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Default Application Settings can be recovered by Reset Application Settings under the Edit Tools tab from the main Toolbar.
The Application Settings consists of several tabs, all of which we'll go into further details on their respective pages. Below is the list of the Application Settings tabs in Motive 2.3.
Cameras
Reconstruction settings configured under the Application Settings apply only to the real-time reconstruction in Live mode. Parameters for post-processing reconstruction pipelines can be modified from corresponding Take properties under the Properties pane.
The real-time reconstruction settings can be accessed in the Reconstruction tab under the Application Settings pane.
Reconstruction in motion capture is a process of deriving 3D points from 2D coordinate information obtained from captured images, and the Point Cloud is the core engine that runs the reconstruction process. The reconstruction settings define the parameters of the point cloud engine, and they can be modified to optimize the acquisition of 3D data points.
For more information on how to utilize the reconstruction settings, visit Reconstruction and 2D Mode page.
Due to inherent errors in marker tracking, rays generally do not converge perfectly on a single point in 3D space, so a tolerance value is defined. This tolerance, called the residual, represents one of the reconstruction constraints. If a ray could be defined as an infinite series of points aligned in a straight line, two or more rays that have points within the defined residual range (in mm) will form a marker.
Enable Point Cloud Reconstruction
Default: ON
This toggles real-time 3D reconstruction on and off. It is recommended to turn this off if computer resource need to be dedicated to 2D recording. When disabled, you will not be able to see 3D data from the Live mode nor from the recorded 2D data.
Default: 10.00 mm
The residual value sets the maximum allowable offset distance (in mm) between rays contributing to a single 3D point.
When the residual value is set too high, unassociated marker rays may contribute to marker reconstruction, and non-existing ghost markers may be reconstructed. When this value is set too low, the contributing rays within a marker could reconstruct multiple markers where there should only be one.
Choosing a good Residual Value
Depending on the size of markers used, the contributing rays will converge with a varying tolerable offset. If you are working with smaller markers, set the residual value lower. If you're working with larger markers, set this value higher because the centroid rays will not converge as precisely as the smaller markers. A starting point is to set the residual value to the diameter of the smallest marker and go down from there until you start seeing ghost markers. For example, when 3 mm and 14 mm markers are captured in a same volume, set the residual value to less than 3 mm. The ghost markers can appear on larger markers if this value is set too low.
The residual can also be viewed as the minimum distance between two markers before they begin to merge. If two markers have a separation distance smaller than the defined residual (in mm), the contributing rays for each marker will be merged and only one marker will be reconstructed, which is undesirable. Remember that for a 3D point to be reconstructed, it needs to have at least two rays contributing to a marker depending on the Minimum Rays setting.
If calibration quality is not very good, you may need to set this value higher for increased tolerance. This will work only if your markers are further apart in the 2D views throughout the given marker motion. This is because there is more errors in the system. However, for best results, you should always work with a calibration with minimal error (See Calibration).
Default: None — the calibration solver will set a suggested distance based on the wanding results, but this can still be adjusted by the user after calibration.
This sets the maximum distance, in meters, a marker can be from the camera to be considered for 3D reconstruction. In very large volumes with high resolution cameras, this value can be increased for a longer tracking range or to allow contributions from more cameras in the setup. This setting can also be reduced to filter out longer rays from reconstruction. Longer rays generally produce less accurate data than shorter rays.
When capturing in a large-size volume with a medium-size – 20 ~ 50 cameras – camera system, this setting can be adjusted for better tracking results. Tracking rays from cameras at the far end of the volume may be inaccurate for tracking markers on the opposite end of the volume, and the unstable rays may contribute to ghost marker reconstructions. In this case, lower the maximum ray length to restrict reconstruction contributions from cameras tracking at long distances. For captures vulnerable to frequent marker occlusions, adjusting this constraint is not recommended since more camera coverage is needed for preventing the occlusions. Note that lowering this setting can take a toll on performance at higher camera counts and marker counts because the solver has to perform numerous calculations per second to decide which rays are good.
Default: 0.2 m
This sets the minimum distance, in meters, between a marker and a camera for the camera to contribute to the reconstruction of the marker. When ghost markers appear close to the camera lens, increase this setting to restrict the unwanted reconstructions in the vicinity. But for close-range tracking applications, this setting must be set low.
Default: 2 rays
This sets the required minimum number of cameras that must see a marker for it to be reconstructed.
For a marker to be reconstructed, at least two or more cameras need to see the marker. The minimum rays setting defines the required number of cameras that must see a marker for it to be reconstructed. If you have 4 cameras and set this to 4, all cameras must see the marker; otherwise, the marker will not be reconstructed and the contributing rays will become the untracked rays.
When more rays are contributing to a marker, more accurate reconstruction can be achieved, but generally, you don't need all cameras in a setup to see a marker. If you have a lot of cameras capturing a marker, you can safely increase this setting to prevent false reconstructions which may come from 2 or 3 rays that happen to connect within the residual range. However, be careful when increasing this setting because a high number of minimum rays requirement may decrease the effective capture volume and increase the frequency of marker occlusions during capture.
Default: Passive
Configures Motive for tracking either the passive markers, the synchronized active markers, or both. See Active Marker Tracking for more information.
Default: 12
This setting is available only if marker labeling mode is set to one of the active marker tracking modes. This setting sets the complexity of the active illumination patterns. When tracking a high number of rigid body, this may need to be increased to allow for more combinations of the illumination patterns on each marker. When this value is set too low, the active labeling will not work properly.
Default: Disabled
Enable or disable continuous calibration. When enabled, Motive will continuously monitor the calibration quality and update it as necessary. For more information, refer to the Continuous Calibration page.
This property was called Ray Ranking in older versions.
Default: 4
This setting enables the Ray Ranking, which calculates quality of each ray to potentially improve the reconstruction. Setting this to zero means that ray ranking is off, while 1 through 4 set the number of the evaluation iterations; 4 being 4 iterations. Setting this value to the max of 4 will slow down the reconstruction process but will produce more accurate results.
The Ray Ranking increases the stability of the reconstruction but at a heavy performance cost. The ray quality is analyzed by comparing convergence of rays that are contributing to the same marker. An average converging point is calculated, and each ray is ranked starting from the one closest to the converging point. Then, each ray is weighed differently in the Point Cloud reconstruction engine according to the assigned rankings.
This setting is useful especially when there are multiple rays contributing to a marker reconstruction. If you're working with small to medium marker counts, enabling this will not have an evident improvement on performance. Also, when precise real-time performance is required, disable this setting especially for a setup with numerous cameras.
Default: 0 pixels
Establishes a dead zone, in pixels, around the edge of the 2D camera image. Any 2D objects detected within this gutter will be discarded before calculating through the point cloud. In essence, it is a way of getting only the best data of the captured images, because markers seen at the edges of the camera sensor tend to have higher errors.
This setting can be increased in small amounts in order to accommodate for cases where lens distortions are potentially causing problem with tracking. Another use of the setting for limiting the amount of data going to the reconstruction solver, which may help when you have a lot of markers and/or cameras. Be careful adjusting this setting as the trimmed data can't be reacquired in post-processing pipelines.
Default: 5 degrees
The minimum allowable angle – in degrees from the marker's point of view – between the rays to consider them valid for marker reconstruction. This separation also represents the minimum distance required between the cameras. In general, cameras should be placed with enough distance in between in order to capture unique views on the target volume. For example, if there are only two cameras, an ideal reconstruction would occur when the cameras are separated far enough so the rays converge with a 90 degree of an incident angle from the perspective of the reconstructed marker(s).
When working with a smaller-sized system with a fewer number of cameras, there will be only a limited number of markers rays that can be utilized for reconstruction. In this case, lower this setting to allow reconstruction contributions from even the cameras that are in close vicinity to each other.
On the other hand, when working with a large system setup with a lot of cameras, you can set this value a bit higher to limit marker rays that are coming from the cameras that are too close together. Similar vantages obtained by the cameras within vicinity do not necessarily contribute unique positional data to the reconstruction, but they only increase the required amount of computation. Rays coming from very close cameras may increase the error in the reconstruction. Better reconstruction can only be achieved with a good, overall camera coverage (See Camera Placements).
Default: False
When the Rigid Body Marker Override is set to True, Motive will replace observed 3D markers with the rigid body's solution for those markers. 3D tracking data of reconstructed and labeled trajectories will be replaced by the expected marker locations of the corresponding rigid body solve.
This is applicable only for rigid bodies using Ray-Based tracking, and when the Use Smart Markers is enabled.
Default: True
When this feature is enabled, Motive uses expected marker locations from both the model solve and the trajectory history to create virtual markers. These virtual markers are not direct reconstructions from the Point Cloud engine. When the use of smart markers is enabled, rigid body and skeleton asset definitions will also be used in conjunction with 2D data and reconstructed 3D data to facilitate reconstruction of additional 3D marker locations to improve tracking stability. These virtual markers are created to make live data match recorded data in situations where model and history data helped to improve the live solve
More specifically, for rigid body tracking, Motive will utilize untracked rays along with the rigid body asset definition to replace the missing markers in the 3D data. In order to compute these reconstructions, the rigid body must be using the Ray-Based tracking algorithm. For skeleton tracking, only the asset definitions are used to approximate virtual reconstruction at the location where the occluded marker was originally expected according to the corresponding skeleton asset.
Using the asset definitions in obtaining the 3D data could be especially beneficial for accomplishing stable tracking of the assets in low camera count systems where all of the reconstructions may not always meet the minimum required tracked ray requirements.
Usage note. In 2.0, trajectories of virtually created markers on a skeleton segment may not get plotted on the graph view pane.
Default: true
When set to true, Motive will recognize the unique illuminations from synchronized active markers and perform active labeling on its reconstructions. If you are utilizing our active marker solution, this must be set to true. For more information about active labeling, read through the Active Marker Tracking page.
Default: 20
Sets the required minimum number of frames without occlusion for a tracked marker to be recognized as the same reconstruction to form a trajectory. If a marker is hidden, or occluded, longer than the defined number of frames, then the trajectory will be truncated and the marker will become unlabeled.
Default: 0.06 m
To identify and label a marker from one frame to the next, a prediction radius must be set. If a marker location in the subsequent frame falls outside of the defined prediction radius, the marker will no longer be identified and become unlabeled.
For capturing relatively slow motions with tight marker clusters, limiting the prediction radius will help maintaining precise marker labels throughout the trajectory. Faster motions will have a bigger frame to frame displacement value and the prediction radius should be increased. When capturing in a low frame rate settings, set this value higher since there will be bigger displacements between frames.
Bound Reconstrutction
(Default: False) When set to true, the 3D points will be reconstructed only within the given boundaries of the capture volume. The minimum and maximum boundaries of X/Y/Z axis are defined in the below properties.
Visible Bounds
Visualize the reconstruction bounds in the 3D viewport.
Bounds Shape
(Default: Cuboid) This setting selects the shape of the reconstruction bound. You can select from cuboid, cylinder, spherical, or ellipsoid shapes and the corresponding size and location parameters (e.g. center x/y/z and width x/y/z) will appear so that the bound can be customized to restrict the reconstruction to a certain area of the capture volume.
After markers have been reconstructed in Motive, they must be labeled. Individual markers can be manually labeled, but the auto-labeler simplifies this process using the Assets. Rigid body and skeleton assets, created in Motive, saves their marker arrangement definitions and uses them to auto-label corresponding marker sets within the Take. The auto-labeling, is a process of associating 3D marker reconstructions in multiple captured frames by assigning marker labels within the defined constraints. After the labeling process, each of the labeled markers provides respective 3D trajectories throughout the Take.
Pose Detection
Default: TruePose detection improves the stability of skeleton tracking by detecting standing poses. For multi-skeleton captures, this feature may increase the skeleton solve latency.
Minimum Key Frames
Default: 2This setting sets the required minimum number of frames for each trajectory in the recorded 3D data. Any trajectories with a length less than the required minimum will be discarded from the 3D data after running the auto-labeling pipeline.
Auto-labeler Passes
Default: 1The number of iterations for analyzing detected marker trajectories for maintaining constant marker labels. Increasing this setting can improve the marker auto-labeling, but more iterations will require more time and computation effort to complete the auto-labeling.
Rigid Body Assisted Labeling can be used to optimize the labeling of markers within a region defined by a rigid body. The first step in using this feature is to create a rigid body from markers that are visible and rigidly connected. The example shown in the figure below demonstrates this for hand tracking. Five white markers are selected on the top of the wrist - which is rigidly defined. The black markers on the fingers are not rigidly defined in any fashion but are within the boundary of the Rigid Body Assisted Labeler. Labeling continuity is improved for the markers on the fingers which are given automatic labels.Tracking of organic or flexible objects - that do not have a tracking models like the face and hand, are good candidates for Rigid Body Assisted Labeling.
Rigid Body-Assisted Labeling
Default: FalseEnable or disable rigid body assisted labeling feature.
Rigid Body Volume Radius
Default: 300 mmThe rigid body volume radius defines the region of space where the rigid body assisted labeling is applied. Increasing this radius will increase time needed for the auto-labeling so care should be made when setting this property.
Prediction Radius (mm)
Default: 10 mmThe prediction radius defines the size of the bounding region used to label markers. When labeling a marker from one frame to the next, a bounding region, relative to the rigid body, is created around each labeled marker. The labeling continuity is restricted to the bounding region from frame to frame. Increasing this can allow markers to swap if there are occlusions in the data. Decreasing this restricts labeling from frame to frame but may lead to an increase in broken trajectories.
Maximum Assisted Labeling Gap
Default: 30 framesThe maximum gap frames property defines the maximum number of frames a marker can be hidden before it is truncated or unlabeled. Increase this value if larger gaps are to be anticipated. Increasing the assisted labeling gap will increase the processing time of reconstruction.
Discard External Markers
Default: FalseDiscards markers outside of rigid body volume. Enabling this property will eliminate marker reconstructions outside of the region defined by the Rigid Body Volume.
Dynamic Constraints
Default: NonePrevents the rigid body from moving/rotation more than specified amount per frame.
Max Translation (mm)
Default: 100Distance for Dynamic Translation Constraint option.
Max Rotation (deg)
Default: 30Angle for the Dynamic Rotation Constraint option.
Minimum Tracking Frames
Default: 20Dynamic constraints are enabled when the rigid body is consecutively tracking more than this frame count.
Marker Filter Diameters
Default: FalseMarkers less than this diameter will not be used for rigid body tracking.
Minimum Diameter (mm)
Default: 10Diameter used for Marker Filter Diameter option.
Reconstruction tab contains a list of parameters for the real-time Point Cloud reconstruction engine.
Take Suffix Format String
Sets the separator (_) and string format specifiers (%03d) for the suffix added after existing file names.
Numeric LEDs
Enable or disable the LED panel in front of cameras that displays assigned camera numbers.
Auto Archive Takes
Save Data Folder
Restore Calibration
Automatically loads the previous, or last saved, calibration setting when starting Motive.
Camera ID
Sets how Camera IDs are assigned for each camera in a setup. Available options are By Location and By Serial Number. When assigning by location, camera IDs will be given following the positional order in clockwise direction, starting from the -X and -Z quadrant in respect to the origin.
Device Profile
Sets the default device profile, XML format, to load onto Motive. The device profile determines and configures the settings for peripheral devices such as force plates, NI-DAQ, or navigation controllers.
Switch to MJPEG
Configures the Aim Assist button. Sets whether the button will switch the camera to MJPEG mode and back to the default camera group record mode. Valid options are: True (default) and False.
Aiming Crosshairs
Sets whether the camera button will display the aiming crosshairs on the MJPEG view of the camera. Valid options are True (default), False.
Aiming Button LED
Enables or disables LED illumination on the Aim Assist button behind Prime Series cameras.
Live Color
(Default: Blue) Sets the indicator ring color for cameras in Live mode. Default: Blue
Recording Color
(Default: Red) Sets the indicator ring color for cameras when recording a capture.
Playback Color
(Default: Black) Sets the indicator ring color for cameras when Motive is in playback mode.
Selection Color
(Default: Yellow) Sets the indicator ring color for cameras that are selected in Motive.
Scene Camera
(Default: Orange) Sets the indicator ring color for cameras that are set as the reference camera in Motive.
LLDP (PoE+) Detection
Enables detection of PoE+ switches by High Power cameras (Prime 17W and Prime 41). LLDP allows the cameras to communicate directly with the switch and determine power availability to increase output to the IR LED rings. When using Ethernet switches that are not PoE+ Enabled or switches that are not LLDP enabled, cameras will not go into the high power mode even with this setting enabled.
Strobe On During Playback
Keeps the camera IR strobe on at all times, even during the playback mode.
In Motive, the Application Settings can be accessed under the View tab or by clicking icon on the main toolbar.
The Point Cloud reconstruction engine converts two-dimensional point from camera images into coordinates in a three-dimensional space through triangulation. All cameras should be calibrated for the engine to function properly (see Calibration). The triangulation of a marker occurs when a minimum of 2 rays intersect. Rays are generated from the objects present on a camera image and they resolve into a 3D point when the conditions defined by the reconstructions settings are met. These rays can be seen from the Perspective View pane when the tracked rays and untracked rays are enabled from the visibility settings.
In Motive, the Application Settings can be accessed under the or by clicking icon on the main toolbar.
Default Application Settings can be recovered by Reset Application Settings under the Edit Tools tab from the main .
Reconstruction in motion capture is a process of deriving 3D points from 2D coordinate information obtained from captured images, and the Point Cloud is the core engine that runs the reconstruction process. The reconstruction settings in the Application Settings modifies the engine's parameters for real-time reconstructions. These settings can be modified to optimize the quality of reconstructions in Live mode depending on the conditions of the capture and what you're trying to achieve. Use the to live-monitor the reconstruction outcomes from the configured settings.
See page for more information on each setting.
For details on the reconstruction workflow, read through the page.
Reconstruction settings for post-processing reconstruction pipelines for recorded captures can be modified under the corresponding Take properties in the .
Enable/Disable auto-archiving of Takes when
Motive persists all of the session folders that are imported into the pane so that the users don't have to re-import them again after closing out of the application. If this is set to false, the session folders will no longer be persisted, and only the default session folder will always be loaded.
Controls the color of the (Prime Series cameras only). Options include distinct indications for Live, Recording, Playback, Selection and Scene camera statuses, and you can choose the color for the corresponding camera status.
The Assets tab in the application settings panel is where you can configure the creation properties for Rigid Body and Skeleton assets. In other words, all of the settings configured in this tab will be assigned to the Rigid Body and Skeleton that are newly created in Motive.
A list of the default Rigid Body creation properties is listed under the Rigid Bodies tab. These properties are applied to only Rigid Bodies that are newly created after the properties have been modified. For descriptions of the Rigid Body properties, please read through the Properties: Rigid Body page.
Note that this is the default creation properties. Asset specific Rigid Body properties are modified directly from the Properties pane.
You can change the naming convention of Rigid Bodies when they are first created. For instance, if it is set to RigidBody, the first Rigid Body will be named RigidBody when first created. Any subsequent Rigid Bodies will be named RigidBody 001, RigidBody 002, and so on.
User definable ID. When streaming tracking data, this ID can be used as a reference to specific Rigid Body assets.
The minimum number of markers that must be labeled in order for the respective asset to be booted.
The minimum number of markers that must be labeled in order for the respective asset to be tracked.
Applies double exponential smoothing to translation and rotation. Disabled at 0.
Compensate for system latency by predicting movement into the future.
For this feature to work best, smoothing needs to be applied as well.
Toggle 'On' to enable. Displays asset's name over the corresponding skeleton in the 3D viewport.
Select the default color a Rigid Body will have upon creation. Select 'Rainbow' to cycle through a different color each time a new Rigid Body is created.
When enabled this shows a visual trail behind a Rigid Body's pivot point. You can change the History Length, which will determine how long the trail persists before retracting.
Shows a Rigid Body's visual overlay. This is by default Enabled. If disabled, the Rigid Body will only appear as individual markers with the Rigid Body's color and pivot marker.
When enabled for Rigid Bodies, this will display the Rigid Body's pivot point.
Shows the transparent sphere that represents where an asset first searches for markers, i.e. the asset model marker.
When enabled and a valid geometric model is loaded, the model will draw instead of the Rigid Body.
Allows the asset to deform more or less to accommodate markers that don't fix the model. High values will allow assets to fit onto markers that don't match the model as well.
A list of the default Skeleton display properties for newly created Skeletons is listed under the Skeletons tab. These properties are applied to only Skeleton assets that are newly created after the properties have been modified. For descriptions of the Skeleton properties, please read through the Properties: Skeleton page.
Note that this is the default creation properties. Asset-specific Skeleton properties are modified directly from the Properties pane.
Creates the Skeleton with arms straight even when arm markers are not straight.
Creates the Skeleton with straight knee joints even when leg markers are not straight.
Creates the Skeleton with feet planted on the ground level.
Creates the Skeleton with heads upright irrespective of head marker locations.
Force the solver so that the height of the created Skeleton aligns with the top head marker.
Height offset applied to hands to account for markers placed above the write and knuckle joints.
Same as the Rigid Body visuals above:
Label
Creation Color
Bones
Asset Model Markers
Changes the color of the skeleton visual to red when there are no markers contributing to a joint.
Display Coordinate axes of each joint.
Displays the lines between labeled skeleton markers and corresponding expected marker locations.
