was required for their product Kinect v2 to function properly on a machine that had Win 7, that was already upgraded to Win 10 and working fine.

Long story short, after an hour of BS, they reactivated my Win 7 online, through a cmd prompt code :)

Win 10 is now upgraded and activated again, but it was an ordeal.

...

Wow, that sounds terrible.

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

...

Ran the first full load test with Move controllers for hands this morning.

I got a perfect calibration, but wow, the floor is way off, I tracked it so far once adjusting the floor to better match the depth cloud and I didn't like the result.

Then, re-tracking it now with floor left as the program set it, using my actual height for actor.

Second tracking finished and is much better with floor left as program set it, but you can find the best way for you once ready.

So far it's processing at .60 s/f @ 1.60 f/s for 2 cams, just a small bit faster for Refine Backward about .57 and 1.75, that's head tracking on, shoulders by video and very flex spine setting.

The processing time its self is 3x faster than the PS Eyes usually was with just the depth, the only real issue is still the feet positioning when standing still, or turning and with just turning top body, the feet want to follow the same trajectory, no where near as bad as Kv1 though, but pinning in a external editor should be much easier.

The head tracking is a bit stiff, maybe the use of a head Move controller would help, I haven't tried that yet, nor will I most likely, I can just as easy use an adjustment layer to correct the head.

I am just used to seeing the PS Eyes results I guess and this 30 fps looks like its moving in slow motion on playback :) fairly good results though.

I don't know if the tracking quality its self is any better with the Pro version, but I would like to see a result with it, without any real tracking modifications using the iPi manual tools, just tracking, refining and JR used, besides the loss of tracking corrections that will be made, but just a raw type processing to compare with.

I will possibly post a video soon.

...

I put in an order for four 'budget' cards that are DirectX 11-12 compatible. Decided to go with the ASUS GT610-SL-1GD3-L because it's silent, low power, low heat, low profile and low cost (about $38 after rebate.) I think this will work out for us. We have 3 workstations and four render boxes running in our tiny home office so heat, sound and power consumption is always a concern...especially with the horrible summer we're still having here in Los Angeles. :)

Will post another update after the cards arrive and have been installed.


Yeah, the 'feet twist' has always been a problem as far back as version 1.0. It apparently has to do with the hip constraints but I'm told that not having the constraints leads to more problematic errors. But you're right, pinning the feet in an animation program usually solves the issue.

Ever since I started using the PS Move for head tracking, I haven't bothered with the other head tracking modes. The result with the Move controller is very nice...and if it happens to fail (which is rare), you can always go back to keyframing the head. Here's the head gear we use:

Mocap Helmet Update

We've been using this helmet for a few years now and it still works great! What's not shown here is the chin strap which I had to purchase separately--this is essential if you want to helmet to stay put in action. The only issue I had is that the matte gray paint I used to eliminate reflection is flaking because a past performer fell down a little too hard and broke the seal. Last year I found a matte gray paint that bonds with plastic...haven't tried it yet but will post the result when I do.

Here's the first prototype version of the helmet:

One Way To Turn A Head

This version actually looks cooler but I needed my bike helmet back for actual bike riding.


That sounds odd. I think the motion should playback in Mocap Studio at the rate it was recorded in. Or are you talking about playback in a third party program? Even there, you should be able to interpret the correct frame rate.


I imagine the tracking system itself should be the same.

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

...

Yeah, that's what I have, but the MSI GT 610 with the fan instead of the heat sink, but it's basically silent and works fine.

Playback always looked slower to me from the Kinects 30 fps., not really slow motion, it just appears slower and needed a slight boost in the 3D editor.

...

Thanks for the info. It's comforting to know the one I got should work. I considered getting the one with the fan but I wasn't sure how much noise four of them would add.

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Hmm...I'm still having difficulty getting this to work. The Kinect Configuration Verification Tool says the four machines now meet the requirements but the Kinects are still not working. I feel like the solution is not far away but I'm being reminded that we have a film to finish and I need to move on. To be clear, this is a Kinect v2/computer issue and not an iPi Mocap Studio issue.

I'll revisit this problem after we finish 'B2'. Luckily, we still have our proven triple Kinect v1 system to fall back on. :)

G.

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

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

...

Is it that they are not being recognized, or is it that they are dropping in and out?

If dropping in and out, you can try what I mentioned and remove the Kinects from settings/devices and printer/connected devices, then unplug them and plug them back in and let them reload.

It may be a bandwidth issue, which can be checked with the above tool I listed, it's portable off the site, no need to download it and it will show the link speed the USB 3.0 card is allowing, this should be 5Gb/s.

Hard to say I know, I was having issues as you saw, but I found my USB 3.0 card was only running at 2.5Gb/s, but I am not sure, I didn't check the OEM mobo to see if the PCIex1 slot was even a 2.0 slot, could have been a 1.1 slot, but I tried the PCIe x16 slot also, with no luck. It was just the machine was to old and a basic consumer build, IMO.

If you have an open PCIe x16 slot, you can also put the USB 3.0 card in that one and see what happens.

I hope it is something silly and easy to rectify.

...

...

BTW, when using the depth and video when recording, the floor height, actor and depth cloud matched more accurately.

Using only depth to record, the floor and scaling of the actor was a mismatch for me, I am sure it will be this way for anyone though.

Hope it all works out for you when you get working.

...