I finally got around to setting up the new motion capture gear this morning and did some preliminary tests. The new computer and software appears to be capable of capturing four streams of synchronized video at 640 x 480 at 60fps! Previously on my older system, the best I could get consistently was four streams of 320 x 240 at 30fps. What I think is making the difference with the new computer is having installed two USB 3.0 cards and an internal 1TB SATA 3 drive dedicated for video capture.
Now I'm wondering how well this system can handle six Playstation 3 Eye cameras. I'm currently plugging two PS3 Eye cameras into one on-board controller, two more into a USB 3.0 card, and I have the internal SATA 3 drive plugged into the second USB 3.0 card (which happens to be a SATA 3 card too.) Since there are two on-board USB 2.0 controllers, in theory I could add two more cameras. The question is, is the SATA 3 drive fast enough to record six streams of video data without dropping frames?
For now, I'm sticking with my four camera setup though; I really do want to get this film done this year.
I just finished writing the motion capture performance script, and actual production shooting (i.e., not another test) will begin in the morning after I drop my daughter off at pre-school.
Stay tuned!
- Greenlaw
2 comments:
Very curious to see how this goes. Thinking of setting up a similar system myself soon. Was considering a 6 camera setup, but hadn't thought of all the extra bandwidth needed to capture the video.
Yeah, I want to try six PS3 Eye cameras too. Our current 'mocap' computer seems to be handling four cameras without breaking a sweat, but I'm not sure it's up to spec for six. I wonder if five camera will work with their software? I'll have to ask the developers.
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