Displays lines between skeleton markers and their joint locations.
Camera Health Info
Displays various assessments of camera health over the 2D camera views, for troubleshooting performance issues. If any performance issues is detected, corresponding problem will be listed at the bottom of the 2D camera view.
Reticles
When enabled, renders a crosshair on top of the 2D camera views, which can be useful for camera aiming.
Masks
Enables displaying masked area on the 2D camera views, in red.
Backproject Markers
Enables markers selected from the 3D Perspective View to be also highlighted with yellow crosshairs in the 2D camera view, based on calculated position. Crosshairs that are not directly over the marker tend to indicate occlusion or poor camera calibration.
Marker Filter
When enabled, filtered reflections will be labeled with the corresponding object filters in the 2D camera view.
Marker Coordinates
Displays 2D coordinate of the detected object centroids within the captured image, in pixels.
Marker Centroids
Displays crosshairs on marker centroids in the 2D view.
Marker Boundaries
Displays a box around each marker, indicating its calculated edges after the brightness threshold.
Marker Circularity
Displays the roundness of an object. A value of 1 indicates maximum roundness, while a value of 0 indicates no roundness.Pixel inspector enabled in 2D view
Marker Aspect Ratio
Displays the ratio of object width to object height as a decimal, resolved to .01 pixel.
Marker Size
Displays the area of the object in pixels, accurate to .01 pixel.
Marker Label
Displays the pre-identified labels assigned to 2D objects for initial tracking from frame to frame.
Pixel Inspection
Displays X,Y coordinates for cursor location when hovering over a camera, and pixel brightness for selected pixels when a region is drag-selected. Inspecting pixel brightness can be useful during camera focusing, tuning, and aiming.
Texture Streaming
Disables or enables texture streaming of reference videos on the 2D camera viewport.
Visual FPS Target
Sets a maximum frame display rate for the 2D camera view.
Background Color
Selects the color to display in the viewport between camera panes.
Camera Info
Enables text overlay of pertinent camera information on the 2D Multi Camera view panes. Displayed information includes image mode, time, data rate, frame ID, visual FPS, number of objects, camera serial, exposure value, threshold value, IR intensity value, internal temperature, and camera sync mode.
Show Distortion
Displays each camera’s lens distortion map.
Overlay Color
Selects the color of the lens distortion map display.
Overlay Transparency
Selects the transparency percentage for the lens distortion map.
Overlay Resolution
Selects the level of details for displaying the lens distortion. More specifically, it sets number of distortion grids on the width and height of the distortion map.
Show as Predistortion
Selects whether the map is shown as pre-distorted or distorted.
Display Mode
Sets levels of details for the markers displayed in the multi-camera 2D view. Available modes are Frame Buffer, Marker Centers, and Automatic LOD modes. Default is Automatic LOD.
Automatic LOD switches between Frame Buffer mode and Marker Centers mode depending on the zooming of the 2D camera view, or the LOD threshold setting.
Frame Buffer mode pushes the entire camera frame to the video card for scaling and display. It provides verbose information on detected reflections and centroids, but it is data intensive at the same time.
Marker centers mode merely defines a white circle of the rough size and shape of the marker as it would appear. More specifically, it displays the reflections by its size and location and is significantly less hardware intensive.
Pane Gap
The distance between 2D Multi View camera panes, in pixels.
LOD Threshold
The size, zoom percentage, at which the system switches between Marker Centers and Frame Buffer mode.
Raster Priority
Defines the update rate for the camera pixel data shown in the 2D camera views. The priority value ranges from 1 - 6, and a higher priority indicates a higher rate of update.
Camera Names
Displays the camera model, serial, and master/slave status above and below camera objects.
Text Size
Adjusts the size of the camera name text.
Solid Cameras
Setting this to true disables camera object transparency in the 3D Perspective View.
Labeled Marker Color
Sets the color for labeled markers in the 3D view port.
Active Marker Color
Sets the color for active markers in the 3D viewport.
Unlabeled Marker Color
Sets the color for Unlabeled markers in the 3D view port.
Selection Color
Sets the color of selections in the 3D view port.
Marker History
Displays a history trail of marker positions over time.
Selected History Only
Determines whether marker history will be shown for selected markers or all markers.
Assigned Markers
Enables or disables display of assigned markers (also called solved, expected marker positions) on rigid body or skeleton assets
Show Marker Count
Displays the number of markers detected by the system as well as the number of markers selected at the bottom right corner of the perspective view.
Show Marker Labels
Displays marker labels for selected markers in the perspective view.
Show Timecode
Enables or disables timecode values displayed on the 3D viewport. Timecode will be available only when the timecode signal is inputted through the eSync.
Show Marker Infos
When this is set to true. 3D positions and estimated diameter of selected markers will be displayed on the 3D viewport.
Display mode
Toggles camera numbers on and off in the 3D Perspective View.
Marker Diameter
Determines whether marker sizes in the 3D Perspective View are represented by the calculated size or overwritten with a set diameter.
Diameter (mm)
Sets the diameter in millimeters for marker sizes in the 3D Perspective View, if Marker Diameter is set to Set Diameter.
Background Color
Selects the background color displayed in the 3D Perspective View.
Fog Effect
Turns a gradient “fog” effect on in the 3D Perspective View.
OptiTrack Logo
Overlays the OptiTrack logo over top of the 3D Perspective View.
Grid Color
Selects the color of the ground plane grid in the 3D Perspective View.
Grid Transparency
Selects the level of transparency applied to the ground plane grid in the 3D Perspective View.
Grid Size
Selects the size of the ground plane grid in the 3D Perspective View. Specifically, it sets the number of grids (20cm x 20cm) along the positive and negative direction in both the X and Z axis.
Coordinate Axis
Displays the coordinate axis in the 3D view port.
Video Overlay Display FPS
Controls of often scene video overlays are updated for display.
Undistort Video Overlay
Removes distortions from the grid when displaying the video distortion overlay in the reference video.
Show Tracked Rays
Displays tracked rays in the view port. Tracked rays are marker rays with residual values less than the Maximum Residual setting from the reconstruction pane. In other words, tracked rays are marker rays that are contributing to 3D reconstructions.
Show Untracked Rays
Displays the untracked rays in the view port. Untracked rays are the rays which start from each camera and goes through the detected 2D centroids, but fails to be reconstructed in the 3D space. When there are several untracked rays in the capture, it is usually a sign of bad calibration or extreme reconstruction settings.
Show Missing Rays
Displays the missing rays in the view port. Missing rays form when tracking a rigid body or a skeleton, and it indicates expected marker rays that are not detected from the camera view but expected from the rigid body or the skeleton solve.
Show Two Marker Distance
Enabling this will display distance between two markers in the Perspective View pane. Two markers must be selected to calculate the distance.
Show Three Marker Angle
Enabling this will measure an angle formed by three markers in the Perspective View pane. Three markers must be selected, and the calculated angle will follow the selection order. When all three markers are selected at once, the widest angle will be measured.
Show Marker Colors
When labeled, each skeleton marker is colored as defined in the corresponding markerset template. Enabling this setting will color the markers for better identification of the marker labels.
Show Marker Sticks
Setting this to true will show marker sticks on skeleton assets for clearer identification of skeleton markers and segments in each individual actor. Setting this to true will reveal marker sticks in 3D data.
Show Selected Residual
Displays the offset distance between rays converging into a marker. The residual value will be displayed on top of the view pane. Note that ray information will be displayed only in the 2D data.
Tracked Ray Color
Sets the color for Tracked Rays in the 3D Perspective View.
Untracked Ray Color
Sets the color for untracked Rays in the 3D Perspective View.
Missing Ray Color
Sets the color for Missing Rays in the 3D Perspective View.
Tracked Ray Transparency
Sets the level of transparency for Tracked Rays.
Untracked Ray Transparency
Sets the level of transparency for Untracked Rays.
Missing Ray Transparency
Sets the level of transparency for Missing Rays.
Missing Ray Threshold
Sets the distance in millimeters that a 2D marker must be from an expected location before declaring the marker missing.
Color Scheme
Toggles the theme for the timeline playback graph between light and dark.
Background Color
Specifies the background color for the timeline playback graph.
Autoscale
Automatically scales trajectory graphs in the Timeline pane.
Preferred Live Layout
Preferred Layout to be used for the Live mode graph pane.
Preferred Edit Layout
Preferred Layout to be used for the Edit mode graph pane.
Scope Duration
This setting sets the time scope of the plotted graphs in Live mode. By default, this is set to 1000, which means 1000 captured frames of past tracking history will be plotted in Live mode. You can increase this to plot more history data or decrease it to zoom into the tracking history.
Show Markers
Overlays markers in the reference video when this setting is set to true.
Show Skeletons
Overlays skeletons in the reference video when this setting is set to true.
Show Rigid Bodies
Overlays rigid bodies in the reference video when this setting is set to true.
Show Distortion Grid
Displays reference camera distortion grid in the reference view.
Lock Aspect Ratio
Keeps the aspect ratio constant for reference videos.
Split Horizontal
When set to true, multiple reference view is divided into multiple columns in the reference view pane.
Maximum Exposure Display
Controls the maximum value of the exposure slider in Devices pane.
This section covers through the display options for the calibration features. In previous releases, these options existed in the Calibration pane.
Panel Output
Default: Standard. Decides whether the calibration process is displayed in a list format or a grid format. Grid format allows more camera progresses to be seen in the pane.
Status Ring
Default: Visualize. Enables the Status Indicator Ring to glow during calibration in order to display the wanding process.
Solver Visualizations
Default: Show. This toggles the display of wand samples and point cloud calibration visuals in the 2D and 3D view. If you're running on a lower end machine or graphics card with a large system, it is best to turn this feature off. The visual display will in fact eat up some computing power you may want reserved for getting quicker calibration results.
Lens Distortion
Default: Show. Use this to toggle the display of the lens distortion solution results in the 2D view. The lens distortion will be represented by a square grid that maps the distortion.
Cameras
Default: Show. This toggles the display of the cameras during the solve.
Wanding Projection
Default: Show. This toggles the display of wand samples projected in the 3D view. Turn this off if you're calibrating a very large system.
Projection Error
Default: Show. This toggles the display of error, reported as a color in the projected wand samples and markers. The wand samples will have a color between blue (good sample) and red (poor sample). Make sure the samples you collect are mostly good samples. As will all visual feedback, it may be a good idea to turn this off if you're calibrating a larger system.
Residual Error
Default: 6 mm. Set the tolerance for the reported error in the projected marker sample during calibration.
Wand Error
Default: 8 mm. This sets the tolerance for the reported error in the projected wand sample.
Sample Spacing
Default: 1. Use this to increase the spacing between displayed samples that are projected in the 3D view. Increasing this will skip more samples but will make the visual wand projections easier to see.
A list of the default Skeleton display properties for newly created skeletons is listed under the Skeletons tab. These properties are applied to only skeleton assets that are newly created after the properties have been modified. For descriptions of the skeleton properties, please read through the Properties: Skeleton page.
Skeleton Creation Pose
Chooses which Skeleton calibration pose to be used for creation. (T-pose, A-pose Palms Downward, A-pose Palms Forward, and A-pose Elbows Bent)
Head Upright
Creates the skeleton with heads upright irrespective of head marker locations.
Straight Arms
Creates the skeleton with arms straight even when arm markers are not straight.
Straight Legs
Creates the skeleton with straight knee joints even when leg markers are not straight.
Feet On Floor
Creates the skeleton with feet planted on the ground level.
Height Marker
Force the solver so that the height of the created skeleton aligns with the top head marker.
A list of the default rigid body creation properties is listed under the Rigid Bodies tab. Thes properties are applied to only rigid bodies that are newly created after the properties have been modified. For descriptions of the rigid body properties, please read through the page.
Note that this is the default creation properties. Asset specific rigid body properties are modified directly from the .
Note that this is the default creation properties. Asset-specific skeleton properties are modified directly from the .
This section of the application settings is used for configuring the properties for all of the cameras in the tracking group. The settings include display options, masking properties, but most importantly, the 2D Filter settings for the camera system which basically determines which reflections are considered as marker reflections from the camera view.
When a frame of image is captured by a camera, the 2D Object Filter is applied. By judging on sizes and shapes of the detected reflections, this filter determines which of them can be accepted as marker reflections. Parameters for the 2D Object filter are configured in the Devices pane under the Filters section.
For Motive 2.0 and above. The 2D Object filter settings in the Reconstruction Settings pane have been moved over to the Devices pane.
Filter Type
Default: Size and RoundnessToggles 2D object (Size and Roundness) filtering on or off.This filter is very useful for filtering out extraneous reflections according to their characteristics (size and roundness) rather than blocking pixels using the masking tool or the Block Visible feature. Turn off this setting only when you want to use every 2D pixels above the brightness threshold from camera views. When there are extraneous or flickering reflections in the view, turn on the filter to specify and consider reflections only from markers. There are multiple filtering parameters to distinguish the marker reflections. Given that there are assumed marker characteristics, filtering parameters can be set. The size parameters can be defined to filter out extra-small or extra-large reflections that are most likely from extraneous sources other than markers. Non-circular reflections can be ignored assuming that all reflective markers have circular shapes. Note that even when applying the size and roundness filter, you should always Block Visible when you calibrate.
Min Thresholded Pixels (pixels)
Default: 4 pixelsThe minimum pixel size of a 2D object, a collection of pixels grouped together, for it to be included in the Point Cloud reconstruction. All pixels must first meet the brightness threshold defined in the Cameras pane in order to be grouped as a 2D object. This can be used to filter out small reflections that are flickering in the view. The default value for the minimum pixel size is 4, which means that there must be 4 or more pixels in a group for a ray to be generated.
Max Thresholded Pixels (pixels)
Default: 2000 pixelsThe maximum size of a 2D object, in pixels, in order for it to be included in point cloud reconstruction. Default is 2000 pixels which basically means that all of detected large reflections smaller than 2000 pixel-size will be included as a 2D object. Use this to filter out larger markers in a variable marker capture. For instance, if you have 4 mm markers on an actor's face and 14 mm markers on their body, use this setting to filter out the larger markers if the need arises.
Circularity
Default: 0.6This setting sets the threshold of the circularity filter. Valid range is between 0 and 1; with 1 being a perfectly round reflection and 0 being flat. Using this 2D object filter, the software can identify marker reflections using the shape, specifically the roundness, of the group of thresholded pixels. Higher circularity setting will filter out all other reflections that are not circular. It is recommended to optimize this setting so that extraneous reflections are efficiently filtered out while not filtering out the marker reflections. When using lower resolution cameras to capture smaller markers at a long distance, the marker reflection may appear to be more pixelated and non-circular. In this case, you may need to lower the circularity filter value for the reflection to be considered as a 2D object from the camera view. Also, this setting may need to be lowered when tracking non-spherical markers in order to avoid filtering the reflections.
Intrusion Band
Default: 0.5 (Pixels)The intrusion band feature allows cameras to recognize reflections that are about to be merged and filter them out before it happens. This filter occurs before the circularity filter, and these reflections are rejected before the thresholded pixels merge. This is useful for improving the accuracy of the tracking, because bright pixels from close by reflections may slightly shift the centroid locations. The intrusion band value is added to the calculated radius of detected markers to establish a boundary, and any extraneous reflections intruding the boundary is considered as the intrusion and gets omitted. When an intrusion happens, both intruding reflection and detected marker reflection will be filtered out.
Garyscale Floor
Default: 48The grayscale floor setting further darkens pixels with lower brightness intensity values.
Object Margin
Default: 2 (Pixels)The object margin adds an additional margin on top of the intrusion band for filtering out merged reflections. Lowering this value will better detect close-by reflections, but may decrease the accuracy of the centroid positions as a tradeoff.
Name
Sets the name for the selected camera group.
Camera Color
Sets the color for camera group members as they appear in the 3D viewport. Color values are input as standard RGB triplets.
Visible Cameras
Selects whether cameras in the group are displayed in the viewport.
Show All Color Camera
By default, only the Prime Color cameras that are equipped with the IR filter switcher are shown in the 3D viewport and Prime Color cameras without filter switcher are hidden. When this setting is set to true, all of the Prime Color cameras will show up in the 3D viewport.
Show Capture Volume
Selects whether the capture volume (defined as capable of tracking a single marker) is displayed in the viewport. Enabling this will allow the volume to be displayed as a wire cage around the ground plane where multiple cameras fields of view intersect. Valid options are True, False (default).
Camera Overlap
Sets the minimum camera overlap necessary for a region to be visualized as part of the capture volume. Higher numbers represent more camera coverage, but they will tend to reduce the size of the visualized capture volume. Valid range is 1 to 25 (default 3).
Volume Resolution
Sets the resolution of the capture volume visualization. A higher number represents a more detailed visualization. Valid range is 1 to 120 (default 50).
FOV Intensity
Sets the opacity of the FOV visualization. A higher value represents a more opaque volume visualization. Valid range is 1 to 100 (default 50).
Opacity
Sets the opacity of the volume visualization. A value of 1 is transparent and 100 is opaque. Valid range is 1 to 100 (default 100).
Synchronization Control
Determines how late camera frames are dealt with. Timely Delivery will drop late frames, which is ideal for real-time applications where data completeness is secondary to timeliness. Complete Delivery will hold up processing of frames when a frame is late. Automatic, which is the default and recommended setting, runs in Timely Delivery mode until it gets a non-trivial percentage of late frames, at which point it will automatically switch to Complete Delivery.
Shutter Offset
Delays the shutter timing of selected tracking camera group for N microseconds.
Mask Width (pixels)
Sets the extra pixel coverage (width) for masking visible markers when the mask visible function is used. A larger number will block a wider grouping of pixels simultaneously. Valid range is determined by the resolution of the cameras.
Mask Height (pixels)
Sets the extra pixel coverage (height) for masking visible markers when the mask visible function is used. A larger number will block a wider grouping of pixels simultaneously. Valid range is determined by the resolution of the cameras.
The Mouse tab under the application settings is where you can check and customize the mouse actions to navigate and control in Motive.
The following table shows the most basic mouse actions:
You can also pick a preset mouse action profiles to use. The presets can be accessed from the below drop-down menu. You can choose from the provided presets, or save out your current configuration into a new profile to use it later.
The Keyboard tab under the application settings allows you to assign specific hotkey actions to make Motive easier to use. List of default key actions can be found in the following page also: Motive Hotkeys
Configured hotkeys can be saved into preset profiles to be used on a different computer or to be imported later when needed. Hotkey presets can be imported or loaded from the drop-down menu:
A list of all assets associated with the take is displayed in the Assets pane. Here, view the assets and you can right click on an asset to export, remove, or rename selected asset from the current take.
You can also enable or disable assets by checking or unchecking, the box next to each asset. Only enabled assets will be visible in the 3D viewport and used by the auto-labeler to label the markers associated with respective assets.
Export Rigid Body / Export Skeleton
Exports selected rigid body into Motive trackable files (TRA). Exports selected skeleton into either Motive skeleton file (SKL) or a FBX file.
Remove Asset
Removes the selected asset from a project.
Rename Asset
Renames the selected asset.
Export Markers
Exports skeleton marker template XML file. Exported XML files can be modified and imported again using the Rename Markers or when creating the skeleton in the Skeleton pane.
Rename Markers
Imports skeleton marker template XML file onto the selected asset. If you wish to apply the imported XML for labeling, all of the skeleton markers need to be unlabeled and auto-labeled again.
Update Markers
Imports the default skeleton marker template XML files. This feature can be used to update skeleton assets that are created before Motive 1.10 to include marker colors and sticks.
Recalibrate From Markers
Re-calibrates an existing skeleton. This feature is essentially same as re-creating a skeleton using the same skeleton Marker Set. See Skeleton Tracking page for more information on using the skeleton template XML files.
Generate Markers
This option colors the labeled markers and creates marker sticks that inter-connects between each of consecutive labels. More specifically, this will modify the marker XML file. It adds values to the color attributes and generates Marker Stick elements so that users can export the markers and easily modify the colors and sticks as needed. For more information: Marker XML Files.
The Builder pane is used for creating and editing trackable models, also called trackable assets, in Motive. In general, rigid body models are created for tracking rigid objects, and skeleton models are created for tracking human motions.
When created, trackable models store the positions of markers on the target object and use the information to auto-label the reconstructed markers in 3D space. During the auto-label process, a set of predefined labels gets assigned to 3D points using the labeling algorithms, and the labeled dataset is then used for calculating the position and orientation of the corresponding rigid bodies or skeleton segments.
The trackable models can be used to auto-label the 3D capture both in Live mode (real-time) and in the Edit mode (post-processing). Each created trackable models will have its own properties which can be viewed and changed under the Properties pane. If new skeletons or rigid bodies are created during post-processing, the Take will need to be auto-labeled again in order to apply the changes to the 3D data.
On the Builder pane, you can either create a new trackable asset or modify an existing one. Select either rigid body or skeleton at the bottom of the pane, and then select whether you wish to create or edit. Each feature will be explained in the sections below.
For creating rigid bodies, select the rigid body option at the bottom and access the Create tab at the top. Here, you can create rigid body asset and track any markered-objects in the volume. In addition to standard rigid body assets, you can also create rigid body models for head-mounted displays (HMDs) and measurement probes as well.
Step 1.
Select all associated rigid body markers in the 3D viewport.
Step 2.
