Researching and aggregating various motion capture solutions.
—Marker Motion Capture using normal cameras—
1. Facial Motion Capture with 1 camera
I found some videos on YouTube with people doing facial motion capture with just one camera, here.
2. Body Motion Capture using 2 or more cameras for triangulation by nerk
https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?364074-Addon-Mocap-with-Multiple-Cameras
3. Body Motion Capture using 2 or more cameras for triangulation by Benjy Cook
https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?218408-GSoC-2011-Improving-Motion-Capture-workflow-feedback-and-updates
https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Animation/Motion_Capture_Tools
4. Body Motion Capture using 2 or more cameras for triangulation by Tianwei37
http://graphicall.org/hlzz001
https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Tianwei37/GSoC_2016_Proposal
http://hlzz.github.io/blender3/
- You can use different cameras as long as you setup the cameras in Blender with the same focal length, etc. I am looking at cheap action cameras which usually offer higher frame rates like 720p @ 120 frames per second or 1080p @ 60 fps.
5. Body Motion Capture using Sony PSEyes and IPISoft
The Sony Playstation Eyes or PSEyes are very cheap and are supported by some softwares like the IPISoft suite. However, the software can be very expensive when using multiple cameras.
—Motion Capture using accelerometers—
1. VIVE Trackers and/or VIVE HMD and/or Hi5 VR Glove with IKINEMA Orion
https://ikinema.com/orion
https://www.vive.com/us/vive-tracker/
https://hi5vrglove.com/
2. Xsens MVN sensors and software
https://www.xsens.com/products/xsens-mvn-animate/
—Markerless Motion Capture using depth cameras—
1. Kinect v1, Kinect v2 or Creative BlasterX Senz3D with NI-mate
It uses Xbox One Kinect v2 with a program called NI-mate, which has a Blender addon. It outputs it’s data in Blender to empties, which requires setting up a skeleton copy their movements.
Video tutorial by Remington:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UPZtS5LVvw
2. Kinect v2 with Kinector and Manuel Bastioni Lab
It uses Xbox One Kinect v2 with a program called Kinector. It also has a Blender addon and works with Manuel Bastioni Lab rigs. It can do finger tracking and facial motion capture too. It works without any setup with Manuel Bastioni Lab characters.
Tutorial:
https://www.wiese.li/index.php?id=kinector
3. Kinect v1, Kinect v2, ASUS Xtion and PrimeSense Carmine 1.08 with IPISoft
Site here.
Compatibility of USB Controllers with Kinect v2
Kinect v2 needs USB 3.0 and Microsoft says only Intel and Renesas controllers are supported.
NEC and Renesas are the same. Renesas µPD720200 and NEC D720200F1 are the same and work.
ASMedia controllers don’t work at all or have issues. ASM1042A is reported as not working. Some have said they have gotten it to work by using the Window’s driver instead of ASMedia’s driver (they may have been using a newer ASM chipset, covered below).
Etron controllers don’t work. More reports here.
Running other USB devices on the same controller could cause Kinect v2 to not have enough bandwidth, resulting in lower frame rates or an error saying there isn’t enough resources available. It has been reported that some USB 3.0 PCI-E cards get lower frame rates while others are steady at the max of 30fps. In my experience, the frame rate may be low at first but eventually it gets up to 28-30 fps. I read that Kinect v2 requires 3 Gbit/sec in reservation but only uses about 1 Gbit/sec. PCI-E 2.0 x1 has enough bandwidth.
USB Hubs
It has been reported that using a USB Hub can work. More reports here.
USB 3.1
I was looking at USB 3.1 cards, most are x4 but all of the ones I found use an ASMedia Controller. One person said that the ASM1142 is working and another said it had issues. You may have to switch to the Window’s driver. I also read that the USB 3.1 cards don’t actually use all 4 lanes, instead they use x1 for PCI-E 3.0 and x2 for PCI-E 2.0. Nothing on ASM2142.
Multiple Kinect v2s
A few people have gotten multiple Kinect v2s (up to 5) working by having multiple USB 3.0 PCI-E cards. Each Kinect v2 needs it’s own controller. Most softwares don’t support multiple Kinect v2’s though. The OpenKinect libfreenect2 driver supports multiple Kinect v2s but not the Microsoft driver. There are PCI-E cards that have more than one controller, such as a 4-port with dual channels or quad channels and they use the supported Renesas µPD720200 controllers. They are more expensive, it would be cheaper to buy two separate cards. I did not find any confirmation that PCI-E cards with multiple controllers work.
Working
Transcend TS-PDU3 2-port PCI Express USB Adapter (multiple reports, multiple websites)
SIIG 2-Port Dual Profile PCIe Adapter with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 (JU-P20612-S1) (reported here)
Rosewill 2-Port USB 3.0 PCI Express Card Components RC-505 (multiple reports in Amazon reviews and me)