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MOTIVE UI PANES

Application Settings

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.

Overview

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

Settings: Live Reconstruction

Reconstruction settings configured under the 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 .

The real-time reconstruction settings can be accessed in the Reconstruction tab under the 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 page.

Point Cloud

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 ). 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 when the tracked rays and untracked rays are enabled from the visibility settings.

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 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.

Reconstruction Settings

Maximum Residual (mm)

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 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 ).

Maximum Ray Length (m)

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.

Minimum Ray Length (m)

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.

Minimum Ray Count

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.

Marker Labeling Mode

Default: Passive

Configures Motive for tracking either the passive markers, the synchronized active markers, or both. See for more information.

Active Patten Depth

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.

Continuous Calibration

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 page.

Performance/Quality

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.

Pixel Gutter (pixels)

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.

Minimum Angle (degrees)

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 ).

Rigid Body Markers Override

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 , and when the Use Smart Markers is enabled.

Use Smart Markers

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 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.

Utilize Active Labels

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 page.

Max Gap Span

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.

Max Search Radius (m)

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.

Advanced Options

Reconstruction Bounds

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 .

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.

Auto-labeler

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 . 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 , 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

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.

Settings: General

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.

Live Reconstruction

Reconstruction tab contains a list of parameters for the real-time Point Cloud reconstruction engine.

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 2D Mode to live-monitor the reconstruction outcomes from the configured settings.

See Application Settings: Reconstruction Settings page for more information on each setting.
For details on the reconstruction workflow, read through the Reconstruction and 2D Mode page.
Reconstruction settings for post-processing reconstruction pipelines for recorded captures can be modified under the corresponding Take properties in the Properties pane.

General

Misc

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

Enable/Disable auto-archiving of Takes when trimming Takes

Save Data Folder

Motive persists all of the session folders that are imported into the Data 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.

Startup Options

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.

Aim Assist Button

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.

Camera Status Ring

Controls the color of the RGB Status Indicator Ring (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.

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.

Networking

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.

Settings: Assets

Overview

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.

Rigid Bodies Basic Settings

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 page.

Note that this is the default creation properties. Asset specific Rigid Body properties are modified directly from the .

Rigid Body Creation Properties

Default Name (Default: RigidBody)

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.

Streaming ID

User definable ID. When streaming tracking data, this ID can be used as a reference to specific Rigid Body assets.

Minimum Markers to Boot

The minimum number of markers that must be labeled in order for the respective asset to be booted.

Minimum Markers to Continue

The minimum number of markers that must be labeled in order for the respective asset to be tracked.

Smoothing

Applies double exponential smoothing to translation and rotation. Disabled at 0.

Forward Prediction

Compensate for system latency by predicting movement into the future.

For this feature to work best, smoothing needs to be applied as well.

Visuals

Label

Toggle 'On' to enable. Displays asset's name over the corresponding skeleton in the 3D viewport.

Creation Color

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.

Bone Position History

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.

Visual

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.

Bones

When enabled for Rigid Bodies, this will display the Rigid Body's pivot point.

Asset Model Markers

Shows the transparent sphere that represents where an asset first searches for markers, i.e. the asset model marker.

Replace Geometry

When enabled and a valid geometric model is loaded, the model will draw instead of the Rigid Body.

Rigid Bodies Advanced Settings

Rigid Body Creation Properties

Deflection Ratio

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.

Skeletons Basic Settings

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 page.

Note that this is the default creation properties. Asset-specific Skeleton properties are modified directly from the .

Skeleton Creation Properties

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.

Head Upright

Creates the Skeleton with heads upright irrespective of head marker locations.

Height Marker

Force the solver so that the height of the created Skeleton aligns with the top head marker.

Vertical Hand Adjustment

Height offset applied to hands to account for markers placed above the write and knuckle joints.

Visuals

Same as the Rigid Body visuals above:

Label
Creation Color
Bones
Asset Model Markers

Quality Visual

Changes the color of the skeleton visual to red when there are no markers contributing to a joint.

Skeleton Advanced Settings

Visuals

Bone Orientation

Display Coordinate axes of each joint.