On the Builder pane, confirm that the selected markers match the markers that you wish to define the rigid body from.
Step 3.
Click Create to define a rigid body asset from the selected markers.
Other ways to create a rigid body
You can also create a rigid body by doing the following actions while the markers are selected:
Prespective View (3D viewport): While the markers are selected, right-click on the perspective view to access the context menu. Under the Rigid Body section, click Create From Selected Markers.
Hotkey: While the markers are selected, use the create rigid body hotkey (Default: Ctrl +T).
Step 4.
Once the rigid body asset is created, the markers will be colored (labeled) and interconnected to each other. The newly created rigid body will be listed under the Assets pane.
If the rigid bodies, or skeletons, are created in the Edit mode, the corresponding Take needs to be auto-labeled. Only then, the rigid body markers will be labeled using the rigid body asset and positions and orientations will be computed for each frame.
This feature can be used only with HMDs that have the OptiTrack Active HMD clips mounted.
For using OptiTrack system for VR applications, it is important that the pivot point of HMD rigid body gets placed at the appropriate location, which is at the root of the nose in between the eyes. When using the HMD clips, you can utilize the HMD creation tools in the Builder pane to have Motive estimate this spot and place the pivot point accordingly. It utilizes known marker configurations on the clip to precisely positions the pivot point and sets the desired orientation.
Steps
First of all, make sure Motive is configured for tracking active markers.
Open the Builder pane under View tab and click Rigid Bodies.
Under the Type drop-down menu, select HMD. This will bring up the options for defining an HMD rigid body.
If the selected marker matches one of the Active clips, it will indicate which type of Active Clip is being used.
Under the Orientation drop-down menu, select the desired orientation of the HMD. The standard orientation used for streaming to Unity is +Z forward and Unreal Engine is +X forward, or you can also specify the expected orientation axis on the client plugin side. For use with the OpenVR driver, please set the HMD rigid body to Z-axis forward orientation.
Hold the HMD at the center of the tracking volume where all of the active markers are tracked well.
Select the 8 active markers in the 3D viewport.
Click Create. An HMD rigid body will be created from the selected markers and it will initiate the calibration process.
During calibration, slowly rotate the HMD to collect data samples in different orientations.
Once all necessary samples are collected, the calibrated HMD rigid body will be created.
For using OptiTrack system for VR applications, it is important that the pivot point of HMD rigid body gets placed at the appropriate location, which is at the root of the nose in between the eyes. When using the HMD clips, you can utilize the HMD creation tools in the Builder pane to have Motive estimate this spot and place the pivot point accordingly. It utilizes known marker configurations on the clip to precisely place the pivot point set the desired orientation.
For more information: Measurement Probe Kit Guide
Steps: Probe Calibration
Open the Builder pane under View tab and click Rigid Bodies.
Bring the probe out into the tracking volume and create a rigid body from the markers.
Under the Type drop-down menu, select Probe. This will bring up the options for defining a rigid body for the measurement probe.
Select the rigid body created in step 2.
Place and fit the tip of the probe in one of the slots on the provided calibration block.
Note that there will be two steps in the calibration process: refining rigid body definition and calibration of the pivot point. Click Create button to initiate the probe refinement process.
Slowly move the probe in a circular pattern while keeping the tip fitted in the slot; making a cone shape overall. Gently rotate the probe to collect additional samples.
After the refinement, it will automatically proceed to the next step; the pivot point calibration.
Repeat the same movement to collect additional sample data for precisely calculating the location of the pivot or the probe tip.
When sufficient samples are collected, the pivot point will be positioned at the tip of the probe and the Mean Tip Error will be displayed. If the probe calibration was unsuccessful, just repeat the calibration again from step 4.
Once the probe is calibrated successfully, a probe asset will be displayed over the rigid body in Motive, and live x/y/z position data will be displayed under the Real-time Measurement section in the Measurements pane.
Steps: Sample Collection
Under the Tools tab, open the Measurements pane.
Place the probe tip on the point that you wish to collect.
Click Take Sample on the Measurement pane.
A virtual reconstruction will be created at the point, and the corresponding information will be displayed over the measurement pane. The sampled points will also be saved in the exported onto the project directory.
Collecting additional samples will provide distance and angles between collected samples.
Sampling 3D points using the measurement probe.
Using the Builder pane, you can also modify existing rigid body assets. For editing rigid bodies, select the rigid body option at the bottom of the Builder pane and access the Edit tab at the top. This will bring up the options for editing a rigid body.
Using the Rigid Body Refinement tool for improving asset definitions.
This feature is supported in Live Mode only.
Rigid body refinement tool improves the accuracy of rigid body calculation in Motive. When a rigid body asset is initially created, Motive references only a single frame for defining the rigid body definition. The rigid body refinement tool allows Motive to collect additional samples in the live mode for achieving more accurate tracking results. More specifically, this feature improves the calculation of expected marker locations of the rigid body as well as position and orientation of the rigid body itself.
Steps
Under View tab, open the Builder pane.
Select the Rigid Bodies option at the bottom of the pane and go to the Edit tab.
In Live mode, select an existing rigid body asset that you wish to refine.
Hold the selected rigid body at the center of the capture volume so that as many cameras as possible can clearly capture the markers on the rigid body.
Press Start Refine in the Builder pane and the
Slowly rotate the rigid body to collect samples at different orientations.
Once all necessary samples are collected, the refinement results will be displayed.
The Probe Calibration feature under the rigid body edit options can be used to re-calibrate a pivot point of a measurement probe or a custom rigid body. This step is also completed as one of the calibration steps when first creating a measurement probe, but you can re-calibrate it under the Edit tab.
Steps
In Motive, select the rigid body or a measurement probe.
Bring out the probe into the tracking volume where all of its markers are well-tracked.
Place and fit the tip of the probe in one of the slots on the provided calibration block.
Click Start
Once it starts collecting the samples, slowly move the probe in a circular pattern while keeping the tip fitted in the slot; making a cone shape overall. Gently rotate the probe to collect additional samples.
When sufficient samples are collected, the mean error of the calibrated pivot point will be displayed.
Click Apply to use the calibrated definition or click Cancel to calibrate again.
Options for translating and rotating the rigid body pivot point.
The Edit tab is used to apply translation or rotation to the pivot point of a selected rigid body. A pivot point of a rigid body represents both position (x, y, z) and orientation (pitch, roll, yaw) of the corresponding asset.
You can also use the Gizmo tools to quickly make modify the pivot point of a rigid body
Location
Use this tool to translate a pivot point in x/y/z axis (in mm). You can also reset the translation to set the pivot point back at the geometrical center of the rigid body.
Orientation
Use this tool to apply rotation to the local coordinate system of a selected rigid body. You can also reset the orientation to align the rigid body coordinate axis and the global axis.When resetting the orientation, the rigid body must be tracked in the scene.
The OptiTrack Clip Tool basically recalibrates HMDs with OptiTrack HMD Clips to position its pivot point at an appropriate location. The steps are basically the same as when first creating the HMD rigid body.
This feature is useful when tracking a spherical object (e.g. ball). It will assume that all of the markers on the selected rigid body are placed on a surface of a spherical object, and the pivot point will be calculated and re-positioned accordingly. Simply select a rigid body in Motive, open the Builder pane to edit rigid body definitions, and then click Apply to place the pivot point at the center of the spherical object.
To create skeletons in Motive, you need to select the skeleton option at the bottom of the Builder pane and access the Create tab at the top. Here, you select which Skeleton Marker Set to use, choose the calibration post, and create the skeleton model.
Defining skeleton from a skeleton Marker Set.
Step 1.
From the skeleton creation options on the Builder pane, select a skeleton marker set from the Marker Set drop-down menu. This will bring up a skeleton avatar displaying where the markers need to be placed on the subject.
Step 2.
Refer to the avatar and place the markers on the subject accordingly. For accurate placements, ask the subject to stand in the calibration pose while placing the markers. It is important that these markers get placed at the right spots on the subject's body for the best skeleton tracking. Thus, extra attention is needed when placing the skeleton markers.
The magenta markers indicate the segment markers that can be placed at a slightly different position within the same segment.
Step 3.
Double-check the marker counts and their placements. It may be easier to use the 3D viewport in Motive to do this. The system should be tracking the attached markers at this point.
Step 4.
In the Builder pane, make sure the numbers under the Markers Needed and Markers Detected sections are matching. If the skeleton markers are not automatically detected, manually select the skeleton markers from the 3D perspective view.
Step 5.
Select a desired set of marker labels under the Labels section. Here, you can just use the Default labels to assign labels that are defined by the markerset template. Or, you can also assign custom labels by loading previously prepared marker-name XML files in the label section.
Step 6.
Next step is to select the skeleton creation pose settings. Under the Pose section drop-down menu, select the desired calibration post you want to use for defining the skeleton. This is set to the T-pose by default.
Step 7.
Ask the subject to stand in the selected calibration pose. Here, standing in a proper calibration posture is important because the pose of the created skeleton will be calibrated from it. For more details, read the calibration poses section.
Step 8.
Click Create to create the skeleton. Once the skeleton model has been defined, confirm all skeleton segments and assigned markers are located at expected locations. If any of the skeleton segment seems to be misaligned, delete and create the skeleton again after adjusting the marker placements and the calibration pose.
In Edit Mode
If you are creating a skeleton in the post-processing of captured data, you will have to auto-label the Take to see the skeleton modeled and tracked in Motive.
Virtual Reality Marker Sets
Skeleton Marker Set for VR applications have slightly different setup steps. See: Rigid Body Skeleton Marker Set.
To create skeletons in Motive, you need to select the skeleton option at the bottom of the Builder pane and access the Edit tab at the top.
Existing skeleton assets can be recalibrated using the existing skeleton information. Basically, the recalibration recreates the selected skeleton using the same skeleton markerset. This feature recalibrates the skeleton asset and refreshes expected marker locations on the assets.
To recalibrate skeletons, select all of the associated skeleton markers from the perspective view along with the corresponding skeleton model. Open the Builder pane, and open the Edit tab while Skeleton option is selected at the bottom. Make sure the selected skeleton is in a calibration pose, and click Recalibrate. You can also recalibrate from the context menu in the Assets pane or in the 3D Viewport.
Skeleton recalibration do not work with skeleton templates with added markers.
Mask Visible
This masks all pixels that are above the set threshold. By default, the threshold is set to 200 but this can be changed by the user in the cameras pane. Pixels in a camera image will have a grayscale value between 0 and 255 inclusively. If the default threshold is used, a pixel that is above 200 will be blocked along with the surrounding pixels.
This feature is a quick way to block data that is not needed and can be used in tandem with manual masking.
Start Wanding
This will start recording wand samples. After masking the cameras, press the start wanding button to begin your wand wave.
Reset
This will stop wand acquisition and the calibration solver.
Calibration Type
You can selected different calibration types before wanding: Full, Refine, Refine Extrinsic Only, Visualize Only.
Full: Calibrate cameras from scratch, discarding any prior known position of the camera group or lens distortion information. A Full calibration will also take the longest time to run.
Refine: Adjusts slight changes on the calibration of the cameras based on prior calibrations. This will solve faster than a Full calibration. Only use this if your previous calibration closely reflects the placement of cameras. In other words, Refine calibration only works if you do not move the cameras significantly from when you last calibrated them. Only slight modifications can be allowed in camera position and orientation, which often occurs naturally from the environment such as mount expansion.
Visual: Only render the calibration solution visual and will not calibrate your cameras. This can be used to validate the quality of existing calibration by comparing position and orientation of the cameras.
OptiWand
This options allows the user to select which calibration wand their using. The dimension must match the wand exactly in order for the system to be properly calibrated.
Calibration Wands:
Wands come in 250, 400 and 500 mm sizes. Custom wands can also be used. A 250 mm wand should be used for smaller volumes or for systems that have cameras with lenses that have larger focal lengths. The reason being that the cameras will not be able to see all 3 markers on a 500 mm wand if the wand is close to the camera or the camera has a very narrow view angle due to it's lens type.
If your camera's are not collecting wand samples while wanding, you may need to use a shorter wand. A 250 mm wand is good to use in most small to medium volumes. When making a calibration wand, understand that the system accuracy will be tied directly to the accuracy at which the wand is constructed. A poorly measure wand will result in poor calibration results. To make a wand all that is needed is 3 markers at set distances in a line.
Wand Length (mm)
This can be set when creating a custom wand and is the measure of the distance between the two outer marker centers. The accuracy of this measurement will directly impact camera calibration results, so be careful when creating and setting a custom wand.
Center Distance (mm)
Defines the distance in millimeters between the outer post and the center post (use the shorter of the two center offset distances). For use with custom calibration wands.
Initiates the calibration solver. Press this button after collecting enough wand samples.
Applies the calibration results to the cameras. Once pressed, this button will bring up a calibration result box. If the calibration result is satisfactory, press Apply. After you save the wanding the camera calibration pane will switch over to the Ground Plane tab so you can set the global origin.
While wanding the bottom part of the Camera Calibration Pane will show a table of the number of samples collected for each camera in the system. The samples will increase as the wand is waved in the capture volume.
The calibration results will show in the Calibration Engine portion of the Calibration pane. The elapsed time of the calibration solver is shown at the bottom of the list. If no calibration is being processed this area will remain blank. However, when a wanding or a calibration solver is underway, this field will be populated with a table showing the live results of the solution. The components of that table are described below.
As the calibration proceeds through the various phases of the solution you may notice the results slowing when a phases is finishing. Let the calibration finish all phases of the calibration. Once the solver converges on an appropriate solution, press the Apply Result button to apply the solution to the cameras. If you are unsatisfied with the results, hit reset near the top of the pane to cancel the results.
Ground plane tab under the calibration pane
Set the location of the global origin. Use an 'L' Frame or 3 markers in the shape of an 'L'. If only 3 markers are seen by the cameras, you can simply press 'Set Ground Plane'. If more markers are in view then you can select the 3 markers you want to use in the 3D viewport and then press 'Set Ground Plane'.
Motive 1.6 and earlier : L-Frame long (marked Z) "leg" interpreted as -Z, L-Frame short (unlabeled) leg interpreted as +X Motive 1.7 : L-Frame long (marked Z) "leg" interpreted as +Z, L-Frame short (unlabeled) leg interpreted as -X
In this section you can assign the Vertical Offset value. The Vertical Offset (mm) is the difference in height (y-direction) between the L frame vertex marker and the actual ground plane. Use positive values to set the global origin below the 3 marker vertex and negative values to set the global origin above the 3 marker vertex. Motive will recognize calibration squares, unless custom designed, and will ask to correct the offset value before the calibration process. However, the global origin is arbitrary and can be placed anywhere the user desires.
The Ground Plane Refinement feature can be used to refine the ground plane. You can select multiple reconstructions and use the corresponding 3D points to level the ground plane. This refinement feature assumes that the selected markers are all placed on the ground with a given vertical offset (mm) between the marker centroids to the ground surface, and then they use the selected samples to refine the ground plane.
Especially in large-scale volumes where the floor is not uniform, defining a ground plane using the calibration square may not be sufficient because it would be referencing just a local part of the volume. For such cases, this feature allows users to further refine the ground plane.
For example, you can evenly spread out 4 or more spherical markers throughout the floor. Specify the marker centroid to ground vertical offset distance, which would be the radius of the marker in this case. Then press the Ground Refinement button. This will change the vertical location of the floor, ensuring all of the markers are above the floor.
The Volume Translation modifies the global origin after it has been set.
Simply enter the amounts you want to translate the origin in the X, Y and/or Z direction and press the Apply Translation button. There is no limit to the number of translations that can be applied and there is no memory once a translation is applied. To revert a translation, simply translate the origin be an equivalent amount in the opposite direction. If there is existing 3D data in the Take, you will need to reconstruct a new set of 3D data from recorded 2D data after the translation has been applied.
The Volume Rotation is use to apply a rotational offset to the current global origin. If there is existing 3D data in the Take, you will need to reconstruct a new set of 3D data from recorded 2D data after the rotation has been applied.
In Motive, the Application Settings can be accessed under the View tab or by clicking icon on the main toolbar. Default Application Settings can be recovered by Reset Application Settings under the Edit Tools tab from the main Toolbar.
Function | Default Control |
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The Assets pane in Motive lists out all of the assets involved in the Live, or recorded, capture and allows users to manage them. This pane can be accessed under the View tab in Motive or by clicking icon on the main toolbar.
In the Assets pane, the context menu for involved assets can be accessed by clicking on the or by right-clicking on a selected Take(s). The context menu lists out available actions for the corresponding assets.
Assets pane: While the markers are selected in Motive, click on the add button in the Assets pane.
Calibration Pane is used for calibrating the mocap system through the calibration wanding process. This page provides descriptions on the fields and settings included on the calibration pane. Read through the workflow page to learn about the calibration process in detail.
In Motive, the Calibration pane can be accessed under the View tab or by clicking icon on the main toolbar.
Column Header | Description |
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Rotate view
Right + Drag
Pan view
Middle (wheel) click + drag
Zoom in/out
Mouse Wheel
Select in View
Left mouse click
Toggle Selection in View
CTRL + left mouse click
Cam | This column shows the camera number associated with the row of data, the wanding result or the average result of the camera group. The wanding has error and is reported as the deviation in the wand markers across all samples. |
Samp | The number of samples utilized at the current stage of the solution. This number can climb as the solution converges. |
Quality | The quality given to the current pixel error. You will see the quality increase as the pixel error drops. Quality ranges in the progress bar. Red is poor, yellow is good, and green is excellent. |
Focal | This is the calculated or given focal length of the camera. Doesn't apply to the average or the wanding. |
PixErr | The average pixel error of the camera. Represent the 2 dimensional error of the camera's ability to locate a marker. |
Timeline Frame Range Indicator
Scrubber: Current frame.
Green: Working frame range.
Yellow: Selected frame range.
There are two different modes in Motive: Live mode and Edit mode. You can toggle between two modes from the Control Deck or by using the (~) hotkey.
Live Mode
The Live mode is mainly used when recording new Takes or when streaming a live capture. In this mode, all of the cameras are continuously capturing 2D images and reconstructing the detected reflections into 3D data in real-time.
Edit Mode
The Edit Mode is used for playback of captured Take files. In this mode, you can playback, or stream, recorded data. Also, captured Takes can be post-processed by fixing mislabeling errors or interpolating the occluded trajectories if needed.
Tip: Prime series cameras will illuminate in blue when in live mode, in green when recording, and turned-off in edit mode. See more at Prime Series Status Indicators
Located on the right corner of the control deck, the status monitor can be used to monitor specific operational parameters in Motive. Click on up/down arrows to switch the displayed status. You can also click on the status monitor to open a popup for displaying all available status.
The following status parameters will be available:
Residual
Average of residual values of all live-reconstructed 3D points. This is available only in the Live mode or in the 2D Mode.
Data
Current incoming data transfer rate (KB/s) for all attached cameras.
Point Cloud
Measured latency of the point cloud reconstruction engine.
Rigid Body
Measured latency of the rigid body solver.
Skeleton
Measured latency of the skeleton solver.
Software
Measured software latency. It represents the amount of time it takes Motive to process each frame of captured data. This includes the time taken for reconstructing the 2D data into 3D data, labeling and modeling the trackable assets, displaying in the viewport, and other processes configured in Motive.
System
Available only on Ethernet Camera systems (Prime series and Slim13E). Measured total system latency. This is the time measured from the middle of the camera exposures to when Motive has fully solved all of the tracking data.
Streaming
The rate at which the tracking data is streamed to connected client applications.
Cameras
Available only on Ethernet Camera systems (Prime series or Slim 13E). Average temperature, in Celsius, on the imager boards of the cameras in the system.
For explanations on the streaming workflow, read through the Data Streaming page.
Advanced Settings
The Data Streaming Pane contains advanced settings that are hidden by default. Access these settings by going to the menu on the top-right corner of the pane and clicking Show Advanced and all of the settings, including the advanced settings, will be listed under the pane.
The list of advanced settings can also be customized to show only the settings that are needed specifically for your capture application. To do so, go the pane menu and click Edit Advanced, and uncheck the settings that you wish to be listed in the pane by default. One all desired settings are unchecked, click Done Editing to apply the customized configurations.
Data Streaming pane in Motive
The OptiTrack Streaming Engine allows you to stream tracking data via Motive's free streaming plugins or any custom built NatNet interfaces. To begin streaming, select Broadcast Frame Data. Select which types of data (e.g. markers, rigid bodies, or skeletons) will be streamed, noting that some third party applications will only accept one type of data. Before you begin streaming, ensure that the network type and interface are consistent with the network you will be streaming over and the settings in the client application.
Broadcast Frame Data
(Default: False) Enables/disables broadcasting, or live-streaming, of the frame data. This must be set to true in order to start the streaming.
Local Interface
(Default: loopback) Sets the network address which the captured frame data is streamed to. When set to local loopback (127.0.0.1) address, the data is streamed locally within the computer. When set to a specific network IP address under the dropdown menu, the data is streamed over the network and other computers that are on the same network can receive the data.
Labeled Markers
(Default: True) Enables, or disables, streaming of labeled Marker data. These markers are point cloud solved markers.
Unlabeled Markers
(Default: True) Enables/disables streaming of all of the unlabeled Marker data in the frame.
