Jump to content

Video Capture Cards in Vision


Recommended Posts

  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hello all,

There has been a slew of problems surrounding video capture cards and Vision. A large part of this is due to the number of manufactures that are out there and the number of proprietary drivers required. Some capture cards explicitly state that they only work with certain software suites. We have been doing a lot of investigation into the capture code to figure out why some devices were working and some weren't. As it turns out, this was more a matter of how the operating system handled the capture device rather than how Vision handled it. What we have found, and tested to a limited extent, is the requirements you should look for in a capture card.

 

First and foremost, all capture cards must be supported natively by Window/OSX; meaning no drivers are required (they can be recommended, just not required). The way these devices work is through a universal driver for video capture called UVC. UVC drivers ship with Windows and OSX so again, no installation required; UVC ships with your OS.

Lastly, video can be output in several formats; RGB24, RGBA32, ARGB32, ABGRA32, UYVY422, YUYV422, YUV420P, H264, MJPEG, and many more. Currently, Vision only supports YUYV422 and YUV420P.

 

Once we were able to determine what the Operating System's requirements were for video capture cards, we were able to make educated guesses as to which devices may work. We happened to have a AV Bridge MATRIX PRO lying around (http://www.vaddio.com/product/av-bridge-matrix-pro) that we were able to determine supported UVC. We weren't sure what pixel format it was sending out, but we decided to give it a shot anyway. Turns out, it worked!!

 

We will be purchasing more cards over the weekend that we believe meet the Operating System criteria to test them out. Once we have those cards in house, we should be able to determine that most (if not all) UVC compatible / YUVY422 capture devices will work with Vision.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Everyone,

We have flushed out the implementation and workflow for capture devices. We are in the process of getting a beta together to verify customers are not experiencing issues before we release the Vision 2018 SP2. Hopefully we've gotten this issue resolved and we can get you guys pointed in the right direction! I'm working on getting a Tech Bulletin together to flush out the details. Keep your eyes peeled!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
  • 6 months later...

Hi.

 

New to Vision (currently just demo'ing) and starting to learn all the quirks.

 

Adding video feeds to my designs is very important and in the past I've gotten by with MA3D and using CITP. But not being able to cop the feed was an issue. 

 

I can't really find any tutorials about doing the same on VISION (either CITP or any other capture routes) apart from this forum feed.

 

Any updates or links to helpful articles?

 

t

 

 

Link to comment
  • 3 weeks later...
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

We have posted a Tech Bulletin which should hopefully answer some of you system requirement questions.

I'd also refer you to the online documentation for workflow related help.

http://www.help.vision.vectorworks.net/

 

Capture cards are what you want to search for and it all starts by assigning a capture texture to a MeshShape. Hopefully this will get you started.

http://app-help.vectorworks.net/2018/Vision/index.htm#t=2018_Vision%2FVision%2FSpecifying_Textures.htm%23XREF_12646_Specifying_Textures&rhsearch=capture card&rhsyns=

 

Lastly, Vision does not currently support CITP, but it has been highly requested feature; along with NDI. The best way to get multiple inputs into Vision is through a multi-input capture card, multiple capture cards, or a single hdmi feed that combines video into a grid form. Once Vision sees this single hdmi grid feed, you can crop it into individual live video streams.

Link to comment
  • 4 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

No additional capture cards were added for 2019. If you have specific cards that aren't working that you'd like support for, please create an Enhancement Request (assuming you have access to JIRA).

 

Our approach moving forward is going to be more in the way of NDI and supporting media servers over ethernet as this allows for many layers to be sent into Vision with the need to purchase additional hardware 🙂

  • Like 4
Link to comment
  • 2 months later...
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

This is not an endorsement of a particular model or seller but this is the type of device we have had the most success with.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0779ZJZX3/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_XClnCbEBJ270P

 

It specifically mentions "UAC and UVC in & YUV 422 out" and "No need install driver".

Anything that requires you to install a driver or use the software that comes with the device will not work.

 

We know a lot of users like Blackmagic but the only product from them that ?MIGHT? work is the Blackmagic Web Presenter.