Asset Model Lines

Displays the lines between labeled skeleton markers and corresponding expected marker locations.

Marker Lines

Displays lines between skeleton markers and their joint locations.

Skeletons

Skeleton Display Properties

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.

Advanced Properties

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.

Rigid Body

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 Properties: Rigid Body page.

Note that this is the default creation properties. Asset specific rigid body properties are modified directly from the Properties pane.

Settings: Camera

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.

Filters (2D Object Filter)

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 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 .

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.

Display Options

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 cameras that are equipped with the IR filter switcher are shown in the 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).

Advanced

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 Regions

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.

Mouse and Keyboard

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.

Mouse

Customizing Mouse Actions

The Mouse tab under the application settings is where you can check and customize the mouse actions to navigate and control in Motive.

Basic Controls

The following table shows the most basic mouse actions:

Function

Default Control

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

Preset Profile

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.

Keyboard

Customizing Hotkeys

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

Hotkey Profiles

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:

Assets Pane

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.

Overview

Assets (Current Take)

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.

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.

All 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.

For Skeleton Assets

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.

For Marker Sets

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.

Calibration 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 Calibration 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.

Calibration

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 Options

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.

Calibration Engine

Calculate

Initiates the calibration solver. Press this button after collecting enough wand samples.

Apply Result

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.

Wanding Table

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.

Calibration Results Table

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.

Column Header

Description

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.

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

Ground plane tab under the calibration pane

Set Ground Plane

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

Vertical Offset

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.

Ground Plane Refinement

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.

Capture Volume Translation

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.

Capture Volume Rotation

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.

Control Deck

Overview

In Live Mode

In Edit Mode

Timeline Frame Range Indicator

Scrubber: Current frame.
Green: Working frame range.
Yellow: Selected frame range.

Live and Edit mode

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

Status Monitor

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:

Status Definitions

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.

Notifications

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.

Data Streaming Pane

In Motive, the Data Streaming pane can be accessed under the or by clicking icon on the main toolbar.

For explanations on the streaming workflow, read through the 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.

OptiTrack Streaming Engine

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 .

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:

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.

Trackd Streaming Engine

For information on streaming data via the 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.

VRPN Streaming Engine

For information on streaming data via the VRPN Streaming Engine, please visit the . 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).

Devices Pane

The Devices pane can be accessed under the View tab in Motive or by clicking icon on the main toolbar.

Overview

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.

Interface

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.

Camera Framerate

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.

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.

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.

Device Group

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.

Tracking Cameras

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

Settings

Multiplier

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.

Mode

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)

Exposure

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.

LED

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.

Reconstruction

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.

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.

Gain

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.

IR Filter

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.

Color Cameras

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.

Image Resolution

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

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.

Sync Hub

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.

Force Plates / Data Acquisition

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.

For more information, please read through the force plate setup pages (, , ) or the setup page.

Edit Tools Pane

In Motive, the Edit Tools pane can be accessed under the View tab or by clicking icon on the main toolbar.

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.

Read through the Data Editing page to learn about utilizing the edit tools.

Trim Tails

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.

Trim Size

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.

Fill Gaps

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.

Settings

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

Sets which interpolation method to be used. Available patterns are constant, linear, cubic, pattern-based, and model-based. For more information, read Data Editing page

Fill Target

When using the pattern-base 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.

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.

Filter Cutoff Frequency

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.

Swap Fix

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

Info Pane

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.

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

Labels Pane

In Motive, the Labeling pane can be accessed under the View tab or by clicking icon on the main toolbar.

For more explanation on the labeling workflow, read through the Labeling workflow page.

Overview

Function

Icon

Description

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.

Marker Labels

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.

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.

Labeling Settings

Labeling Range Settings

All/Selected

Assign labels to a selected marker for all, or selected, frames in a capture.

Spike/Fragment

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.

Log Pane

In Motive, the Status Log pane can be accessed under the 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.

Status Messages

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

: Informational
: Warning
: Error

Messages

Note: This table is not an exhaustive list of messages in the Log pane.