Asset Markers
(Default: True) Enables/disables streaming of the Marker Set markers, which are named collections of all of the labeled markers and their positions (X, Y, Z). In other words, this includes markers that are associated with any of the assets (Marker Set, Rigid Body, Skeleton). The streamed list also contains a special marker set named all which is a list of labeled markers in all of the assets in a Take. In this data, skeleton and rigid body markers are point cloud solved and model-filled on occluded frames.
Rigid Bodies
(Default: True) Enables/disables streaming of rigid body data, which includes the name of rigid body assets as well as positions and orientations of their pivot points.
Skeletons
(Default: Skeletons) Enables/disables streaming of skeleton tracking data from active skeleton assets. This includes the total number of bones and their positions and orientations in respect to global, or local, coordinate system.
Skeleton Coordinates
(Default: Global) When set to Global, the tracking data will be represented according to the global coordinate system. When this is set to Local, the streamed tracking data (position and rotation) of each skeletal bone will be relative to its parent bones.
Skeleton as Rigid Bodies
[Advanced] (Default: False) When set to true, skeleton assets are streamed as a series of rigid bodies that represent respective skeleton segments.
Bone Naming Convention
(Default: FBX) Sets the bone naming convention of the streamed data. Available conventions include Motive, FBX, and BVH. The naming convention must match the format used in the streaming destination.
The default setting for this has been changed to FBX in Motive 2.0.
Up Axis
(Default: Y Axis) Selects the upward axis of the right-hand coordinate system in the streamed data. When streaming onto an external platform with a Z-up right-handed coordinate system (e.g. biomechanics applications) change this to Z Up. When set to Z-up, the global axis will rotate -90 degrees along the x-axis.
Remote Trigger
(Default: False) Allows using the remote trigger for recording using XML commands. See more: Remote Triggering
Type
(Default: Multicast) Selects the mode of broadcast for NatNet. Valid options are: Multicast, Unicast.
Stream Subject Prefix
[Advanced] (Default: True) When set to true, associated asset name is added as a subject prefix to each marker label in the streamed data.
Stream Visual3D Compatible
[Advanced] Enables streaming to Visual3D. Normal streaming configurations may be not compatible with Visual3D, and this feature must be enabled for streaming tracking data to Visual3D.
Scale
[Advanced] Applies scaling to all of the streamed position data.
Command Port
[Advanced] (Default: 1510) Specifies the port to be used for negotiating the connection between the NatNet server and client.
Data Port
[Advanced] (Default: 1511) Specifies the port to be used for streaming data from the NatNet server to the client(s).
Multicast interface
[Advanced] Specifies the multicast broadcast address. (Default: 239.255.42.99). Note: When streaming to clients based on NatNet 2.0 or below, the default multicast address should be changed to 224.0.0.1 and the data port should be changed to 1001.
Multicast as Broadcast
[Advanced] Warning: This mode is for testing purposes only and it can overflood the network with the streamed data. When enabled, Motive streams out the mocap data via broadcasting instead of sending to Unicast or Multicast IP addresses. This should be used only when the use of Multicast or Unicast is not applicable. This will basically spam the network that Motive is streaming to with streamed mocap data which may interfere with other data on the network, so a dedicated NatNet streaming network may need to be set up between the server and the client(s).To use the broadcast set the streaming option to Multicast and have this setting enabled on the server. Once it starts streaming, set the NatNet client to connect as Multicast, and then set the multicast address to 255.255.255.255. Once Motive starts broadcasting the data, the client will receive broadcast packets from the server.
For information on streaming data via the Trackd Streaming Engine, please consult the Trackd documentation or contact Mechdyne. Note that only 6 DOF rigid body data can be streamed via Trackd.
TrackD Streaming Engine
(Default: False) Streams rigid body data via the Trackd protocol.
For information on streaming data via the VRPN Streaming Engine, please visit the VRPN knowledge base. Note that only 6 DOF rigid body data can be streamed via VRPN.
VRPN Streaming Engine
(Default: False) Streams rigid body data via the VRPN protocol.
VRPN Broadcast Port
[Advanced] (Default: 3883) Specifies the broadcast port for VRPN streaming. (Default: 3883).
Action Items
What happened to the Project TTP Files?
The TTP project file format is deprecated starting from the 2.0 release. Now, recorded Takes will be managed by simply loading the session folders directly onto the new Data pane. For exporting and importing the software setting configurations, the Motive profile file format will replace the previous role of the TTP file. In the Motive profile, software configurations such as reconstruction settings, application settings, data streaming settings, and many other settings will be contained. Camera calibration will no longer be saved in TTP files, but they will be saved in the calibration file (CAL) only. TTP files can still be loaded in Motive 2.0. However, we suggest moving away from using TTP files.
Set the selected session as the current session.
Rename the session folder.
This creates a folder under the selected directory.
Opens the session folder from the file explorer
Delete the session folder. All of its contents will be deleted as well.
When a session folder is selected, associated Take files and their descriptions are listed in a table format on the right-hand side of the Data pane. For each Take, general descriptions and basic information are shown in the columns of the respective row. To view additional descriptions, click on the pane menu, select the Advanced option, and all of the descriptions will be listed. For each of the enabled columns, you can click on the arrow next to it to sort up/down the list of Takes depending on the category.
A search bar is located at the bottom of the Data pane, and you can search a selected session folder using any number of keywords and search filters. Motive will use the text in the input field to list out the matching Takes from the selected session folder. Unless otherwise specified, the search filter will scope to all of the columns.
Search for exact phrase
Wrap your search text in quotation marks.
e.g. Search "shooting a gun"
for searching a file named Shooting a Gun.tak.
Search specific fields
To limit the search to specific columns, type field:
, plus the name of a column enclosed with quotation marks, and then the value or term you're searching for.
Multiple fields and/or values may be specified in any order.
e.g. field:"name" Lizzy
, field:"notes" Static capture
.
Search for true/false values
To search specific binary states from the Take list, type the name of the field followed by a colon (:), and then enter either true ([t], [true], [yes], [y]) or false ([f], [false], [no], [n]).
e.g. Best:[true]
, Solved:[false]
, Video:[T]
, Analog:[yes]
The table layout can also be customized. To do so, go to the pane menu and select New or any of the previously customized layouts. Once you are in a customizable layout, right-click on the top header bar and add or remove categories from the table.
A list of take names can be imported from either a CSV file or carriage return texts that contain a take name on each line. Using this feature, you can plan, organize, and create a list of capture names ahead of actual recording. Once take names have been imported, a list of empty takes with the corresponding names will be listed for the selected session folder.
From a Text
Take lists can be imported by copying a list of take names and pasting them onto the Data pane. Take names must be separated by carriage returns; in other words, each take name must be in a new line.
From a CSV File
Saves the selected take
Reverts any changes that were made. This does not work on the currently opened Take.
Selects the current take and loads it for playback or editing.
Allows the current take to be renamed.
Opens an explorer window to the current asset path. This can be helpful when backing up, transferring, or exporting data.
Separate reconstruction pipeline without the auto-labeling process. Reconstructs 3D data using the 2D data.
Separate auto-labeling pipeline that labels markers using the existing tracking asset definitions. Available only when 3D data is reconstructed for the Take.
Combines 2D data from each camera in the system to create a usable 3D take. It also incorporates assets in the Take to auto-label and create rigid bodies and skeletons in the Take. Reconstruction is required in order to edit or export the skeleton or the rigid body data in the Take.
Solves 6 DoF tracking data of skeletons and rigid bodies and bakes them into the TAK recording. When the assets are solved, Motive reads from recorded Solve instead of processing the tracking data in real-time.
Performs all three reconstruct, auto-label, and solve pipelines in consecutive order. This basically recreates 3D data from recorded 2D camera data.
Opens the Export dialog window to select and initiate file export. Valid formats for export are CSV, C3D, FBX, BVH.
Opens the export dialog window to initiate scene video export to AVI.
Exports an audio file when selected Take contains audio data.
Opens the Delete 2D Data pop-up where you can select to delete the 2D data, Audio data, or reference video data. Read more in Deleting 2D data.
Permanently deletes the 3D data from the take. This option is useful in the event reconstruction or editing causes damage to the data.
Unlabels all existing marker labels in 3D data. If you wish to re-auto-label markers using modified asset definitions, you will need to first unlabel markers for respective assets.
Deletes 6 DoF tracking data that was solved for skeleton and rigid bodies. If Solved data doesn't exist, Motive instead calculates tracking of the objects from recorded 3D data in real-time.
Archives the original take file and creates a duplicate version, minus any 3D data. Archiving a take will reduce size of the active take file while preserving the 2D camera data in a backup sub-directory for later use, if necessary.
Opens a dialog box to confirm permanent deletion of the take and all associated 2D, 3D, and Joint Angle Data from the computer. This option cannot be undone.
Deletes all assets that were recorded in the take.
Copies the assets from the current capture to the selected Takes.
The Edit Tools pane contains the functionality to modify 3D data. Four main functions exist: trimming trials, filling gaps, smoothing trajectories and swapping data points. Trimming trials refers to the clearing of data points before and after a gap. Filling gaps is the process of filling in a markers trajectory for each frame that has no data. Smoothing trajectories filters out unwanted noise in the signal. Swapping allows two markers to swap their trajectories.
Trim on Selected
Trim on Selected trims selected trajectories within the selected time region. Gaps outside the selected time region are not trimmed. Trajectories that are not selected are untouched.
Trim on All
Trim on All trims all trajectories within the selected time region. Gaps outside the selected time region are not trimmed.
Leading
Default: 3 frames. The Trim Size Leading defines how many data points will be deleted before a gap.
Trailing
Default: 3 frames. The Trim Size Trailing defines how many data points will be deleted after a gap.
Smart Trim
Default: OFF. The Smart Trim feature automatically sets the trimming size based on trajectory spikes near the existing gap. It is often not needed to delete numerous data points before or after a gap, but there are some cases where it's useful to delete more data points in case jitters are introduced from the occlusion. When enabled, this feature will determine whether each end of the gap is suspicious with errors, and delete an appropriate number of frames accordingly. Smart Trim feature will not trim more frames than the defined Leading and Trailing value.
Minimum segment size
Default: 5 frames. The Minimum Segment Size determines the minimum number of frames required by a trajectory to be modified by the trimming feature. For instance, if a trajectory is continuous only for a number of frames less than the defined minimum segment size, this segment will not be trimmed. Use this setting to define the smallest trajectory that gets.
Gap size threshold
Default: 2 frames. The Gap Size Threshold defines the minimum size of a gap that is affected by trimming. Any gaps that are smaller than this value are untouched by the trim feature. Use this to limit trimming to only the larger gaps. In general it is best to keep this at or above the default, as trimming is only effective on larger trajectories.
Find Previous
Find Previous searches through the selected trajectory and highlights the range and moves the cursor to the center of a gap before the current frame.
Find Next
Find Next searches through the selected trajectory and highlights the range and moves the cursor to the center of a gap after the current frame.
Fill Selected
Fills the currently selected gap.
Fill All
Fills all gaps in the currently selected track.
Fill Everything
Fills all gaps in all tracks of the timeline.
Max Gap Size
The maximum size, in frames, that a gap can be for Motive to fill. Raising this will allow larger gaps to be filled. However, larger gaps may be more prone to incorrect interpolation.
Interpolation
Fill Target
Smooth Selection
Applies smoothing to the selected portion of the track.
Smooth Track
Applies smoothing to all frames of the track.
Smooth All Tracks
Applies smoothing to all frames on all tracks of the current selection in the timeline.
Max. Freq (Hz)
Determines how strongly your data will be smoothed. The lower the setting, the more smoothed the data will be. High frequencies are present during sharp transitions in the data, such as foot-plants, but can also be introduced by noise in the data. Commonly used ranges for Filter Cutoff Frequency are 7-12 Hz, but you may want to adjust that up for fast, sharp motions to avoid softening transitions in the motion that need to stay sharp.
Find Previous
Jumps to the most recent detected marker swap.
Find Next
Jumps to the next detected marker swap.
Markers to Swap
Selects the markers to be swapped.
Apply Swap
Swaps two markers selected in the Markers to Swap
At the very top of the devices pane, the master camera system frame rate is indicated. All synchronized devices will be capturing at a whole multiple or a whole divisor of this master rate.
The master camera frame rate is indicated at top of the Devices pane. This rate sets the framerate which drives all of the tracking cameras. If you wish to change this, you can simply click on the rate to open the drop-down menu and set the desired rate.
eSync2 users: If you are using the eSync2 synchronization hub to synchronize the camera system to another signal (e.g. Internal Clock), you can apply multiplier/divisor to the input signal to adjust the camera system frame rate.
By clicking on the down-arrow button under the camera frame rate, you can expand list of grouped devices. At first, you may not have any grouped devices. To create new groups, you can select multiple devices that are listed under this panel, right-click to bring up the context menu, and create a new group. Grouping the cameras allows easier control over multiple devices in the system.
Under the tracking cameras section, it lists out all of the motion capture cameras connected to the system. Here, you can configure and control the cameras. You can right-click on the camera setting headers to show/hide specific camera settings and drag them around to change the order. When you have multiple cameras selected, making changes to the settings will modify them for all of the selected cameras. You can also group the cameras to easily select and change the settings quickly. The configurable options include:
Framerate multiplier
Exposure length (microseconds)
IR LED ring on/off
Real-time reconstruction contribution
Imager Gain
IR Filter on/off
Sets the amount of time that the camera exposes per frame. The minimum and maximum values will depend on both the type of camera and the frame rate. Higher exposure will allow more light in, creating a brighter image that can increase visibility for small and dim markers. However, setting exposure too high can introduce false reflections, larger marker blooms, and marker blurring--all of which can negatively impact marker data quality.
Exposure value is measured in scanlines for V100 and V120 series cameras, and in microseconds for Flex13, S250e and PrimeX Series cameras.
This setting enables or disables illumination of the LEDs on the camera IR LED ring. In certain applications, you may want to disable this setting to stop the IR LEDs from strobing. For example, when tracking active IR LED markers, there is no need for the cameras to emit IR lights, so you may want to disable this to stop the IR illuminations which may introduce additional noise in the data.
The IR intensity setting is now a on/off setting. Please adjust the exposure setting to adjust the brightness of the image in the IR spectrum.
In most applications, you can have all of the cameras contributing to the 3D reconstruction engine without any problem. But for a very high-camera count systems, having all camera to contribute to the reconstruction engine can slow down the real-time processing of point cloud solve and result in dropped frames. In this case, you can have a few cameras disabled from real-time reconstruction to prevent frame drops and use the collected 2D data later in post-processing.
Increasing a camera’s gain will brighten the image, which can improve tracking range at very long distances. Higher gain levels can introduce noise into the 2D camera image, so gain should only be used to increase range in large setup areas, when increasing exposure and decreasing lens f-stop does not sufficiently brighten up the captured image.
Sets the camera to view either visible or infrared light on cameras equipped with a Filter Switcher. Infrared Spectrum should be selected when the camera is being used for marker tracking applications. Visible Spectrum can optionally be selected for full frame video applications, where external, visible spectrum lighting will be used to illuminate the environment instead of the camera’s IR LEDs. Common applications include reference video and external calibration methods that use images projected in the visible spectrum.
This property sets the resolution of the images that are captured by selected cameras. Since the amount of data increases with higher resolution, depending on which resolution is selected, the maximum frame rate allowed by the network bandwidth will vary.
Bit-rate setting determines the transmission rate outputted from the selected color camera. This is how you can control the data output from color cameras to avoid overloading the camera network bandwidth. At a higher bit-rate setting, more amount of data is outputted and the image quality is better since there is less amount of image compression being done. However, if there is too much data output, it may overload the network bandwidth and result in frame drops. Thus, it is best to minimize this while keeping the image quality at a acceptable level.
Detected force plates and NI-DAQ devices will get listed under the Devices pane as well. You can apply multipliers to the sampling rate if the they are synchronized through trigger. If they are synchronized via a reference clock signal (e.g. Internal Clock), their sampling rate will be fixed to the rate of that signal.
Using the Graph View pane, you can visualize and monitor multiple data channels including 3D positions of reconstructed markers, 6 Degrees of Freedom (6 DoF) data of trackable assets, and signals from integrated external devices (e.g. force plates or NI-DAQ). Graph View pane offers a variety of graph layouts for the most effective data visualization. In addition to the basic layouts (channel, combined, gapped), custom layouts can also be created for monitoring specific data channels only. Up to 9 graphs can be plotted in each layout and up to two panes can be opened simultaneously in Motive.
Graphs can be plotted in both Live and Edit mode.
In Live Mode, the following data can be plotted in real-time:
Rigid body 6 DoF data (Position and Orientation)
Force Plate Data (Force and Moment)
Analog Data
In Edit Mode, the graphs can be used to review and post-process the captured data:
3D Positions of reconstructed markers
Rigid body 6 DoF data (Position and Orientation)
Force Plate Data (Force and Moment)
Analog Data
Creates a new graph layout.
Deletes current graph layout.
Saves the changes to the graph layout XML file.
Takes an XML snapshot of the current graph layout. Once a layout has been particularized, both the layout configuration and the item selection will be fixed and it can be exported and imported onto different sessions.
Opens the layout XML file of the current graph layout for editing.
Opens the file location of where the XML files for the graph layouts are stored.
Alt + left-click on the graph and drag the mouse left and right to navigate through the recorded frames. You can do the same with the mouse scroll as well.
Scroll-click and drag to pan the view vertically and horizontally throughout plotted graphs. Dragging the cursor left and right will pan the view along the horizontal axis for all of the graphs. When navigating vertically, scroll-click on a graph and drag up and down to pan vertically for the specific graph.
Other Ways to Zoom:
Press "Shift + F" to zoom out to the entire frame range.
Zoom into a frame range by Alt + right-clicking on the graph and selecting the specific frame range to zoom into.
When a frame range is selected, press "F" to quickly zoom onto the selected range in the timeline.
The frame range selection is used when making post-processing edits on specific ranges of the recorded frames. Select a specific range by left-clicking and dragging the mouse left and right, and the selected frame ranges will be highlighted in yellow. You can also select more than one frame ranges by shift-selecting multiple ranges.
Left-click and drag on the nav bar to scrub through the recorded frames. You can do the same with the mouse scroll as well.
Scroll-click and drag to pan the view range range.
Zoom into a frame range by re-sizing the scope range using the navigation bar handles. You can also easily do this by Alt + right-clicking on the graph and selecting a specific range to zoom into.
The working range (also called the playback range) is both the view range and the playback range of a corresponding Take in Edit mode. Only within the working frame range, recorded tracking data will be played back and shown on the graphs. This range can also be used to output a specific frame ranges when exporting tracking data from Motive.
The working range can be set from different places:
In the navigation bar of the Graph View pane, you can drag the handles on the scrubber to set the working range.
You can also use the navigation controls on the Graph View pane to zoom in or zoom out on the frame ranges to set the working range.
The selection range is used to apply post-processing edits only onto a specific frame range of a Take. Selected frame range will be highlighted in yellow on both Graph View pane as well as Timeline pane.
Gap indication
When playing back a recorded capture, the red colors on the navigation bar indicate the amount of occlusions from labeled markers. Brighter red means that there are more markers with labeling gaps.
Left-click and drag on the graph to select a specific frame range. Frame range selection can be utilized for the following workflows:
Tracking Data Export: Exporting tracking data for selected frame ranges.
Reconstruction: Performing the post-processing reconstruction (Reconstructing / Reconstruct and Auto-labeling) pipeline on selected frame ranges.
Labeling: Assigning marker labels, modifying marker labels, or running the auto-label pipeline on selected ranges only.
Data Deleting: Deleting 3D data or marker labels on selected ranges.
The layouts feature in the Graphs View pane allows users to organize and format graph(s) to their preference. The graph layout is selected under the drop-down menu located at top-right corner of the Graph View pane.
In addition to default graph layouts (channels view, combined view, and tracks view) which have been migrated from the previous versions of Motive, custom layouts can also be created. With custom layouts, users can specify which data channels to plot on each graph, and up to 9 graphs can be configured on each layout. Furthermore, asset selections can be locked to labeled markers or assets.
Layouts under the System Layouts category are the same graphs that existed in the old timeline editor.
The Channel View provides X/Y/Z curves for each selected marker, providing verbose motion data that highlights gaps, spikes, or other types of noise in the data.
The Combined View provides X/Y/Z curves for each selected markers at same plot. This mode is useful for monitoring positions changes without having to translate or rescale the y-axis of the graph.
Graph layout customization is further explained on the later section: Customizing Layout.
Right-click on the graph, go to the Grid Layout, and choose the number of rows and columns that you wish to put in the grid. (max 9 x 9)
Click on a graph from the grid. The graph will be highlighted in yellow. Within the grid, only the selected graph will be edited when making changes using the Graph Editor.
Next, you need to pick data channels that you wish to plot. You can do this by checking the desired channels under the data tab while a graph is selected. Only the checked channels will be plotted on the selected graph. Here, you can also specify which color to use when plotting corresponding data channels.
Then under the Visual tab, format the style of the graph. You can configure the graph axis, assign name for the graph, display values, and etc. Most importantly, configure the View Style to match desired graph format.
Repeat the above steps 5 ~ 6 and configure each of the graphs in the layout.
Select an asset (marker, Rigid Body, Skeleton, force plate, or NI-DAQ channel) that you wish to monitor.
Once all related graphs are locked, move onto next selection and lock the corresponding graphs.
