FaceTrackNoiR

How to set it up with DelanClip

Below is outdated version v170 manual

We do not provide support for this software.

The below manual is designed for v170, but v200 is more user friendly, similar setup but even easier than v170.

v200 avalable on the developer website: http://facetracknoir.sourceforge.net/

Click Here

Prerequisites

Before you start setting up FTNOIR you have to make sure that below list is all check !

1. your camera is working properly (you can use it as a standard Skype device)

2. daylight filter is fitted correctly on your camera (as shown in general manual) <<<< ONLY APPLIES TO CAMERAS NOT PURCHASED FROM US

3. the camera can see three spot lights from DelanClip (For PS3 Camera use CL Eye Test window to check it)

Downloading and installing Face Track No IR

For fully working software you need the basic program plus the 3 point tracking plugin. As the FTNOIR on its own is delivered with 1.0 version of the point tracker plugin, you need to download the newest (1.1) version as well.

  1. FaceTrackNoIR v170 Free version of the Tracking Software
    • Exclusive for our customers only!
    • See your shipping confirmation email for password to the file.
  2. FaceTrackNoIR v170 (Supported Games)
  3. FaceTrackNoIR v170 (Point Tracker Plugin v1.1)

Installation process:

Install the main program, using ‘install all objects‘ when selecting components, scroll down the bottom and untick VirtualJoystick as this one is not required.

Replace FaceTrackNoIR v170 (Supported Games) with the already existing one in the default installation folder:

C:Program Files (x86) Abbequerque Inc FaceTrackNoIR Settings

If you use 32 bit version of the Windows just omit the (x86) bit from the path, overwrite if asked for it..

You MUST update the FaceTrackNoIR v170 (Point Tracker Plugin v1.1) to its newest version by overwriting existing FTNoIR_Tracker_PT.dll file in the folder:

C:Program Files (x86) Abbequerque Inc FaceTrackNoIR

with the one you have just downloaded.

Done ! You are ready to rumble 😛

USB Hub1

The software for head tracking will not discover any device connected to an USB HUB, so before you start, make sure your PS3 Camera is connected to an USB PORT on your motherboard directly.

Make sure you are not running any other application which may be using the PS3 Camera (especially CL-Eye Test must be closed), as this will prevent the games and facetracknoir working properly !

CL Eye Test no no

Now, we are ready to setup the software !

 Below is a window shown when you run your FTNOIR software, please follow the four simple steps shown on the right side.

ftnoir
Step 1 - Game Protocol
Please use the protocol appropriate  for your game,  please note – not all games has been verified and you may need to use diferent protocol than stated on the website :  Games list here
Step 2 - Tracker Plugin
Please use the Point Tracker 1.1 – IMPORTANT
Step 3 - Press start button

It will start the tracking process, make sure you direct delanclip LEDs straight onto the camera eye.

Step 4 - tracker settings

When clicked you will see the pop up window with variety of options.

Please read more below…

Press START, then go to THRESHOLD as below.

Make sure you adjust the threshold slider to get nice and round dots !

If you don’t do this – it will not work properly !

DELANCLiP with PS3 Eye Camera in Facetracknoir Threshold Setup

If your head movement directions in game are inverted, please tick the relevant box on the main window as shown below:

Facetracknoir Invert
Yaw Pitch Roll
Device
The camera used for tracking. This is very important to change it for the one you are going to use for tracking.
Resolution
The desired capture resolution. If your camera does not support the entered resolution the true output resolution may be different or even invalid. You may check the true capture resolution in the status area while the tracker is running. A higher resolution results in more accurate point positions and will increase the stability of the tracking result, as long as the signal/noise ratio is sufficiently high.

Recomended setting is 640×480

FPS
The desired capture frame rate. Again, if your camera does not support the entered frame rate, the true capture frame rate may be different or invalid. You may check the true processing frame rate in the status area while the tracker is running.