Symbol

Message

Description

Marker Sets Pane

This page goes over the features available on the Markersets pane. Markersets pane can be accessed by clicking on the icon on the toolbar.

Marker Set

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.

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.

Create MarkerSet

To create a Marker Set, click the icon under the and select New Marker Set.

Adding Labels

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).

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

Marker Name XML Files

This page includes detailed step-by-step instructions on customizing the marker name XML files for skeletons and Marker Set assets.

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 Baseline (41) skeleton 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.

Steps

1. Export a Marker XML

a) First, choose a Marker Set from the Builder pane, and create a skeleton.

b) Right-click on a skeleton asset in the Assets pane, and select Export Markers.

c) In the export dialog window, select a directory to save the Marker Name Template (.xml) file. Click Save to export.

2. Customize the XML

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

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. Updating and exporting old skeleton will provide these sections in the XML.

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.

3. Import Skeleton XML

Creating new skeletons

Now that you have customized the XML file, it can be loaded each time when creating new skeletons. In the Builder pane 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 Create 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 added extra markers to a skeleton, you must rename the skeleton after creating it. See more at the Added Markers section.

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.

In order to replace the existing labels with the modified labels, you will need to first delete the existing markers labels and auto-label the skeleton asset again with the renamed markers, or you can Reconstruct and Auto-label the entire Take again.

Notes for added Markers

XML definitions can also be applied to added markers 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 Rename Markers feature to apply the customized XML file. Lastly, auto-labeled the Take to assign the corresponding marker definitions onto the skeleton.

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: Perspective View pane] Add the extra markers onto the selected skeleton asset. See how to add markers.
[Motive:Assets pane] Select the skeleton and click Rename Markers to import the customized skeleton XML template.
[Motive:Assets pane] When working with a recorded Take, first delete the existing marker labels using the Delete Marker Labels from the Assets pane, and auto-label the Take to label the markers using the imported XML file.

Measurement Pane

Accuracy Tool

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.

Wand Measurement Tool

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.

Steps

In Live mode, open the Measurements pane under the Tools tab.
Access the Accuracy tools tab.
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.
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.

Marker Measurement Tool

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.

Steps

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.

Probe

The Probe tab is used with the Measurement Probe Tool Kit. See for specific instructions.

Probe Calibration

Calibration Frames

Number of frames to sample when calibrating the measurement probe.

Start Calibration

Initiates the process.

Sampling Settings

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.

Additional Settings

Sound

Enable/disable the beeping sound each time a sample is collected.

Real-Time Probe Measurement

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.

Probe Pane

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.

Overview

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 .

Probe Calibration

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.

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.

Digitized Points

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

Live Position

Shows the live X/Y/Z position of the calibrated probe tip.

Last Point

Shows the live X/Y/Z position of the last sampled point.

Live Distance

Shows the distance between the last point and the live position of the probe tip.

Distance

Shows the distance between the last two collected samples.

Angle

Shows the angle between the last three collected samples

Properties Pane

The Properties pane can be accessed by clicking on the icon on the toolbar.

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.

Overview

Properties

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

Properties: Take
Properties: Rigid Body
Properties: Skeleton
Properties: Camera
Properties: eSync
Properties: Force Plates
Properties: NI-DAQ

Advanced Settings

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.

Properties Pane: Camera

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 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.

General Settings

Enabled

Enables/disables selected cameras. When cameras are disabled, they don't record any data nor contribute to the reconstruction of 3d data.

Rate

Shows the frame rate of the camera. The camera frame rate can only be changed within the devices pane.

Reconstruction

This setting determines whether or not selected cameras contribute to the real-time reconstruction.

Continuous Calibration

[Advanced] When this is set to on, the 2D data from selected cameras will contribute to the updates.

Rate Multiplier

Shows the rate multiplier or divider applied to the master frame rate. The master frame rate depends on the sync configuration.

Exposure

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.

Threshold

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).

LED

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.

Video Mode

Sets the of the selected camera.

IR Filter

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.

Gain

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.

Calibrated

[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.