When you have the layout configured with the locked selections you can save the configurations as well as the implicit selections temporarily to the layout. Until the layout is particularized onto the explicit selections, you will need to select the related items in Motive to plot the respective graphs.
It is important to particularize the customized layout once all of the graphs are configured. This action will save and explicitly fix the locked selections that the graphs are locked onto. Once the layouts have been particularized, you can re-open the same layout on different sessions and plot the data channels from the same subject with out locking the selection again. Specifically, the particularized layout will try to look for items (labeled marker, Rigid Body, Skeleton, force plate, or analog channels) with the same names that the layout is particularized onto.
Only enabled, or checked, data channels will be plotted on the selected graph using the specified color. Once channels are enabled, an asset (marker, Rigid Body, Skeleton, force plate, or DAQ channel) must be selected and locked.
Plot 3D position (X/Y/Z) data of selected, or locked, marker(s) onto the selected graph.
Plot pivot point position (X/Y/Z), rotation (pitch/yaw/roll), or mean error values of selected, or locked, Rigid Body asset(s) onto the selected graph.
Plot analog data of selected analog channel(s) from a data acquisition (NI-DAQ) device onto the selected graph.
Plot force and moment (X/Y/Z) of selected force plate(s). Plotted graph respects coordinate system of the force platforms (z-up).
Labels the selected graph.
Configures the style of the selected graph:
Channel: Plots selected channels onto the graph.
Combined: Plots X/Y/Z curves for each selected markers fixed on the same plot.
Gap: The Tracks View style allows you to easily monitor the occluded gaps on selected markers.
Live: The Live mode is used for plotting the live data.
Enables/disables range handles that are located at the bottom of the frame selection.
Sets the height of the selected row in the layout. The height will be determined by a ratio to a sum of all stretch values: (row stretch value for the selected row)/(sum of row stretch values from all rows) * (size of the pane)
.
Sets the width of the selected column in the layout. The width size will be determined by a ratio to a sum of all values: (column stretch value for the selected column)/(sum of column stretch values from all columns) * (size of the pane)
.
Display current frame values for each data set.
Display name of each plotted data set.
Plots data from the primary selection only. The primary selection is the last item selected from Motive.
Shows/hides x grid-lines.
Shows/hides y grid-lines.
Sets the size of the major grid lines, or tick marks, on the y-axis values.
Sets the size of the minor grid lines, or tick marks, on the y-axis values.
Sets the minimum value for the y-axis on the graph.
Sets the maximum value for the y-axis on the graph.
Important software notifications will be reported at the right corner of the control deck. Click on the to view the message. Only the important configuration notification will be reported here. Software status messages are reported on the Status Log pane.
In Motive, the Data Streaming pane can be accessed under the View tab or by clicking icon on the main toolbar.
The Data pane is used for managing the Take files. This pane can be accessed under the View tab in Motive or by clicking the icon on the main toolbar.
Option | Description |
---|---|
The left-hand section of the Data pane is used to list out the sessions that are loaded in Motive. Session folders group multiple associated Take files in Motive, and they can be imported simply by dragging-and-dropping or importing a folder into the data management pane. When a session folder is loaded, all of the Take files within the folder are loaded altogether.
In the list of session folders, a currently loaded session folder will be denoted with a flag symbol , and a selected session folder will be highlighted in white.
Category | Description |
---|---|
Take lists can be imported from a CSV file that contains take names on each row. To import, click on the top-right menu icon () and select Import Shot List.
In the Data pane, context menu for captured Takes can be brought up by clicking on the icon or by right-clicking on a selected Take(s). The context menu lists out the options which can be used to perform corresponding pipelines on the selected Take(s). The menu contains a lot of essential pipelines such as reconstruction, auto-label, data export and many others. Available options are listed below.
In Motive, the Edit Tools pane can be accessed under the or by clicking icon on the main toolbar.
Read through the page to learn about utilizing the edit tools.
Sets which interpolation method to be used. Available patterns are constant, linear, cubic, pattern-based, and model-based. For more information, read page
When using the interpolation to fill gaps on a marker's the trajectory, Other reference markers are selected alongside the target marker to interpolate. This Fill Target drop-down menu specifies which marker among the selected markers to set as the target marker to perform the pattern-base interpolation.
The Devices pane can be accessed under the View tab in Motive or by clicking icon on the main toolbar.
In Motive, all of the connected devices get listed in the Devices pane, including tracking cameras, synchronization hubs, color reference cameras, and other supported peripheral devices such as force plates and data acquisition devices. Using this pane, core settings of each component can be adjusted; which includes sampling rates and camera exposures. Cameras can be grouped to control the system more quickly. You can also select individual devices to view and modify their properties in the . Lastly, when specific devices are selected in this pane, their respective properties will get listed under , where you can also make changes to the settings.
Reference cameras using MJPEG grayscale video mode, or cameras, can capture either at a same frame rate as the other tracking cameras or at a whole fraction of the master frame rate. In many applications, capturing at a lower frame rate is better for reference cameras because it reduces the amount of data recorded/outputted decreasing the size of the capture files overall. This can be adjusted by configuring the setting.
The multiplier setting applies selected multiplier to the master sampling rate. Multipliers cannot be applied to the tracking cameras, but you can apply them to the reference cameras that are capturing in processing mode. This allows the reference cameras to capture at a slower framerate. This reduces the number of frames captured by the reference camera which reduces the overall data size.
The mode setting indicate which that the cameras are set to. You can click on the icons to toggle between the tracking mode and the reference grayscale mode. Available video modes may be slightly different for different camera types, but available types include:
Object mode (tracking)
Precision mode (tracking)
MJPEG compressed grayscale mode (reference)
Ray grayscale mode (reference)
This enables/disables contribution of respective cameras to the of the 3D data. When cameras are disabled from contributing to the reconstruction, the cameras will still be collecting capture data but they will not be processed through the real-time reconstruction. Please note that 2D frames will still get recorded into the capture file, and you can run post-processing reconstruction pipeline to obtain fully contributed 3D data in the Edit mode.
reference cameras will also get listed under the devices pane. Just like other cameras in the Tracking group, you can configure the camera settings, including the sampling rate multiplier to decrease the sampling rate of the camera. Additionally, captured and the data transfer can be configured.
Detected synchronization hubs will also get listed under the devices pane. You can select the synchronization hubs in the Devices pane, and configure its input and output signals through the . For more information on this, please read through the page.
For more information, please read through the force plate setup pages (, , ) or the setup page.
The Graph View pane is used to visualize the tracking data in Motive. This pane can be accessed from the command bar (View tab > Graph) or simply by clicking on the icon. This page provides instructions and tips on how to efficiently utilize the Graph View pane in Motive.
Icon | Name | Description |
---|
Right-click and drag on a graph to free-form zoom in and out on both vertical and horizontal axis. If the Autoscale Graph is enabled, the vertical axis range will be fixed according to the max and min value of the plotted data.
Start and end frames of a working range can also be set from the when in the Edit mode.
Zooming: Zoom quickly into the selected range by clicking on the button or by using the F hotkey.
Post-processing data editing: Applying the editing tools on selected frame ranges only. Read more:
The Tracks View is a simplified view that can reveal gaps, marker swaps, and other basic labeling issues that can be quickly remedied by merging multiple marker trajectories together. You can select a specific group of markers from the drop down menu. When two markers are selected, labels can be merged by using and .
In the new Graphs View pane, the graph layout can be customized to monitor data from channels involved in a capture. Create a new layout from the menu > Create New Layout option or right-click on the pane and click Create New Layout option.
New layouts can be created by clicking on the Create Graph Layout from the pane menu located on the top-right corner.
Expand the Graph Editor by clicking on the icon on the tool bar.
When plotting live tracking data in the Live Mode, set the View Style to Live. Frame range of the Live mode graphs can be adjusted by changing the under application settings.
Lock selection for graphs that needs to be linked to the selection. Individual graphs can be locked from the context menu (right-clicking on the graph > Lock Selection) or all graphs can be locked by clicking on the toolbar.
The last step is to make the selection explicit by particularizing the layout. You can do this by clicking the Particularize option under the pane menu once the layout is configured and desired selections are locked. This will fix the explicit selection onto the layout XML file, and the layout will always look for specific items with the same name from the Take. Particularized graphs will be indicated by at the top-right corner of the graph.
The Graph Editor can be expanded by clicking on the Icon from the toolbar. When this sidebar is expanded, you can select individual graphs but other navigation controls will be disabled. Using the graph editor, you can select a graph, choose which data channels to plot, and format the overall look to suit your need.
Using the black color (0,0,0) for the plots will set the graph color to the color of the Rigid Body asset shown in the 3D viewport; which is set under the .
Simple
Use a simplest data management layout.
Advanced
Additional column headers are added to the layout.
Classic
Use the classic Motive layout where Take name, availability of 2D data and 3D data is listed.
New...
Create a new customizable layout.
Rename
Rename a custom layout.
Delete
Delete a custom layout.
2D Mode
In the Edit mode, when this option is enabled, Motive will access the recorded 2D data of a current Take. In this mode, Motive will be live-reconstructing from recorded 2D data and you will be able to inspect the reconstructions and marker rays from the view ports. For more information: Reconstruction and 2D Mode.
Import Shot List...
Import a list of empty Take names from a CSV file. This is helpful when you plan a list of shots in advance to the capture.
Export Take Info...
Exports a list of Take informations into an XML file. Included elements are name of the session, name of the take, file directory, involved assets, notes, time range, duration, and number of frames included.
Best
Health
Progress
The progress indicator can be used to track the process of the Takes. Use the indicators to track down the workflow specific progress of the Takes.
Ready
Recorded
Reviewed
Labeled
Cleaned
Exported
Name
Shows the name of the Take.
2D
Indicates whether 2D data exists on the corresponding Take
3D
Indicates whether the reconstructed 3D data exists on the corresponding Take.
If 3D data does not exist on a Take, it can be derived from 2D data by performing the reconstruction pipeline. See Reconstruction page for more details.
Video
Indicates whether reference videos exist in the Take. Reference videos are recorded from cameras that are set to either MJPEG grayscale or raw grayscale modes.
Solved
Indicates whether any of the assets have solved data baked into it.
Audio
Indicates whether synchronized audio data have been recorded with the Take. See: Audio Recording in Motive
Analog
Indicates whether analog data recorded using a data acquisition device exists in the Take. See: NI-DAQ Setup page.
Data Recorded
Shows the time and the date when the Take was recorded.
Frame Rate
Shows the camera system frame rate which the Take was recorded in.
Duration
Time length of the Take.
Total Frames
Total number of captured frames in the Take.
Notes
Section for adding commenting on each Take.
Start Timecode
Timecode stamped to the starting frame of the Take. This is available only if there was timecode signal integrated to the system.
Graph Editor | This opens up the sidebar for customizing a selected graph within a layout. |
Autoscale Graph | Toggle to autoscale X/Y/Z graphs |
Zoom Fit (selected range) | Zooms into selected frame region and centers the timeline accordingly |
Lock Cursor Centered | Locks the timeline scrubber at the center of the view range. |
Delete Selected Keys | Delete selected frame region. |
Move Selected Keys | Translates trajectories in selected frame region. Select a range and drag up and down on a trajectory. |
Draw Keys | Manual draw trajectory by clicking and dragging on a selected trajectory in the Editor. |
Merge Keys Up |
Merge Keys Down |
Lock Selection | Locks the current selection (marker, rigid body, skeleton, force plates, or NI-DAQ) onto all graphs on the layout. They are used to temporarily hold the selections. Locked selections can later be fixed by taking a snapshot of the layout. This is elaborated more in the later section. |
Euler Angles
There are many potential combinations of Euler angles so it is important to understand the order in which rotations are applied, the handedness of the coordinate system, and the axis (positive or negative) that each rotation is applied about. The following conventions are used for representing Euler orientation in Motive:
Rotation order: XYZ
All coordinates are *right-handed*
Pitch is degrees about the X axis
Yaw is degrees about the Y axis
Roll is degrees about the Z axis
Position values are in millimeters
For more explanation on the labeling workflow, read through the Labeling workflow page.
White Label
The assigned label is assigned to a marker in the current frame
Orange Label
The marker exists in the current frame, but it is unlabeled.
Red Label
The marker is not tracked in the current frame.
Assign labels to a selected marker for all, or selected, frames in a capture.
Applies labels to a marker within the frame range bounded by trajectory gaps and spikes (erratic change). The Max Spike value sets the threshold for spikes which will be used to set the labeling boundary. The Max Gap size determines the tolerable gap size in a fragment, and trajectory gaps larger than this value will set the labeling boundary. This setting is efficient when correcting labeling swaps.
Max Gap
This sets the tolerable gap sizes for both gap ends of the fragment labeling.
Max Spike
Sets the max allowable velocity of a marker (mm/frame) for it to be considered as a spike.
Status messages are categorized into three categories: Informational, Warning, and Error. Logged status messages on the history list can be filtered through choosing a specific category under the Display Filter section. Status messages will appear in a chronological order with corresponding timestamps, which indicate the number of seconds past since the software start.
Symbol Convention
Note: This table is not an exhaustive list of messages in the Log pane.
Since creating rigid bodies, or skeletons, groups the markers in each set and automatically labels them, Marker Sets are not commonly used in the processing workflow. However, they are still useful for marker-specific tracking applications or when the marker labeling is done in pipelines other than auto-labeling. Also, marker sets are useful when organizing and reassigning the labels.
Move to Top
Move the selected label to the top of the labels list.
Move Up
Move the selected label one level higher on the list.
Move Down
Move the selected label one level lower on the list.
Move to Bottom
Move the selected label to the bottom of the labels list.
Rename
Rename the selected label
Delete
Delete the seleted label
The Accuracy Tool is used to check calibration quality and tracking accuracy of a given volume. There are two tools in this tab: the Volume Accuracy tool and the Marker Measurement tool. The Accuracy tools are available under the Accuracy Tools tab in the Measurements pane.
This tool works only with a fully calibrated capture volume and requires the calibration wand that was used during the process. It compares the length of the captured calibration wand to its known theoretical length and computes the percent error of the tracking volume. You can analyze the tracking accuracy from this.
In Live mode, open the Measurements pane under the Tools tab.
Access the Accuracy tools tab.
Bring the calibration wand into the volume.
Once the wand is in the volume, detected wand length (observed value) and the calculated wand error will be displayed accordingly.
This tool calculates measured displacement of a selected marker. You can use this tool to compare the calculated displacement in Motive against how much the marker has actually moved to check the tracking accuracy of the system.
Place a marker inside the capture volume.
Select the marker in Motive.
Under the Marker Measurement section, press Reset Measurement. This zeroes the position of the marker.
Slowly translate the marker, and the absolute displacement will be displayed.
Calibration Frames
Number of frames to sample when calibrating the measurement probe.
Start Calibration
Sample Frames
A total number of frames to collect for calculating the 3D location of the probe tip in respect to the markers on the probe.
Take Sample
Samples 3D location of the probe tip.
Clear All
Clears all collected probe samples.
Set Origin
Re-positions the global coordinate origin to where the probe tip is located
Set Orientation
Re-orients the global coordinate system to three of the sampled points.
Sound
Enable/disable the beeping sound each time a sample is collected.
This section of the pane displays tracking information of the probe. It displays both the real-time tracking and recorded samples. If multiple samples are collected, the distance and angle between the sampled points will be calculated and displayed.
This page includes detailed step-by-step instructions on customizing the marker name XML files for skeletons and Marker Set assets.
c) In the export dialog window, select a directory to save the Marker Name Template (.xml) file. Click Save to export.
Customize Marker Labels
a) Open the exported XML file using a text editor. It will contain corresponding marker label information under the MarkerNameMap section.
b) Customize the marker labels from the XML file. Under the MakerNames section of the XML, modify labels for the name variables with the desired name, but do not change labels for oldName variables. The order of the markers should remain the same.
c) If you changed marker labels, the corresponding marker names must also be renamed within the Marker and Marker Sticks definitions as well. Otherwise, the marker colors and marker sticks will not be defined properly.
Customize Marker Sticks and Colors
b) Here, you can customize the marker colors and the marker sticks. For each marker name, you must use exactly same marker labels that were defined by the MarkerNames section of the same XML file. If any marker label was changed in the MarkerNames section, the changed name must be reflected in the respective colors and sticks definitions as well. In other words, if a Custom_Name was assigned under name for a label in the MarkerNameMap section <Marker name="Custom_Name" oldName="Original_Name" />, the same Custom_Name must be used to rename all the respective marker names within Marker and MarkerSticks elements of the XML.
Marker Colors: For each marker in a skeleton, there will be a respective name and color definitions under the Markerssection of the XML. To change corresponding marker colors for the template, edit the RGB parameter and save the XML file.
Marker Sticks: A marker stick is simply a line interconnecting two labeled markers within the skeleton. Each marker stick definition consists of two marker labels for creating a marker stick and a RGB value for its color. To modify the marker sticks, edit the marker names and the color values. You can also define additional marker sticks by copying the format from the other marker stick definitions.
Creating new skeletons
Renaming Markers on existing Skeleton
You can also apply customized XML into an existing skeleton using the renaming feature. Right-click on a skeleton asset in the Project pane and select the Rename Markers from the context menu, and this will bring up a dialog window for importing a skeleton XML template. Import the customized XML template and modified labels will be applied to the asset. This feature must also be used if extra markers were added to the default XML template.
Applying Customized XML with Added Markers
[Motive: Builder pane] Create the skeleton using the markers without including the extra markers that were added. These markers will be added on the next step.
[Motive:Assets pane] Select the skeleton and click Rename Markers to import the customized skeleton XML template.
The star mark allows users to mark the best Takes. Simply click on the star icon and mark the successful Takes.
The health status column of the Takes indicates the user-selected status of each take:
: Excellent capture
: OK capture
: Poor capture
Merges two two trajectories together. This feature is useful when used with the graphs. Select two trajectories and click this button to merge the top trajectory into the bottom trajectory.
Merges two two trajectories together. This feature is useful when used with the graphs. Select two trajectories and click this button to merge the bottom trajectory into the top trajectory.
The Info pane in Motive displays real-time tracking information of a rigid body selected in Motive. This pane can be accessed under the View tab in Motive or by clicking icon on the main toolbar. This pane lists out real-time tracking information for a selected rigid body in Motive. Reported data includes a total number of tracked rigid body markers, mean errors for each of them, and the 6 Degree of Freedom (position and orientation) tracking data for the rigid body.
In Motive, the Labeling pane can be accessed under the View tab or by clicking icon on the main toolbar.
Function | Icon | Description |
---|---|---|
Labeling pane includes a list of marker labels that are associated with the capture. The color of each label tells whether the marker is tracked in the current frame, and the corresponding gap percentage is indicated next to each label. When a marker set is chosen under the Selected dropdown menu, only associated labels will be listed. In addition, the marker set selection can also be linked to 3D selection in the perspective view pane when the Link to 3D button is enabled.
In Motive, the Status Log pane can be accessed under the View tab or by clicking the icon on the main toolbar.
The Status Log pane logs important events or statuses of the system operation. Actively occurring events are listed under the Current section and all of the events are logged under the History section for the record. The log can be exported into a text file for troubleshooting references.
In general, when there are no errors in the system operation, the Current section of the log will remain free of warning or error messages. Occasionally during system operations, however, the error/warning messages (e.g. Dropped Frame, Discontinuous Frame ID) may pop-up momentarily and disappear afterward. This could occur when Motive is changing its configurations; for example, when switching between Live and Edit modes or when re-configuring the synchronization settings. This is a common behavior, and this does not necessarily indicate system errors as long as the messages do not persist in the Current section. If the error message is continuously persisting under the Current section or have a high number of event counts, it is indicating an issue with the system operation.
Symbol | Message | Description |
---|---|---|
This page goes over the features available on the Markersets pane. Markersets pane can be accessed by clicking on the icon on the toolbar.
The Marker Set is a type of in Motive. It is the most fundamental method of grouping related markers, and this can be used to manually label individual markers in post-processing of captured data using the . Note that Marker Sets are used for manual labeling only. For automatic labeling during live mode, a Rigid Body asset or a Skeleton asset is necessary.
To create a Marker Set, click the icon under the and select New Marker Set.
Once a Marker Set asset is created, its list of labels can be managed using the Marker Sets pane. First of all, Marker Set assets must be selected in Motive and the corresponding asset will be listed on the Marker Set pane. Then, new marker labels can be added by clicking the Icon. If you wish to create multiple marker labels at once, they can added by typing in the labels or copying and pasting a list of labels (a carriage-return delimited) from the windows clipboard onto the pane as shown in the image below..(Press Ctrl+V in the Marker List window).
Under the Wand Measurement section, it will indicate the wand that was used for the volume calibration and its expected length (theoretical value). The wand length is specified under the where you can set the theoretical length to the desired value.
The Probe tab is used with the Measurement Probe Tool Kit. See for specific instructions.
Initiates the process.
In order to customize the skeleton marker labels, marker colors, and marker sticks, a Marker XML file needs be exported, customized, and loaded back in. For skeletons, modified Marker XML files can only be used with the same Marker Set template. In other words, if you exported a and modified the labeling XML file, same Baseline (41) Marker Set needs to be created in order to import the customized XML file. The following section describes the steps for customizing skeleton XML templates.
a) First, choose a Marker Set from the , and a skeleton.
b) Right-click on a skeleton asset in the , and select Export Markers.
a) To customize the Marker Colors and Sticks, open the exported XML file using a text editor and scroll down to the Markers and Marker Sticks section. If the Markers and Marker Sticks section does not exist in the exported XML file, you could be using an old skeleton created before Motive 1.10. and exporting old skeleton will provide these sections in the XML.