Recommended setting is 75 fps

F/W
Will need to update this, but no need to change here !
VideoWidget
Shows a resizable stand-alone video widget that shows the same content as the integrated video widget in FTNoIR. Update rate is only 10 fps and may lag behind a bit. Mainly useful during calibration of the point extraction. Same as for the integrated wiget, to save resources, this widget should only be shown when needed.
Roll Pitch Yaw...
The orientation of the camera relative to the reference frame. If these angles are setup properly, the direction of translations may not be correct. Roll is treated in a special way since it is implemented as a frame rotation by +/- 90 deg that is transparent to the rest of the processing pipeline.
Threshold
The threshold for point recognition. Areas above the threshold are shown in blue in the Video Widget. Since point accuracy is best if the points are as big as possible in pixels, the threshold should be chosen as low as possible (stop before the contour of the points becomes “noisy”). If small reflections are being falsely classified as points, increasing the minimum point diameter (see below) may help.

Recommended diameters:

min 2 px

max 30 px

Status
The tracker’s status is shown in this area while the tracker is running. The FPS shown here correspond to the framerate of the whole tracker processing chain and may be lower than what your camera is able to provide, when
1. The processing gets not enough CPU time
2. The sleep time of the tracking thread is set too high
DELANCLiP with PS3 Eye Camera in Facetracknoir

Just to let you know…

Above settings are OK for a quick start with your DelanClip. So if you can not wait to try it, please skip to the: Lets try it in your game !

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Show VideoWidget
Whether the video widget is updated or not. It may save some performance to turn this off when not needed
Sleep time
Time the tracking thread sleeps after each processed image. It’s inverse should be below the framefrate you want to achieve. (check the framerate in the status region when tracker is active, in case the sleep time is too high, the framerate will decrease). Low values will result in more CPU-load.
Dynamic Pose Resolution
Whether the point correspondence and pose ambiquity is resolved using a more sophisticated dynamic algorithm (constant velocity prediction) or a simple static resolution. Dynamic pose resolution can capture more extreme poses but may occasionally get stuck in a wrong pose estimates so that a reset of the internal state becomes neccessary.
Auto-reset time
If no valid tracking result can be found when using dynamic pose resolution, the tracker will automatically reset its internal state (used for resolving the pose ambiguity and point correspondence) and return to a fail-safe initialization phase that assumes a neutral pose after this time. Decrease this time, if you get stuck in a wrong pose too often.
Reset
Manually reset the trackers internal state used for dynamic pose resolution and return to a fail-safe initialization phase that assumes a neutral pose. You may use this in case you get stuck in a wrong pose.
Enable Axis ...
Which axis to use for FTNoIR.
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Model Selection and Dimensions ...
In this section you do not need to change anything as DelanClip has been manufactured with the default dimensions shown. You just need to make sure you chose Clip as your model.
Model Position
The vector from the model to the center of the head in the model frame. Can be calibrated automatically.
Calibrate
In order to automatically calibrate the model-head offset, do the following:
Press the Calibrate button, then look around while not moving your shoulder. (i.e. only rotation, no translation). Do not stay in one pose for too long. The current translation estimate will be updated in real time. As soon as the values stabilized sufficiently, press the Calibrate button again to stop the calibration process.

Lets try it in your game !

for the manual purposes I used the rFactor 1 demo, it is great to test how whole lot works !

Quick start with rFactor 1

  1. Download and install rFactor 1 demo game from the website: http://rfactor.net (it is 274 MB)
  2. Install the demo game.
  3. Download my settings as a good start for rFactor 1: rFactor.ini, after downloading please unzip the file i.e. on your desktop.
  4. Run FaceTracknoIR, first of all make sure you have installed the newest point tracker plugin
  5. In main window on ‘profile’ section please click LOAD, choose the ini you just downloaded.
  6. Plug the DelanClip into a free USB port.
  7. Run the demo game, and go to CONTROL -> Testing and then to ‘Load Circuit’ and finally RACE, now try to use DelanClip to look around.
  8. All done, enjoy your new toy 🙂

TIP: the view may not be centred but you can easy do this by hitting F2 button on the keyboard. TIP2: Remember you can still tweak curves to get better results, just have a play with all the settings, do not worry as you can save whatever you changed and go back to the original settings by calling back the INI files.

Any feedback will be very appreciated

Do not hesitate to contact me directly by our contact form and do not forget to like us on facbeook.

Thank you !

One last thing, take a look on common issues with specific games

There are known issues with specific games like Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Please take a look at our games setup section, sometimes it can save you hours searching for solution !

Thank you !