Details

Basic information about the selected camera gets listed in the Details section

Number

Displays the camera number assigned by Motive.

Camera Type

Displays the model of a selected camera.

Serial Number

Displays the serial nubmer of a selected camera.

Focal Length

Displays focal length of the lens on the selected camera.

Display

Show Field of View

When this is enabled, the estimated field of view (FOV) of the selected camera will be shown in the perspective viewport.

Show Frame Delivery Info

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 Aim Assist Reticle

Show or hide the guide reticle when using the button for aiming the cameras.

Prime Color Camera

Prime color cameras also have the following properties that can be configured:

Resolution

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.

Resolution

Max Frame Rate

Compression Mode

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.

Bit Rate

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

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.

Gamma

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.

Properties Pane: Force Plates

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.

Settings

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.

Enabled

Enables or disables selected force plate. Only enabled force plates will be shown in Motive and be used for data collection.

Triggered Sync

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.

Reference Clock Sync

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.

eSync Output

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.

Multiple

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.

Rate

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.

Order

Assigned number of the force plates.

Device Asset

Name of the Motive asset associated with the selected device. For Manus Glove integration, this must match the name of the Skeleton.

Details

Name

Name of the selected force plate.

Model

Model number of the force plate

Serial

Force plate serial number.

Channels

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.

State

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.

Scale

Size scale of the resultant force vector shown in the 3D viewport.

Length

Length of the force plate.

Width

Width of the force plate.

ElectricalOriginOffset

Manufacturer defined electrical-to-mechanical offset values.

Corners

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.

Properties Pane: NI-DAQ

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.

Settings

Enabled

Only enabled NI-DAQ devics will be actively measuring analog signals.

Trigger Sync

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.

Trigger 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.

Reference Clock Sync

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.

Reference Clock Terminal

(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.

eSync Output

Set this to the output port of the eSync where it sends out the internal clock signal to the NI-DAQ.

Rate

Shows the acquisition rate of the selected NI-DAQ device(s).

Device Channel Properties

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.

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.

Min Voltage

(Default: -10 volts) Configure the terminal's minimum voltage range.

Max Voltage

(Default: +10 volts) Configure the terminal's maximum voltage range.

Terminal Type

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.

Details

Name

[Advanced] Name of the selected device.

Model

Device model ID, if available.

Serial

Device serial number of the selected NI-DAQ assigned by the manufacturer.

GroupName

Type of device.

Channels

Total number of available channels on the selected NI-DAQ device.

Run Mode

[Advanced]What mode of Motive playback being used.

State

Whether the device is ready or not.

SyncState

Tristate status of either Need Sync, Ready for Sync, or Synced. Updates the "State" icon in the Devices pane.

DeviceType

[Advanced] Internal device number.

DisplayName

User editable name of the device.

Properties Pane: OptiHub2

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.

Synchronization Control

Internal Sync Freq (Hz)

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.

Global Sync Offset (us)

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.

Sync Input Settings

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.

Source: Internal/Wired

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.

Internal Sync Freq (Hz)

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.

Source: Sync In

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.

Source Frequency

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.

Sync Offset

Manually adds global sync time offset to how camera system reacts to the received input signal. The input unit is measured in microseconds.

Input Trigger

Can select from Either Edge, Rising Edge, Falling Edge, Low Gated, or High Gated signal from the connected input source.

Input Divider

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).

Source: USB Sync

(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.

Source Frequency

Detects and displays the frequency of the parent source.

USB Sync-In Control

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.

Input Divider

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).}}

Input Trigger Options

Trigger

Description

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.

External Sync Output

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.

Pulse Type

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.

External Sync Output Options

Output

Description

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).

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.

Properties Pane: Rigid Body

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 or in the , and the corresponding properties will be listed under the . These properties can be modified both in Live and Edit mode. Default creation properties are listed under the .

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.

Rigid Body Properties

General

Name

Allows a custom name to be assigned to the Rigid Body. Default is "Rigid Body X" where x is the Rigid Body ID.

Active

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.

Streaming ID

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.