Now that you have customized the XML file, it can be loaded each time when creating new skeletons. In the under skeleton creation options, select the corresponding Marker Set. Then, under the Marker Names drop down menu, choose (…) to browse to import the XML file. When you the skeleton, the custom marker labels, marker sticks, and marker labels will be applied. You will need to auto-label the take again if you are working on a recorded TAK file.
If you manually to a skeleton, you must rename the skeleton after creating it. See more at the section.
In order to replace the existing labels with the modified labels, you will need to first delete the existing markers labels and the skeleton asset again with the renamed markers, or you can Reconstruct and Auto-label the entire Take again.
XML definitions can also be applied to on a skeleton asset. When extra markers were added to a skeleton, its exported XML file will have the corresponding marker labels logged at the end of the MarkerNames section, and the labels for these markers can be customized from the exported XML file. The marker color and sticks definitions for extra markers will not be created automatically. To assign the marker colors and sticks for the extra markers, you will need to type additional instances which exactly copies the format that is used in other instances.
A newly created skeleton will not contain the added markers within the asset. To apply the customized XML for the extra markers, you must first create a skeleton of the same markerset and add the extra markers before importing the XML. When adding multiple markers, it is important that they are added in exactly the same order that it was added on the skeleton which was exported; Otherwise, the extra labels will be assigned incorrectly. After adding the corresponding markers, use the feature to apply the customized XML file. Lastly, auto-labeled the Take to assign the corresponding marker definitions onto the skeleton.
[Motive: Perspective View pane] Add the extra markers onto the selected skeleton asset. See how to .
[Motive:Assets pane] When working with a recorded Take, first delete the existing marker labels using the Delete Marker Labels from the , and auto-label the Take to label the markers using the imported XML file.
QuickLabel Mode
Switch to the QuickLabel Mode, which allows assigning selected labels with just one-click.
Select Mode
Switch back to the Select Mode, which is used for normal operations.
Split Column View
Splits the list of labels into two columns for organization purposes. Unlabeled trajectories will be sorted on the right column, and the selected marker set labels are sorted on the left column.
Apply Labels to Previous Frames
When this button is enabled, the marker labels will be applied to same marker trajectories from current frames backward. When disabled, the labels will not be assigned for previous frames.
Apply Labels to Upcoming Frames
When this button is enabled, the marker labels will be applied to same marker trajectories from current frames forward. When disabled, the labels will not be assigned for upcoming frames.
Increment Label Selection
This button is used to set the selection advancement behavior as each label is assigned. Available settings are:
Do not increment: Selection stays the same after labeling
Go to next label: Selection advances to the next label on the list
Go to next unlabeled marker: Selection advances to the next unlabeled marker on the list.
Auto-Label
Performs auto-labeling for selected Takes in the session
Unlabel Selected
Unlabels selected trajectories.
Camera Calibration Updated ( {#} mm/ray mean error)
Continuation calibration feature has updated and improve the camera calibration.
Plugin Device Created: {Name}
The plugin device object for an external device (e.g. force plate and NIDAQ) has been successfully created.
Plugin Device Registered: {Name}
The plugin device has been registered in Motive.
Loaded Plugin: {Directory}
Plugin DLL in the {Directory} has been loaded.
Streaming: Duplicate Frame
Notifying that a duplicate frame has been sent out through the data stream.
Streaming: Discontinuous Frame ID.
Notifying that the streamed frame ID was discontinuous.
Network client connect request received.
A NatNet client application has requested to connect to the server application, Motive.
Network client disconnect request received.
A NatNet client application has has requested to disconnect from the server application, Motive.
Network client validation request received.
A NatNet client application is requesting validation in order to connect to the server application, Motive.
Continuous Calibration: (Status)
Evaluating: Indicates that the continuous calibration feature is assessing the calibration quality.
Sampling: Indicates that the continuous calibration feature is sampling reconstructions for updating the calibration.
Solving: Indicates that the continuous calibration feature is solving and updating the calibration.
Continuous calibration updated
Indicates that the calibration have been automatically updated. Updated mean error value will also be reported.
CAM Camera #: Not Receiving Frame Data.
Indicates that the Camera (#) is not receiving frame data. This could be just because the cameras are still waiting to be initialized. If this status persists, it is like due to a hardware problem.
CAM Camera #: Packet Header CRC Fail
Error in the received camera data packet. Data packets from the cameras are invalid.
CAM Synchronization: Invalid Packet Received
Invalid packet was received. Indicates an encounter of networking error on the camera synchronization.
CAM Synchronization: Packet Header CRC Fail
Error in the received synchronization data packet. Indicates an encounter of networking error on the camera synchronization.
CAM Synchronization: Packet Length Fail
Received packet length invalid. Indicates an encounter of networking error on the camera synchronization.
2D: Camera Stalled
Cameras are stalled. Please check the cable connection and make sure appropriate cable type is used. You would also want to make sure the cables have electromagnetic interference shielding. When cables without the shielding are bundled close together, they can interfere with each other and cause the cameras to stall. Please note that flat Ethernet cables often do not have electromagnetic interference shielding.
CAM Camera #: Dropped Frame
The received frame was invalid and it was dropped. Cameras are not working correctly.
CAM Synchronization: Dropped Frame
Data synchronization failed and the frame has been dropped.
The Properties pane lists out the settings configured for selected objects. In Motive, each type of asset has a list of associated properties, and you can access and modify them using the Properties pane. These properties determine how the display and tracking of the corresponding items are done in Motive. This page will go over all of the properties, for each type of asset, that can be viewed or configured in Motive.
Properties will be listed for recorded Takes, Rigid Body assets, Skeleton assets, force plate device, and NI-DAQ device. Detailed descriptions on each corresponding properties are documented on the following pages:
Selected Items
The Properties pane contains advanced settings that are hidden by default. Access these settings by going to the menu on the top-right corner of the pane and clicking Show Advanced and all of the settings, including the advanced settings, will be listed under the pane.
The list of advanced settings can also be customized to show only the settings that are needed specifically for your capture application. To do so, go the pane menu and click Edit Advanced, and uncheck the settings that you wish to be listed in the pane by default. One all desired settings are unchecked, click Done Editing to apply the customized configurations.
This section highlights what's in the Probe pane. For detailed instructions on how to use the Probe pane to collect measurement samples, read through Measurement Probe Kit Guide.
The Probe Calibration feature under the Rigid Body edit options can be used to re-calibrate a pivot point of a measurement probe or a custom Rigid Body. This step is also completed as one of the calibration steps when first creating a measurement probe, but you can re-calibrate it under the Modify tab.
In Motive, select the Rigid Body or a measurement probe.
Bring out the probe into the tracking volume where all of its markers are well-tracked.
Place and fit the tip of the probe in one of the slots on the provided calibration block.
Click Start
Once it starts collecting the samples, slowly move the probe in a circular pattern while keeping the tip fitted in the slot; making a cone shape overall. Gently rotate the probe to collect additional samples.
When sufficient samples are collected, the mean error of the calibrated pivot point will be displayed.
Click Apply to use the calibrated definition or click Cancel to calibrate again.
The Digitized Points section is used for collecting sample coordinates using the probe. You can select which Rigid Body to use from the drop-down menu and set the number of frames used to collect the sample. Clicking on the Sample button will trigger Motive to collect a sample point and save it into the C:\Users\[Current User]\Documents\OptiTrack\measurements.csv
file.
When needed, export the measurements of the accumulated digitized points into a separate CSV file, and/or clear the existing samples to start a new set of measurements
Shows the live X/Y/Z position of the calibrated probe tip.
Shows the live X/Y/Z position of the last sampled point.
Shows the distance between the last point and the live position of the probe tip.
Shows the distance between the last two collected samples.
Shows the angle between the last three collected samples
Advanced Settings
The Properties: Camera contains advanced settings that are hidden by default. Access these settings by going to the menu on the top-right corner of the pane and clicking Show Advanced and all of the settings, including the advanced settings, will be listed under the pane.
The list of advanced settings can also be customized to show only the settings that are needed specifically for your capture application. To do so, go the pane menu and click Edit Advanced, and uncheck the settings that you wish to be listed in the pane by default. One all desired settings are unchecked, click Done Editing to apply the customized configurations.
Enables/disables selected cameras. When cameras are disabled, they don't record any data nor contribute to the reconstruction of 3d data.
Shows the frame rate of the camera. The camera frame rate can only be changed within the devices pane.
This setting determines whether or not selected cameras contribute to the real-time reconstruction.
Shows the rate multiplier or divider applied to the master frame rate. The master frame rate depends on the sync configuration.
Sets the amount of time that the camera exposes per frame. The minimum and maximum values will depend on both the type of camera and the frame rate. Higher exposure will allow more light in, creating a brighter image that can increase visibility for small and dim markers. However, setting exposure too high can introduce false markers, larger marker blooms, and marker blurring--all of which can negatively impact marker data quality. Exposure value is measured in scanlines for tracking bars and Flex3 series cameras, and in microseconds for Flex13, S250e, Slim13E, and Prime Series cameras.
Defines the minimum brightness for a pixel to be seen by a camera, with all pixels below the threshold being ignored. Increasing the threshold can help filter interference by non-markers (e.g. reflections and external light sources), while lowering the threshold can allow dimmer markers to be seen by the system (e.g. smaller markers at longer distances from the camera).
This setting enables or disables the IR LED ring on selected cameras. For tracking passive retro-reflective markers, this setting must be set to true to illuminate the IR LED rings for tracking. If the IR illumination is too bright for the capture, you can decrease the camera exposure setting to decrease the amount of light received by the imager; dimming the overall captured frames.
Sets the camera to view either visible or IR spectrum on cameras equipped with a Filter Switcher. When enabled, the camera captures in IR spectrum, and when disabled, the camera captures in visible spectrum.Infrared Spectrum should be selected when the camera is being used for marker tracking applications. Visible Spectrum can optionally be selected for full frame video applications, where external, visible spectrum lighting will be used to illuminate the environment instead of the camera’s IR LEDs. Common applications include reference video and external calibration methods that use images projected in the visible spectrum.
Sets the imager gain level for the selected cameras. Gain settings can be adjusted to amplify or diminish the brightness of the image. This setting can be beneficial when tracking at long ranges. However, note that increasing the gain level will also increase the noise in the image data and may introduce false reconstructions. Thus, before deciding to change the gain level, adjust the camera settings first to optimize the image clarity.
[Advanced] This property indicates whether the selected camera has been calibrated or not. This is just an indication of whether the camera has been processed through the calibration wanding, but it does not validate the quality of the camera calibration.
Basic information about the selected camera gets listed in the Details section
Displays the camera number assigned by Motive.
Displays the model of a selected camera.
Displays the serial nubmer of a selected camera.
Displays focal length of the lens on the selected camera.
When this is enabled, the estimated field of view (FOV) of the selected camera will be shown in the perspective viewport.
Prime color cameras also have the following properties that can be configured:
Default: 1920, 1080
This property sets the resolution of the images that are captured by selected cameras. Since the amount of data increases with higher resolution, depending on which resolution is selected, the maximum allowable frame rate will vary. Below is the maximum allowed frame rates for each respective resolution setting.
Default: Constant Bit Rate.
This property determines how much the captured images will be compressed. The Constant Bit-Rate mode is used by default and recommended because it is easier to control the data transfer rate and efficiently utilize the available network bandwidth.
Constant Bit-Rate
In the Constant Bit-Rate mode, Prime Color cameras vary the degree of image compression to match the data transmission rate given under the Bit Rate settings. At a higher bit-rate setting, the captured image will be compressed less. At a lower bit-rate setting, the captured image will be compressed more to meet the given data transfer rate, but compression artifacts may be introduced if it is set too low.
Variable Bit-Rate
Variable Bit-Rate setting is also available for keeping the amount of the compression constant and allowing the data transfer rate to vary. This mode can be beneficial when capturing images with objects that have detailed textures because it keeps the amount of compression same on all frames. However, this may introduce dropped frames whenever the camera tries to compress highly detailed images because it will increase the data transfer rate; which may overflow the network bandwidth as a result. For this reason, we recommend using the Constant Bit-Rate setting in most applications.
Default: 50
Available only while using Constant Bit-rate Mode
Bit-rate setting determines the transmission rate outputted from the selected color camera. The value given under this setting is measured in percentage (100%) of the maximum data transmission speed, and each color camera can output up to ~100 MBps. In other words, the configured value will indirectly represent the transmission rate in Megabytes per second (MBps). At bit-rate setting of 100, the camera will capture the best quality image, however, it could overload the network if there is not enough bandwidth to handle the transmitted data.
Since the bit-rate controls the amount of data outputted from each color camera, this is one of the most important settings when properly configuring the system. If your system is experiencing 2D frame drops, it means one of the system requirements is not met; either network bandwidth, CPU processing, or RAM/disk memory. In such cases, you could decrease the bit-rate setting and reduce the amount of data output from the color cameras.
Image Quality
The image quality will increase at a higher bit-rate setting because it records a larger amount of data, but this will result in large file sizes and possible frame drops due to data bandwidth bottleneck. Often, the desired result is different depending on the capture application and what it is used for. The below graph illustrates how the image quality varies depending on the camera framerate and bit-rate settings.
Tip: Monitoring data output from each camera
Default : 24
Gamma correction is a non-linear amplification of the output image. The gamma setting will adjust the brightness of dark pixels, mid-tone pixels, and bright pixels differently, affecting both brightness and contrast of the image. Depending on the capture environment, especially with a dark background, you may need to adjust the gamma setting to get best quality images.
This page provides information on the Probe pane, which can be accessed under the Tools tab or by clicking on the icon from the toolbar.
When a camera, or a camera group, is selected from the , related camera settings will be displayed in the . From the Properties pane, you can configure the camera settings so that it is optimized for your capture application. You can enable/disable IR LEDs, change exposure length of the cameras, set the video mode, apply gain to the capture frames, and more. This page lists out properties of the cameras and what they are used for.
[Advanced] When this is set to on, the 2D data from selected cameras will contribute to the updates.
Sets the of the selected camera.
Show of hide frame delivery information from the selected camera. The frame delivery information is used for diagnosing how fast each camera is delivering its frame packets. When enabled, the frame delivery information will be shown in the .
Show or hide the guide reticle when using the button for aiming the cameras.
Resolution | Max Frame Rate |
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Data output from the entire camera system can be monitored through the Status Panel. Output from individual cameras can be monitored from the 2D Camera Preview pane when the Camera Info is enabled under the visual aids () option.
960 x 540 (540p) | 500 FPS |
1280 x 720 (720p) | 360 FPS |
1920 x 1080 (1080p) | 250 FPS |
When an NI-DAQ device is selected in Motive, its device information gets listed under the Properties pane. Just basic information on the used device will be shown in the Properties pane. For configuring properties of the device, use the Devices pane.
For more information, read through the NI-DAQ setup page: NI-DAQ Setup.
Advanced Settings
The Properties: NI-DAQ contains advanced settings that are hidden by default. Access these settings by going to the menu on the top-right corner of the pane and clicking Show Advanced and all of the settings, including the advanced settings, will be listed under the pane.
The list of advanced settings can also be customized to show only the settings that are needed specifically for your capture application. To do so, go the pane menu and click Edit Advanced, and uncheck the settings that you wish to be listed in the pane by default. One all desired settings are unchecked, click Done Editing to apply the customized configurations.
Only enabled NI-DAQ devics will be actively measuring analog signals.
This setting determines how the recording of the selected NI-DAQ device will be triggered. This must be set to None for reference clock sync and to Device for recording trigger sync.
None: NI-DAQ recording is triggered when Motive starts capturing data. This is used when using the reference clock signal for synchronization.
Device: NI-DAQ recording is triggered when a recording trigger signal to indicate the record start frame is received through the connected input terminal.
(available only when Trigger Sync is set to Device) Name of the NI-DAQ analog I/O terminal where the recording trigger signal is inputted to.
This setting sets whether an external clock signal is used as the sync reference. For precise synchronization using the internal clock signal sync, set this to true.
True: Setting this to true will configure the selected NI-DAQ device to synchronize with an inputted external sample clock signal. The NI-DAQ must be connected to an external clock output of the eSync on one of its digital input terminals. The acquisition rate will be disabled since the rate is configured to be controlled by the external clock signal.
False: NI-DAQ board will collect samples in 'Free Run' mode at the assigned Acquisition Rate.
(available only when Reference Clock Sync is set to True) Name of the NI-DAQ digital I/O terminal that the external clock (TTL) signal is inputted to.
Set this to the output port of the eSync where it sends out the internal clock signal to the NI-DAQ.
Shows the acquisition rate of the selected NI-DAQ device(s).
Depending on the model, NI-DAQ devices may have different sets of allowable input types and voltage ranges for their analog channels. Refer to your NI-DAQ device User's Guide for detailed information about supported signal types and voltage ranges.
(Default: -10 volts) Configure the terminal's minimum voltage range.
(Default: +10 volts) Configure the terminal's maximum voltage range.
Configures the measurement mode of the selected terminal. In general, analog input channels with screw terminals use the single-ended measurement system (RSE), and analog input channels with BNC terminals use the differential (Diff) measurement system. For more information on these terminal types, refer to NI documentation.
Terminal: RSE Referenced single ended. Measurement with respect to ground (e.g. AI_GND) (Default)
Terminal: NRSE NonReferenced single ended. Measurement with respect to single analog input (e.g. AISENSE)
Terminal: Diff Differential. Measurement between two inputs (e.g. AI0+, AI0-)
Terminal: PseudoDiff Differential. Measurement between two inputs and impeded common ground.
[Advanced] Name of the selected device.
Device model ID, if available.
Device serial number of the selected NI-DAQ assigned by the manufacturer.
Type of device.
Total number of available channels on the selected NI-DAQ device.
[Advanced]What mode of Motive playback being used.
Whether the device is ready or not.
Tristate status of either Need Sync, Ready for Sync, or Synced. Updates the "State" icon in the Devices pane.
[Advanced] Internal device number.
User editable name of the device.
When a force plate is selected in Motive, its device information gets listed under the Properties pane. For configuring force plate properties, use the Devices pane and modify the corresponding device properties.
For more information, read through the force plate setup pages:
Advanced Settings
The Properties: Force Plates contains advanced settings that are hidden by default. Access these settings by going to the menu on the top-right corner of the pane and clicking Show Advanced and all of the settings, including the advanced settings, will be listed under the pane.
The list of advanced settings can also be customized to show only the settings that are needed specifically for your capture application. To do so, go the pane menu and click Edit Advanced, and uncheck the settings that you wish to be listed in the pane by default. One all desired settings are unchecked, click Done Editing to apply the customized configurations.
Force Plate Group Properties:
Group policy is enforced for the force plates that are from the same vendors. This means most of the force plate properties are shared within the force plate groups. Shared settings include the enabled status, sampling rates, and sync modes. These settings should be configured the same for all force plates in most cases. If you need to disable a specific force plate among the group, this will need to be done by powering off the amplifier or disabling the device from the Windows Device Manager.
Enables or disables selected force plate. Only enabled force plates will be shown in Motive and be used for data collection.
Select whether the force plate is synchronized through a recording trigger. This must be set to Device when force plates are synchronized through recording trigger signal from the eSync. This must be set to None when synchronizing through a clock signal.
When set to true, the force plate system synchronizes by reference to an external clock signal. This must be enabled for the reference clock sync. When two systems syncs using the recording trigger, this must be turned off.
Indicates the output port on the eSync that is used for synchronizing the selected force plate. This must match the output port on the eSync that is connected to the force plate amplifier and sending out the synchronization signal.
Multiplier applied to the camera system frame rate. This is available only for triggered sync and can also be configured from the Devices pane. The resulting rate decides the sampling rate of the force plates.
Resulting data acquisition rate of the force plates. For reference clock sync setups, it will match the frequency of the clock signal. For triggered sync setups, this will match the multiple of the camera system frame rate.
Assigned number of the force plates.
Name of the Motive asset associated with the selected device. For Manus Glove integration, this must match the name of the Skeleton.
Name of the selected force plate.
Model number of the force plate
Force plate serial number.
Number of active channels available in the selected device. For force plates, this defaults to 6 with channels responsible for measuring 3-dimensional force and moment data.
Indicates the state that the force plate is in. If the force plate is streaming the data, it will be indicated Receiving Data. If the force plate is on standby for data collection, it will be indicated Ready.
Size scale of the resultant force vector shown in the 3D viewport.
Length of the force plate.
Width of the force plate.
Manufacturer defined electrical-to-mechanical offset values.
Lists out positions of the four force plate corners. Positions are measured with respect to the global coordinate system, and this is calibrated when you Set Position using the CS-400 calibration square.
By modifying the device properties of the OptiHub, users can customize the sync configurations of the camera system for implementing external devices in various sync chain setups. This page directly lists out the properties of the OptiHub. For general instructions on customizing sync settings for integrating external devices, it is recommended to read through the External Device Sync Guide: OptiHub 2 guide.
While the OptiHub is selected under the Devices pane, use the Properties pane to view and configure its properties. By doing so, users can set the parent sync source for the camera system, configure how the system reacts to input signals, and also which signals to output from the OptiHub for triggering other external acquisition devices.
This option is only valid if the Sync Input: Source is set to Internal Sync. Controls the frequency in Hertz (Hz) of the OptiHub 2's internal sync generator. Valid frequency range is 8 to 120 Hz.
This option is only valid if the Sync Input: Source is set to Sync In or USB Sync. Controls synchronization delay in microseconds (us) between the chosen sync source signal and when the cameras are actually told to expose. This is a global system delay that is independent of, and in addition to, an individual camera's exposure delay setting. Valid range is 0 to 65862 us, and should not exceed one frame period of the external signal.
To setup the sync input signals, first define a input Source and configure desired trigger settings for the source:
Internal/Wired sets the OptiHub 2 as the sync source. This is the default sync configuration which uses the OptiSync protocol for synchronizing the cameras. The Parent OptiHub 2 will generate an internal sync signal which will be propagated to other (child) OptiHub 2(s) via the Hub Sync Out Jack and Hub Sync In Jack. For V100:R1(legacy) and the Slim 3U cameras, Wired Sync protocol is used. In this mode, the internal sync signal will still be generated but it will be routed directly to the cameras via daisy-chained sync cables.
Sync In sets an external device as the sync source.
USB Sync sets an external USB device as the sync source. This mode is for customers who use the Camera SDK development kits and would like to have their software trigger the cameras instead. Using the provided API, the OptiHub 2 will be send the trigger signal from the PC via the OptiHib 2's USB uplink connection to the PC.
The Internal/Wired input source uses the OptiHub 2's internal synchronization generator as the main sync source. You can modify the synchronization frequency for both Wired and OptiSync protocol under the Synchronization Control section. When you adjust the system frame rate from this panel, the modified frame rate may not be reflected on the Devices pane. Check the streaming section of the status bar for the exact information.
This option is only valid if the Sync Input: Source is set to Internal Sync. Controls the frequency in Hertz (Hz) of the OptiHub 2's internal sync generator, and the this frequency will control the camera system frame rate. Valid frequency range is 8 to 120 Hz.
The Sync In input source setting uses signals coming into the input ports of the OptiHub 2 to trigger the synchronization. Please refer to External Device Sync Guide: OptiHub 2 page for more instructions on this.
Detects and displays the frequency of the sync signal that's coming through the input port of the parent OptiHub 2, which is at the very top of the RCA sync chain. When sync source is set to Sync In, the camera system framerate will be synchronized to this input signal. Please note that OptiHub 2 is not designed for precise sync, so there may be slight sync discrepancies when synchronizing through OptiHub 2.
Manually adds global sync time offset to how camera system reacts to the received input signal. The input unit is measured in microseconds.
Can select from Either Edge, Rising Edge, Falling Edge, Low Gated, or High Gated signal from the connected input source.
Allows a triggering rate compatible with the camera frame rate to be derived from higher frequency input signals (e.g. 300Hz decimated down to 100Hz for use with a V100:R2 camera). Valid range is 1 (no decimation) to 15 (every 15th trigger signal generates a frame).
(The camera system will be the child) sets an external USB device as the sync source. This mode is for customers who use the Camera SDK development kits and would like to have their software trigger the cameras instead. Using the provided API, the OptiHub 2 will be send the trigger signal from the PC via the OptiHib 2's USB uplink connection to the PC.
Detects and displays the frequency of the parent source.
Allows the user to allow or block trigger events generated by the internal sync control. This option has been deprecated for use in the GUI. Valid options are Gate-Open and Gate-Closed.
Allows a triggering rate compatible with the camera frame rate to be derived from higher frequency input signals (e.g. 360Hz decimated down to 120Hz for use with a Flex 13 camera). Valid range is 1 (no decimation) to 15 (every 15th trigger signal generates a frame).}}
Sync signals can also be sent out through the output ports of the OptiHub 2 to child devices in the synchronization chain. Read more: External Device Sync Guide: OptiHub 2.
Selects condition and timing for a pulse to be sent out over the External Sync Out jack. Available Types are: Exposure Time, Pass-Through, Recording Level, and Recording Pulse.
Polarity
Selects output polarity of External Sync Out signal. Valid options are: Normal and Inverted. Normal signals are low and pulse high and inverted signals are high and pulse low.
Skeleton properties determine how Skeleton assets are tracked and displayed in Motive.
To view related properties, select a Skeleton asset in the Assets pane or in the 3D viewport, and the corresponding properties will be listed under the Properties pane. These properties can be modified both in Live and Edit mode. Default creation properties are listed under the Application Settings.
Advanced Settings
The Properties: Skeleton contains advanced settings that are hidden by default. Access these settings by going to the menu on the top-right corner of the pane and clicking Show Advanced and all of the settings, including the advanced settings, will be listed under the pane.
The list of advanced settings can also be customized to show only the settings that are needed specifically for your capture application. To do so, go the pane menu and click Edit Advanced, and uncheck the settings that you wish to be listed in the pane by default. One all desired settings are unchecked, click Done Editing to apply the customized configurations.
Shows the name of selected Skeleton asset.
Enables/disables both tracking of the selecting Skeleton and its visibility under the perspective viewport.
The minimum number of markers that must be tracked and labeled in order for a Rigid Body asset, or each Skeleton bone, to be booted or first tracked.
The minimum number of markers that must be tracked and labeled in order for a Rigid Body asset, or each Skeleton bone, to continue to be tracked after the initial boot.
[Advanced] Euler angle rotation order used for calculating the bone hierarchy.
Selects whether or not to display the Skeleton name in the 3D Perspective View.
Selects how the Skeleton will be shown in the 3D perspective view.
Segment: Displays Skeleton as individual Skeleton segments.
Avatar (male): Displays Skeleton as a male avatar.
Avatar (female): Displays Skeleton as a female avatar.
Sets the color of the Skeleton.
This feature is supported in Live mode and 2D mode only. When enabled, the color of the Skeleton segments will change whenever there are tracking errors.
Show or hide Skeleton bones.
[Advanced] Displays orientation axes of each segments in the Skeleton.
[Advanced] Shows the Asset Model Markers as transparent spheres on each Skeleton segment. The asset mode markers are the expected marker locations according to the Skeleton solve.
[Advanced] Draws lines between labeled Rigid Body or Skeleton markers and corresponding expected marker locations. This helps to visualize the offset distance between actual marker locations and the asset model markers.
[Advanced] Displays lines between each Skeleton markers and their associated Skeleton segments.
Applied double-exponential smoothing to translation and rotation of a Rigid Body or a skeletal bone. Disabled at 0.
Compensate for system latency by predicting bone movements into the future. For this feature to work best, smoothing needs to be applied as well. Disabled at 0.
[Advanced] When needed, you can damp down translational and/or rotational tracking of a Rigid Body or a Skeleton bone on selected axis.
Rigid body properties determine how the corresponding Rigid Body asset is tracked and displayed in the viewport.
To view related properties, select a Rigid Body asset in the Assets pane or in the 3D viewport, and the corresponding properties will be listed under the Properties pane. These properties can be modified both in Live and Edit mode. Default creation properties are listed under the Application Settings.
Advanced Settings
The Properties: Rigid Body contains advanced settings that are hidden by default. Access these settings by going to the menu on the top-right corner of the pane and clicking Show Advanced and all of the settings, including the advanced settings, will be listed under the pane.
The list of advanced settings can also be customized to show only the settings that are needed specifically for your capture application. To do so, go the pane menu and click Edit Advanced, and uncheck the settings that you wish to be listed in the pane by default. One all desired settings are unchecked, click Done Editing to apply the customized configurations.
Allows a custom name to be assigned to the Rigid Body. Default is "Rigid Body X" where x is the Rigid Body ID.
Enables/Disables tracking of the selected Rigid Body. Disabled Rigid Bodies will not be tracked, and its data will not be included in the exported or streamed tracking data.
User definable ID for the selected Rigid Body. When working with capture data in the external pipeline, this value can be used to address specific Rigid Bodies in the scene.
The minimum number of markers that must be tracked and labeled in order for a Rigid Body asset, or each Skeleton bone, to be booted or first tracked.
The maximum displacement a Rigid Body marker ca deviate from its calibrated position before it becomes unlabeled.
Smoothing
Applies double exponential smoothing to translation and rotation of a Rigid Body. Disabled at 0.
Forward Prediction
Compensation for system latency by predicting a Rigid Body's movement into the future. For this feature to work best, smoothing needs to be applied as well.
Tracking Algorithm
Tracking algorithm used for Rigid Body tracking.
Color of the selected Rigid Body in the 3D Perspective View. Clicking on the box will bring up the color picker for selecting the color.
Selects whether or not to display the Rigid Body name in the 3D Perspective View. If selected, a small label in the same color as the Rigid Body will appear over the centroid in the 3D Perspective View.
Enables the display of a Rigid Body's local coordinate axes. This option can be useful in visualizing the orientation of the Rigid Body, and for setting orientation offsets.
Shows a history of the Rigid Body’s position. When enabled, you can set the history length and the tracking history will be drawn in the Perspective view.
Show historical orientation axes.
Shows Rigid Body when tracked.
Untracked Markers
Shows Rigid Body when not tracked.
Pivot
Show Rigid Body's pivot point.
Assigned Markers
Shows Rigid Body's assigned markers.
Pivot Scale
Scales the size of the Rigid Body's pivot point.
Quality
When this is set to true, links drawn between Rigid Body markers will tween to red as deflection approaches max deflection setting.
Maker Quality
When set to true, expected markers of the Rigid Body will change its color to red as it approaches the max deflection setting.
Model Replace
When true and a valid geometric model is loaded, the model will draw instead of the Rigid Body.
Attached Geometry setting will be visible if the Model Replace setting is enabled. Here, you can load an OBJ file to replace the Rigid Body. Scale, positions, and orientations of the attached geometry can be configured under the following section also. When a OBJ file is loaded, properties configured in the corresponding MTL files alongside the OBJ file will be loaded as well.
Attached Geometry Settings
When the Attached Geometry is enabled, you can attach a 3D model to a Rigid Body and the following setting will be available also.
Pivot Scale: Adjusts the size of the Rigid Body pivot point.
Scale: Rescales the size of attached object.
Yaw (Y): Rotates the attached object in respect to the Y-axis of the Rigid Body coordinate axis.
Pitch (X): Rotates the attached object in respect to the X-axis of the Rigid Body coordinate axis.
Roll (Z): Rotates the attached object in respect to the Z-axis of the Rigid Body coordinate axis.
X: Translate the position of attached object in x-axis in respect to the Rigid Body coordinate.
Y: Translate the position of attached object in y-axis in respect to the Rigid Body coordinate.
Z: Translate the position of attached object in z-axis in respect to the Rigid Body coordinate.
Opacity: Sets the opacity of an attached object. An OBJ file typically comes with a corresponding MTL file which defines its properties, and the transparency of the object is defined within these MTL files. The Opacity value under the Rigid Body properties applies a factor between 0 ~ 1 in order to rescale the loaded property. In other words, you can set the transparency in the MTL file and rescale them using the Opacity property in Motive.
Uplink ID assigned to the Tag or Puck using the Active Batch Programmer. This ID must match with the Uplink ID assigned to the Active Tag or Puck that was used to create the Rigid Body.
Radio frequency communication channel configured on the Active Tag, or Puck, that was used to define the corresponding Rigid Body. This must match the RF channel configured on the active component; otherwise, IMU data will not be received.
Applies double exponential smoothing to translation and rotation of the Rigid Body. Increasing this setting may help smooth out noise in the Rigid Body tracking, but excessive smoothing can introduce latency. Default is 0 (disabled).
Compensate for system latency when tracking of the corresponding Rigid Body by predicting its movement into the future. Please note that predicting further into the future may impact the tracking stability.
[Advanced] When needed, you can damp down translational and/or rotational tracking of a Rigid Body or a Skeleton bone on selected axis.
From the Properties pane, you can get the general information about the Take, including the total number of recorded frames, capture data/time, and the list of assets involved in the recording. Also, when needed, the solver settings that were used in the recorded TAK can be modified, and these changes will be applied when performing post-processing reconstruction.
Take name
The camera frame rate in which the take was captured. The Take file will contain the corresponding number of frames for each second.
The frame ID of the first frame saved on the Take.
The frame ID of the last frame saved on the Take.
A timestamp of when the recording was first captured started.
A timestamp of when the recording was ended.
Names of assets that are included in the Take
Comments regarding the take can be noted here for additional information.
Date and time when the capture was recorded.
The version of Motive which the Take was recorded in. (This applies only to Takes that were captured in versions 1.10 or above)
The build of Motive which the Take was recorded in.
The data quality of the Take which can be flagged by users.
Progress indicator for showing how into the post-processing workflow that this Take has made.
Camera system calibration details for the selected Take. Takes recorded in older versions of Motive may not contain this data.
Shows when the cameras were calibrated.
Displays a mean error value of the detected wand length samples throughout the wanding process.
Displays percentile distribution of the wand errors.
Shows what type of wand was used: Standard, Active, or Micron series.
Displays the length of the calibration wand used for the capture.
Distance from one of the end markers to the center marker, specifically the shorter segment.
By modifying the device properties of the eSync, users can customize the sync configurations of the camera system for implementing various sync chain setups.
Configure the input signal by first defining which input source to use. Available input sources include Internal Free Run, Internal Clock, SMPTE Timecode In, Video Gen Lock, Inputs (input ports), Isolated, VESA Stereo In, and Reserved. Respective input configurations appear on the pane when a source is selected. For each selected input source, the signal characteristics can be modified.
Synchronization Input Source Options
Controls the frequency of the eSync 2's internal sync generator when using the internal clock.
Introduces an offset delay, in microsecond, to selected trigger signal.
Sets the trigger mode. Available modes are Either Edge, Rising Edge, and Falling Edge, and each of them uses the corresponding characteristic of the input signal as a trigger.
Allows a triggering rate, compatible with the camera frame rate, to be derived from higher frequency input signals.
Allows a triggering rate, compatible with the camera frame rate, to be derived from lower frequency input signals. Available multiplier range: 1 to 15.
Displays the final rate of the camera system.
eSync2 ports vs eSync ports
In the eSync2, three general input ports are implemented in place of Lo-Z and Hi-Z input ports from the eSync. These general input ports are designed for high impedance devices, but low impedance devices can also be connected with appropriate adjustments. When the eSync 2 is connected to the system, options for Lo-Z and Hi-Z will be displayed.
Lo-Z input: Sets an external low impedance device as the trigger. The max signal voltage cannot exceed 5 Volts.
Hi-Z input: Sets an external high impedance device as the trigger. The max signal voltage cannot exceed 5 Volts.
Allows you to configure signal type and polarity of synchronization signal through the output ports, including the VESA stereo output port, on the eSync 2.
Type: Defines the output signal type of the eSync 2. Use this to sync external devices to the eSync 2.
Polarity: Change the polarity of the signal to normal or inverted. Normal signals constantly output a low signal and pulses high when triggering. Inverted signals constantly output a high signal and pulse low when triggering.
Output Signal Types
Trigger Source: Determines which trigger source is used to initiate the recording in Motive. Available options are Software, Isolated, and Inputs. When the trigger source set to software, recording is initiated in Motive.
With the eSync 2, external triggering devices (e.g. remote start/stop button) can integrate into the camera system and set to trigger the recording start and stop events in Motive. Such devices will connect to input ports of the eSync 2 and configured under the Record Triggering section of the eSync 2 properties.
By default, the remote trigger source is set to Software, which is the record start/stop button click events in Motive. Set the trigger source to the corresponding input port and select an appropriate trigger edge when an external trigger source (Trigger Source → isolated or input) is used. Available trigger options include Rising Edge, Falling Edge, High Gated, or Low Gated. The appropriate trigger option will depend on the signal morphology of the external trigger. After the trigger setting have been defined, press the recording button in advance. It sets Motive into a standby mode until the trigger signal is detected through the eSync. When the trigger signal is detected, Motive will start the actual recording. The recording will be stopped and return to the 'armed' state when the second trigger signal, or the falling edge of the gated signal, is detected.
Under the Record Triggering section, set the source to the respective input port where the trigger signal is inputted.
Choose an appropriate trigger option, depending on the morphology of the trigger signal.
Press the record button in Motive, which prepares Motive for recording. At this stage, Motive awaits for an incoming trigger signal.
When the first trigger is detected, Motive starts recording.
When the second trigger is detected, Motive stops recording and awaits for next trigger for repeated recordings. For High Gated and Low Gated trigger options, Motive will record during respective gated windows.
Once all the recording is finished, press the stop button to disarm Motive.
Input Monitor displays the corresponding signal input frequency. This feature is used to monitor the synchronization status of the signals into the eSync 2.
Displays the frequency of the Internal Clock in the eSync 2.
Displays the frequency of the timecode input.
Displays the frequency of the video genlock input.
Displays the frequency of the input signals into the eSync 2.
Displays the frequency of the external low impedance sync device.
Displays the frequency of the external high impedance sync device.
Display the frequency of the external generic sync device.
For internal use only.
Synchronization Input Source Options
Controls the frequency of the eSync 2's internal sync generator when using the internal clock.
Introduces an offset delay, in microsecond, to selected trigger signal.
Sets the trigger mode. Available modes are Either Edge, Rising Edge, and Falling Edge, and each of them uses the corresponding characteristic of the input signal as a trigger.
Allows a triggering rate, compatible with the camera frame rate, to be derived from higher frequency input signals.
Allows a triggering rate, compatible with the camera frame rate, to be derived from lower frequency input signals. Available multiplier range: 1 to 15.
Displays the final rate of the camera system.
eSync ports vs eSync2
In the eSync 2, three general input ports are implemented in place of Lo-Z and Hi-Z input ports from the eSync. These general input ports are designed for high impedance devices, but low impedance devices can also be connected with appropriate adjustments. When the eSync is connected to the system, options for Lo-Z and Hi-Z will be displayed.
Lo-Z input: Sets an external low impedance device as the trigger. The max signal voltage cannot exceed 5 Volts.
Hi-Z input: Sets an external high impedance device as the trigger. The max signal voltage cannot exceed 5 Volts.
Allows you to configure signal type and polarity of synchronization signal through the output ports, including the VESA stereo output port, on the eSync2.
Defines the output signal type of the eSync2. Use this to sync external devices to the eSync2.
Polarity
Change the polarity of the signal to normal or inverted. Normal signals constantly output a low signal and pulses high when triggering. Inverted signals constantly output a high signal and pulse low when triggering.
Output Signal Types
Trigger Source: Determines which trigger source is used to initiate the recording in Motive. Available options are Software, Isolated, and Inputs. When the trigger source set to software, recording is initiated in Motive.
Input Monitor displays the corresponding signal input frequency. This feature is used to monitor the synchronization status of the signals into the eSync 2.
Internal Clock: Displays the frequency of the Internal Clock in the eSync 2.
SMTPE Time Code In: Displays the frequency of the timecode input.
Video Genlock In: Displays the frequency of the video genlock input.
Inputs: Displays the frequency of the input signals into the eSync 2.
Lo-Z: Displays the frequency of the external low impedance sync device.
Hi-Z: Displays the frequency of the external high impedance sync device.
Isolated: Display the frequency of the external generic sync device.
Reserved: For internal use only.
Properties of individual channels can be configured directly from the Devices pane. As shown in the image, you can click on the icon to bring up the settings and make changes.
Trigger | Description |
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Output | Description |
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When a is selected from the , related information will be displayed in the .
Marks the best take. Takes that are marked as best can also be accessed via scripts.
Shows mean offset value during calibration.
Displays percentile distribution of the errors.
The camera filter settings in the Take properties determine which IR lights from the recorded 2D camera data contributes to the when re-calulating the 3D data when needed.
For more information on these settings in Live mode, please refer to the page.
The Solver/Reconstruction settings under the Take properties are the 3D data solver parameters that were used to obtain the saved in the Take file. In Edit mode, you can change these parameters and perform the to obtain a new set of 3D data with the modified parameters.
For more information on these settings in Live mode, please refer to the page.
While the eSync is selected under the , use the to monitor the eSync properties. Here, users can configure the parent sync source of the camera system and also the output sync signals from the eSync for integrating child devices (e.g. ). For a specific explanation on steps for synchronizing external devices, read through the following page: .
Input Source | Description |
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Type | Description |
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Note: For capturing multiple recordings via recording trigger, only the first TAK will contain the 3D data. For the subsequent TAKs, the 3D data must be reconstructed through the pipeline.
Open the and the to access the eSync 2 properties.
Input Source |
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Type | Description |
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Either Edge
Uses either the rising or falling edge of the pulse signal.
Rising Edge
Uses the rising edge of the pulse signal.
Falling Edge
Uses the falling edge of the pulse signal.
High Gated
High Gated mode triggers when the input signal is at a high voltage level, but stops triggering at a low voltage level.
Low Gated
Low Gated mode triggers when the input signal is at a low voltage level, but stops triggering at a high voltage level.
Exposure Time
Outputs a pulse signal when the cameras expose.
Pass-Through
Passes the input signal to the output.
Recording Gate
Outputs a constant high level signal while recording. Other times the signal is low. (Referred as Recording Level in older versions).
Gated Exposure Time
Outputs a pulse signal when the cameras expose during a recording only. (Referred as Recording Pulse in older versions).