Min Marker Count

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.

Max Deflection

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.

Visuals

Color

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.

Label

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.

Orientation

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.

Position History

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.

Orientation History

Show historical orientation axes.

Show Tracked

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

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.

IMU

Active Tag ID

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.

Active Tag RF Channel

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.

Smoothing and Damping

Smoothing

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).

Forward Prediction

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.

Damping

[Advanced] When needed, you can damp down translational and/or rotational tracking of a Rigid Body or a Skeleton bone on selected axis.

Properties Pane: Skeleton

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.

Skeleton Properties

General Settings

Name

Shows the name of selected Skeleton asset.

Enables

Enables/disables both tracking of the selecting Skeleton and its visibility under the perspective viewport.

Minimum Markers to Boot

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.

Minimum Markers to Continue

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.

Rotation Order

[Advanced] Euler angle rotation order used for calculating the bone hierarchy.

Visuals

Label

Selects whether or not to display the Skeleton name in the 3D Perspective View.

Visuals

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.

Color

Sets the color of the Skeleton.

Quality Visual

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.

Bones

Show or hide Skeleton bones.

Bone Orientation

[Advanced] Displays orientation axes of each segments in the Skeleton.

Asset Model Markers

[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.

Asset Model Lines

[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.

Marker Lines

[Advanced] Displays lines between each Skeleton markers and their associated Skeleton segments.

Smoothing and Damping

Smoothing

Applied double-exponential smoothing to translation and rotation of a Rigid Body or a skeletal bone. Disabled at 0.

Forward Prediction

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.

Damping

[Advanced] When needed, you can damp down translational and/or rotational tracking of a Rigid Body or a Skeleton bone on selected axis.

Properties Pane: Take

When a is selected from the , related information will be displayed in the .

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.

General

Name

Take name

Frame Rate

The camera frame rate in which the take was captured. The Take file will contain the corresponding number of frames for each second.

Start Frame

The frame ID of the first frame saved on the Take.

End Frame

The frame ID of the last frame saved on the Take.

Start Time

A timestamp of when the recording was first captured started.

End Time

A timestamp of when the recording was ended.

Assets

Names of assets that are included in the Take

Notes

Comments regarding the take can be noted here for additional information.

Best

Marks the best take. Takes that are marked as best can also be accessed via scripts.

Capture Data/Time

Date and time when the capture was recorded.

Captured in Version

The version of Motive which the Take was recorded in. (This applies only to Takes that were captured in versions 1.10 or above)

Captured in Build

The build of Motive which the Take was recorded in.

Health State

The data quality of the Take which can be flagged by users.

Progress

Progress indicator for showing how into the post-processing workflow that this Take has made.

Calibration Info

Camera system calibration details for the selected Take. Takes recorded in older versions of Motive may not contain this data.

Calibration Time Stamp

Shows when the cameras were calibrated.

Residual Mean Error

Shows mean offset value during calibration.

Residual 50/95/99 Percentile Error

Displays percentile distribution of the errors.

Wand Mean Error

Displays a mean error value of the detected wand length samples throughout the wanding process.

Wand 50/95/99

Displays percentile distribution of the wand errors.

Calibration Wand

Shows what type of wand was used: Standard, Active, or Micron series.

Wand Length

Displays the length of the calibration wand used for the capture.

Wand Center Offset

Distance from one of the end markers to the center marker, specifically the shorter segment.

Camera Filters - Software

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.

Solver/Reconstruction Settings

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.

Reference View pane

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 ().

Cameras can be set to a reference view from the Devices pane or by configuring video type to grayscale modes.

Assets Overlay

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.

Status Panel

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.

Status Panel

Residual

Average of values of all live-reconstructed 3D points. This is available only in the or in the .

Data

Current incoming data transfer rate (KB/s) for all attached cameras.

Point Cloud

Measured latency of the point cloud reconstruction engine.

Assets

Measured latency of the Rigid Body solver and the Skeleton solver combined.

Software

System

Streaming

The data 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.

Status Panel: Latency

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.

Real-time Point Cloud Latency

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 , 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.