Internal Free Run | This is the default synchronization protocol for Ethernet camera systems without an eSync2. In this mode, Prime series cameras are synchronized by communicating the time information with each other through the camera network itself using a high-precision algorithm for timing synchronization. |
Internal Clock | Sets the eSync 2 to use its internal clock to deliver the sync signal to the Ethernet cameras, and the sync signal can be modified as well. |
SMPTE Timecode In | Sets a timecode sync signal from an external device as the input source signal. |
Video Gen Lock | Locks the camera sync to an external video sync signal. |
Isolated | Used for generic sync devices connected to the Isolated Sync In port from the eSync 2. Considered safer than other general input ports (Hi-Z and Lo-Z). The max signal voltage cannot exceed 12 Volts. |
Inputs | Uses signals through the input ports of the eSync 2. Used for high impedance output devices. The max signal voltage cannot exceed 5 Volts. |
VESA Stereo In | Sets cameras to sync to signal from the VESA Stereo input port. |
Reserved | Internal use only. |
Exposure Time | Outputs a pulse signal when the cameras expose. |
Recording Gate | Outputs a constant high level signal while recording. Other times the signal is low. |
Record Start/Stop Pulse | Outputs a pulse signal both when the system starts and stops recording. |
Gated Exposure Time | Outputs a pulse signal when the cameras expose, when the system is recording. |
Gated Internal Clock | Outputs the internal clock, while the system is recording. |
Selected Sync | Outputs the Sync Input signal without factoring in signal modifications (e.g. input dividers). |
Adjusted Sync | Outputs the Sync Input signal accounting for adjustments made to the signal. |
| Uses a selected input signal to generate the synchronization output signal. |
Internal Free Run | This is the default synchronization protocol for Ethernet camera systems without an eSync 2. In this mode, Prime series cameras are synchronized by communicating the time information with each other through the camera network itself using a high-precision algorithm for timing synchronization. |
Internal Clock | Sets the eSync 2 to use its internal clock to deliver the sync signal to the Ethernet cameras, and the sync signal can be modified as well. |
SMPTE Timecode In | Sets a timecode sync signal from an external device as the input source signal. |
Video Gen Lock | Locks the camera sync to an external video sync signal. |
Isolated | Used for generic sync devices connected to the Isolated Sync In port from the eSync 2. Considered safer than other general input ports (Hi-Z and Lo-Z). The max signal voltage cannot exceed 12 Volts. |
Inputs | Uses signals through the input ports of the eSync2. Used for high impedance output devices. The max signal voltage cannot exceed 5 Volts. |
VESA Stereo In | Sets cameras to sync to signal from the VESA Stereo input port. |
Reserved | Internal use only. |
Exposure Time | Outputs a pulse signal when the cameras expose. |
Recording Gate | Outputs a constant high level signal while recording. Other times the signal is low. |
Record Start/Stop Pulse | Outputs a pulse signal both when the system starts and stops recording. |
Gated Exposure Time | Outputs a pulse signal when the cameras expose, when the system is recording. |
Gated Internal Clock | Outputs the internal clock, while the system is recording. |
Selected Sync | Outputs the Sync Input signal without factoring in signal modifications (e.g. input dividers). |
Adjusted Sync | Outputs the Sync Input signal accounting for adjustments made to the signal. |
| Uses a selected input signal to generate the synchronization output signal. |
Cameras can be set to a reference view from the Devices pane or by configuring video type to grayscale modes.
In this pane, cameras, markers, and trackable assets can be overlayed over the reference view. This is a good way of monitoring events during the capture. All of the assets and trajectory histories under the Perspective view pane can be overlayed on the reference videos from this pane.
Note: that the overlayed assets will not be rendered into exported reference videos.
The status panel lists out the system parameters for monitoring the live status of system operations. Click on the displayed status at the bottom right corner of Motive, and the Status Panel will pop up. You can drag and place the Status Panel anywhere.
Average of residual values of all live-reconstructed 3D points. This is available only in the Live mode or in the 2D Mode.
Current incoming data transfer rate (KB/s) for all attached cameras.
Measured latency of the point cloud reconstruction engine.
Measured latency of the Rigid Body solver and the Skeleton solver combined.
Measured software latency. It represents the amount of time it takes Motive to process each frame of captured data. This includes the time taken for reconstructing the 2D data into 3D data, labeling and modeling the trackable assets, displaying in the viewport, and other processes configured in Motive.
Available only on Ethernet Camera systems (Prime series and Slim13E). Measured total system latency. This is the time measured from the middle of the camera exposures to when Motive has fully solved all of the tracking data.
The data rate at which the tracking data is streamed to connected client applications.
Available only on Ethernet Camera systems (Prime series or Slim 13E). Average temperature, in Celsius, on the imager boards of the cameras in the system.
When there is an increased latency on any of the processing pipeline that needs an attention, it will be highlighted in purple. Increase processing latency may result in dropped frames when real-time processing the data in live-captures or in 2D Mode. Increased latency usually occurs due to the CPU not being fast enough to process the data in real-time. If you perform post-processing reconstructions, you will be accessing the recorded 3D data or solved data (rigid bodies), and there will be no processing required for the corresponding pipeline and they will be indicated as inactive.
With large camera systems, the Point Cloud engine may experience increased latency due to the amount of data it needs to handle in real-time. If the increased latency is causing frame drops or affecting the tracking quality, you can exclude selected cameras from contributing to the real-time reconstruction. In the Devices pane, reveal the Reconstruction setting from the header context menu, and disable this setting for the cameras that you wish to process later. 2D frames captured by these cameras will be recorded in the TAK but they will not contribute to real-time reconstruction. This will reduce the amount of data to be processed in real-time, and you will still be able to utilize the 2D frames using post-processing reconstruction pipeline.
This page lists out the options that are available on the toolbar and the command bar of Motive.
Open: Prompts user to select a file to open. Applicable files include Take files (.tak), Camera Calibration files (.cal), Motive user profile (.motive), Rigid Body definitions (.tra deprecated), Skeleton defintions (.skl deprecated).
Add Session Folder: Adds a session folder to the Data pane in Motive. This will list all of the available TAK files within the session folder.
Import Shot List: Import a list of Take names to record from a CSV file that contains Take names on each row This allows users to plan which motions to capture ahead of the time. See: Data Recording page.
Save Current Take: Saves currently opened Take.
Save Current Take As: Prompts the user to select a filename and a directory to save the current Take.
Save All Takes: Save all Takes from all of the sessions loaded in the Data Management pane.
Profile (MOTIVE) files: MOTIVE profile stores software configurations. Software setting such as applications settings, streaming setting, trackable assets, synchronization configurations, and/or device configurations can be saved into this file. This file can be exported and imported to configurations in Motive.
Update Default Profile: Manually update the current software configurations onto the default system profile. Which loads up at first when launching Motive and located under C:\ProgramData\OptiTrack\MotiveProfile.motive
.
Export Profile As...: Exports the current software configurations into an application profile (MOTIVE).
Export Assets...: Export just the assets (rigid bodies, skeletons, markersets) to a MOTIVE file.
Export Camera Calibration: Exports the current system calibration file(.cal) to a desired location.
Export Tracking Data: Exports tracking data from a selected Take into the desired output format. See: Data Export.
Export Video: Exports reference video to an AVI file. To play this file in Windows Media Player, a codec needs to be installed.
Export Take Info: Exports basic information of each TAK in the currently loaded session folder.
Recent Files: Displays a list recently opened Take files. This list will display the director of the recent files.
Exit: Closes the Motive application.
Undo: Reverts data processing actions (i.e. deleting data, merging markers, filling gaps).
Redo: Reverts an Undo.
Trim Current Take: Archives the original take file and crops out the working range selected in the Graph View pane. For more information, read through the Trimming Captured Takes.
Application Settings: Opens the Application Settings pane.
Mouse Controls: Opens Mouse Controls pane for configuring mouse controls.
Hotkeys: Opens the Hotkey Editor pane for configuring custom Hotkeys
Reset Application Defaults: Sets all application settings to the default setting.
Hide All Panes: This closes all of Motive's panes except the main viewport.
Devices pane: Opens Devices pane, or Cameras pane for Motive version 1.10 and below.
Camera Calibration pane: Opens the Calibration pane for calibrating the camera system.
Data Pane: Opens the Data Management pane for managing the recorded captures.
Assets Pane: Opens the Assets pane for managing the list of tracked assets as well as integrated devices such as force plates and data acquisition devices.
Properties Pane: Opens the Properties pane for managing the properties of selected items in Motive.
Info Pane: Opens the Info pane for monitoring real-time tracking data of a rigid body.
Builder Pane: Opens the Builder pane for creating trackable models or assets. Specifically, this pane is used for creating rigid body models and skeleton models in Motive.
Marker Sets Pane: Opens the Markersets pane for managing selected markerset assets.
Edit Tools Pane: Opens the Edit Tools pane.
Labeling Pane: Opens the Labeling Pane.
Graph 1 & Graph 2: Opens Graph View pane for monitoring the channel data.
Data Streaming pane: Opens the Data Streaming pane. See: Data Streaming
Status Log pane: Opens the Status Log.
Dockable Viewports: Opens additional viewports.
Reference Overlays: Opens a Reference View window which displays and overlays the 2D view from the selected reference camera.
Toolbar: Toggles display of the Toolbar on/off.
Note: Layout configurations from Motive versions prior to 2.0 cannot be loaded. Please re-create and update the layouts for use.
Calibrate: Displays panes applicable to system calibration. (Cameras, Perspective View, Camera Preview, Camera Calibration, Reconstruction)
Create: Displays panes applicable to asset creation and modification. (Project, Perspective View, Timeline, Skeleton, Rigid Bodies)
Capture: Displays panes applicable to capturing a take. (Project, Perspective View, Timeline)
Edit: Displays panes applicable to editing a take. (Project, Perspective View, Timeline, Edit Tools).
Create Layout: Saves the current layout. Saved custom layouts can be accessed from the drop-down menu located at the top-right corner of Motive.
Delete Layout: Deletes the saved custom layout.
Update Current: Updates the selected custom layout from the drop-down menu located at the top-right corner of Motive.
Set as Default: Sets the current layout as a default layout setup for starting Motive.
Custom Layouts: List of custom layouts that are created by the user. In the screenshot, Label Fix and Skeleton Label layouts are added as an example
Measurements: Opens the Measurement pane which contains the Volume Accuracy tool for measuring the accuracy and the Probe tool for probe measurements.
Coordinate System Tools: (For Tracking Bars only) Opens the Coordinate System Tools pane, which replaces the ground plane tools for Duo/Trio Tracking bars.
Audio Settings: Opens the Audio Capture and Playback Settings panel which allows you to select and test audio input/output devices.
Ask A Question: Opens the NaturalPoint forums in a web browser where you can ask any question and get answers.
Documentation Wiki: Opens online Motive documentation in a default web browser.
Tutorial & Training Videos: Opens the OptiTrack Wiki.
Submit Feedback: Opens a dialog box where you may submit any comments you have.
OptiTrack Products Catalog: Opens the OptiTrack online product catalog in a web browser.
Support Forums: Opens NaturalPoint's support forum.
OptiTrack Support: Opens the OptiTrack support site.
News: Opens NaturalPoint's news feed.
Batch Processing Help: Opens the wiki documentation page on the Motive Batch Processor.
Check For Updates: Use this if you want to learn more about upgrading Motive.
Show Quick Start: Links you to our Quick Start Guide.
Startup News Check: This is a toggle for receiving notifications for Motive updates.
License Folder: Opens the folder location of your license files.
Application Folders: Opens the Application Folders pane that provides easy access to folders related to Motive.
About Motive: Displays information about the version of Motive currently running.
*This option is only available with a Motive:Body license.
Two Marker Distance
In the 3D perspective view pane, you can quickly check 3D distance between a set of two markers. First of all, make sure to enable the Two Marker Distance feature under the visual aids, and select two markers to measure the distance from. Then, the corresponding displacement (in mm) between two markers will be displayed on the view port.
Three Marker Angle
Likewise, an angle formed by three markers can also be examined. Make sure the Three Marker Angle display feature is enabled under the visual aids. When this feature is enabled, the respective angle (in degrees) will be measured and displayed over the viewport when a set of three marker is selected from the scene. Note that the selection order will determine the vertex point when measuring the angle.
The following context menu appears when a camera is selected either in the perspective view or in the camera preview.
Hardware Mask: Sets masking of the selected cameras. You can apply auto-masks or clear existing masks.
Orientation: Adjust display orientation of a camera in the 2D camera preview. It can be manually configured or set to a calculated orientation which is obtained from the system calibration.
Show Field of View: When enabled, it displays expected field of view in the 3D perspective view.
Save View As Image: Saves the 2D view of the selected camera into a bitmap image.
Identify: This feature is used to check which camera is selected in the camera preview pane.
The following context menu appears when 3D reconstructed markers are selected in the perspective view.
Rigid Body:
Create (Select at least 3 markers): Creates a rigid body asset from selected markers. At least 3 markers must be selected in order to create a rigid body. (default hotkey: CTRL + T)
Add Selected Markers to Rigid Body: Adds a selected marker to a rigid body asset. To use this feature, a marker and a rigid body must be selected together.
Remove Selected Markers from Rigid Body: Removes a selected marker from a rigid body asset. To use this feature, a rigid body marker and an associated rigid body must be selected together.
Set Pivot Point to Selected Marker: Sets the pivot point of a rigid body asset on a selected marker. To use this feature, a rigid body and a marker must be selected together.
Marker Info: Shows marker label and its x, y ,z location within the global space.
Label Marker: Assigns marker labels from an existing marker set.
Unlabel Marker(s): Unlabels selected markers.
The following context menu appears when a rigid body is selected in the perspective view.
Reset Pivot: Repositions the rigid body pivot point at the center of a rigid body.
Update Pivot to Spherical Placement: This feature assumes that the markers are placed on a spherical object, and repositions the rigid body pivot point right at its center.
Remove: Removes a rigid body.
The following context menu appears when a skeleton asset is selected in the perspective view.
Skeleton: Contains options for a skeleton asset
Enable Tracking of All Skeletons: Enables all skeleton assets in a capture or in a recorded Take.
Disable Tracking of All Skeletons: Disables all skeleton assets in a capture or in a recorded Take.
Enable Tracking of Selected Skeletons: Enables selected skeleton assets in a capture or in a recorded Take.
Disable Tracking of Selected Skeletons: Disables selected skeleton assets in a capture or in a recorded Take.
Show Last Good Pose: When this feature is enabled, the skeleton asset will keep its last good pose when the tracking is lost. More specifically, enabling this feature prevents skeleton solver from trying to solve bone segments with unlabeled markers, and last good pose will be retained for the untracked segments; preventing erratic movements when tracking of a skeleton is lost.
Remove All Skeletons: Removes all skeleton assets from a capture.
Remove Selected Skeletons: Removes selected skeleton assets from a capture.
The following context menu appears when a force plate is selected in the perspective view.
Zero (all): Zeroes, or tares, all selected force plates.
ReSynch (all): For triggered synchronization protocols, (e.g. force plates that syncs using the record trigger), this feature re-synchronizes force plates with the camera system. This will remove any sync offsets that may have increased gradually since the trigger.
The Reference View pane is used to monitor captured videos from the reference cameras. Up to two reference cameras can be monitored on each pane. This pane can be accessed under the View tab → Reference Overlay or simply by clicking on one of the reference view icons from the main toolbar ().
Icon | Function | Description |
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Icon | Description |
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Icon | Description |
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Real-Time Reconstruction: Enable/disable selected cameras from contributing to of 3D markers
Video Type: Sets of the selected cameras.
Settings: Configures of selected cameras. The settings include Camera exposure, threshold, intensity, and other advanced settings that could also be configured in the .
Reconstruction: Enable/disable selected cameras from contributing to of 3D markers.
Properties: Opens the and lists out associated properties of a selected rigid body.
Remove Selected Markers From Rigid Body: Removes the selected rigid body marker position from the rigid body asset definition. In order to do this, Enable Skeleton Assigned Marker Selection , must be enabled to select the rigid body marker definition.
Remove Selected Markers from Skeleton: Removes selected skeleton marker from the skeleton asset definition. In order to do this, Enable Skeleton Assigned Marker Selection , must be enabled to select the skeleton marker definitions.
Set Position: Repositions a force plate asset according to the location of the calibration square. This is used to calibrate the position of a selected force plate within Motive. For more information: page.
Open File
Open Motive files: Project (TTP), Calibration (CAL), Takes (TAK), Rigid bodies (TRA), Skeletons (SKL).
Save Current Take
Save currently opened Take.
Save All Takes
Save all of the Takes that are loaded in the Data Management pane.
Opens Application Setting pane for software preferences. Reconstruction settings will also be modified in this pane.
Hide all panes
Closes all the panes in the layout, leaving only the main viewport.
Opens the Devices (Cameras) Pane
Opens Calibration Pane
Opens the Data Management pane for managing takes.
Opens the Assets pane for managing the list of tracked assets as well as integrated devices such as force plates and data acquisition devices.
Opens the Properties pane for managing the properties of selected items in Motive.
Opens the Info pane for monitoring real-time tracking data of a selected rigid body in Motive.
Opens the Builder pane for defining or modifying rigid body or skeleton assets in Motive.
Opens the Marker Sets pane for creating and configuring Marker Sets.
Opens Edit Tools for post-processing pipelines.
Opens the Labeling pane for labeling the markers.
Opens Graph View pane for monitoring the channel data.
Opens Data Streaming pane for configuring the streaming properties.
Opens the Status Log for monitoring the activity.
Adds extra View panes.
Opens the view pane for monitoring reference videos with assets overlay.
Changes Viewport to Multi-Camera 2D View |
Opens a context menu to select pre-defined 3D views. |
Opens a context menu to select a camera to set as the 3D Viewpoint. |
Opens a context menu to select a rigid body to set as the 3D Viewpoint. |
Enable/Disable the follow selected marker feature, skeleton, or rigid body in the perspective view during both capture and playback. |
Zooms into selected markers or assets to fit the perspective view pane. |
Zooms into existing assets to fit the perspective view pane. |
Select Tool. Using this tool, you can select objects that are in the 3D view pane. |
Axis.* This determines whether the global coordinate axis or the local segment axis would be used When applying translation, rotation, or scaling tools to recorded 3D data.
|
Enable/disable Marker Selection. |
Enable/disable Camera Selection. |
Enable/disable Rigid Body Selection. |
Enable/disable Skeleton Selection.* |
Enable Assigned Marker Selection.* When this feature is enabled, you can select on expected marker positions (transparent) of skeleton and rigid body assets. |
Opens a context menu to enable or disable visual aids for the perspective view, which includes the following:
|
Toggle to show/hide markers from the perspective view. |
Toggle to show/hide skeletons from the perspective view.* |
Toggle to show/hide rigid bodies from the perspective view. |
Edit Skeleton*. When this feature is enabled, users can translate, rotate, and rescale individual bone segments of skeleton assets within a recorded 3D Take. |
Symmetrical bone length and orientation* When this feature is enabled, any modifications on bone lengths and orientations are applied symmetrically on both left and right side of a skeleton. |
Changes Viewport to 3D Perspective View. |
Zooms into selected cameras to fit the pane. (default hotkey: F) |
Zooms all cameras to fit the pane. (default hotkey: Shift + F) |
Auto-masks all visible markers in every camera. |
Clears all masking in all camera views. |
Activates a tool for drawing or removing circular masks on the cameras depending on whether the additive or the subtractive mode is selected. |
Activates a tool for drawing or removing rectangular masks on the cameras depending on whether the additive or the subtractive mode is selected. |
Activates a tool to do manually draw or erase masks on the cameras depending on whether the additive or the subtractive mode is selected. |
This button toggles between additive masking or subtractive masking mode. Depending on this configuration, you can either add masks or remove masks using the above tools. |
Shows a list of visual aids for the 2D Camera Preview which includes the including:
|
Translate Tool.* Using this tool, you can select a group of reconstruct markers and apply translation along the global x-y-z axis. When the Edit Skeleton is enabled, this tool can also be used to translate skeleton bones along x, y, z of the segment axis or the global axis. This feature is supported for post-processing of a recorded 3D data only. When the change is made, the segment hierarchy will be modified and reflected on exported skeleton bone data but the marker locations will remain the same.
Rotate Tool.* Using this tool, you can select a group of reconstructed markers and apply rotations about the global x-y-z axis. When the Edit Skeleton is enabled, this tool can also be used to rotate skeleton bones along x, y, z of the segment axis or the global axis. This feature is supported for post-processing of a recorded 3D data only. When the change is made, the segment hierarchy will be modified and reflected on exported skeleton bone data but the marker locations will remain the same
Scale Tool.* Using this tool, you can select a group of reconstructed markers and re-scale the displacement between each marker along the global x-y-z axis. When the Edit Skeleton is enabled, this tool can also be used to rescale length of skeleton segments. This feature is supported for post-processing of a recorded 3D data only. When the change is made, the segment hierarchy will be modified and reflected on exported skeleton bone data but the marker locations will remain the same
Assign Skeleton Markers Tool.* This tool allows you to associate markers to a skeleton segment by selecting them together. For more information:
For the skeleton assets, this can be used to remove assigned markers from corresponding definitions. For more information: .
Visual aids available for 2D camera preview