Information from support indicates it supports YUV but they could not provide any additional details on the format when we inquired.

 

We are investigating NDI but I can not comment on when it might be released.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

@Gaspar Potocnik I'm glad you were able to successfully get live input into Vision!

 

About the 640x480 thing; you will need to make sure the device outputting content is configured for 1080p as well as the device inputting content. As far as I know, we don't limit the resolution of live video content. The webcam on my MBP streams 720p content into Vision without issue (720p=1280x720, which is a higher resolution than 640x480). So, it would seem there is no limit on this content in Vision or the capture library we are using.

 

That being said, and this may sound weird but I'm promise I'm not trying to be rude!, perhaps we should figure out if 1080p content is actually needed. Or from another point of view, what would be the benefit of feeding HD content into Vision versus lower definition content?

 

Think of it this way, feeding 4K content into a 1080p television does no good. It will simply spit out a 1080p image and the human eye will be able to tell no difference.

 

Bringing this into the Vision world, let's say you have a 1080p monitor. This means you have 1920x1080 physical pixels on your monitor. Odds are, that, the television is not taking up half (or even a quarter) of your Vision Render Viewport on your monitor. If I had to guess at an average case scnario, I would say televisions usually make up ~10% of the pixels that are rendered. What this means is that your television in Vision is likely using less than ~320x200 pixels in the render viewport. This is where feeding 1080p content does not increase quality but decreases performance (even if only slightly).

 

phew 😛 So, while it may seem like feeding 1080p/4K content into Vision would result in a higher quality, more times than not it won't. I think 640x480 is a sweet spot for quality/performance, but to be completely honest you could probably even go lower (320x240 would probably still look pretty darn good and obviously takes a quarter the amount of time to process).

 

Hopefully that answers all of your questions and hopefully it is more clear why it may not be the worst thing in the world if you're getting non-1080p content.

Edited by bbudzon
formatting
Link to comment
4 hours ago, bbudzon said:

About the 640x480 thing; you will need to make sure the device outputting content is configured for 1080p as well as the device inputting content. As far as I know, we don't limit the resolution of live video content. The webcam on my MBP streams 720p content into Vision without issue (720p=1280x720, which is a higher resolution than 640x480). So, it would seem there is no limit on this content in Vision or the capture library we are using.

 

@bbudzon my MBP 2016 camera is also being limited to 640 x 480 (I'm assuming this because of the coordinates of the crop raster). The content is 1080 and so is the config of the output. I can't configure the input since it is a driverless card (actually that resolution isn't event listed in the specs of the UVC grabber) I've trie3d two different computers and have the same issue.

 

And I completely agree with the limit, I wanted to know if this was a known limit, since it is not listed anywhere, and if could be changed anywhere, just to know the limits and how it works...

Edited by Gaspar Potocnik
  • Like 1
Link to comment
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Two quick questions:

1. Where are you locating the texture resolution in Vision? I just wanted to show you how things look on my end so you can see that it is not limited by the software.

2. Can you confirm that this stream can go above 640x480 in another application such as Skype?

Link to comment
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

1. Ahhh, hahahaha. That is pretty clever! There is no other way to tell unless you have access to the code. I just never thought of checking the resolution in the crop dialog before!

2. How are you opening your webcam/capturecard in QuickTime? I wanted to try this out on my end as well and am not finding very good information online.

Link to comment
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Thank you very much! I know this doesn't really help the situation, but I wanted you to know that the software is not limiting things to the best of my knowledge. Here is my 2015 MBP webcam resolution in Vision and in Quicktime; both are 720p.

 

Screen Shot 2019-01-17 at 4.25.43 PM.png

 

That being said, I'm concerned that maybe your hardware is hitting an edge case that we didn't account for. I'd like to investigate this further as it is unexpected behavior. I'll talk with upper management about obtaining one of these "Ezcap 265/C" devices for internal testing.

Link to comment
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

All really good info! It's hard to say what's going on here though... 😞

 

Why don't we try to work together on getting a list of hardware with known issues. I'll pass this along to upper management so they can look into purchasing this equipment for internal testing.

 

On another note, do you guys have any additional hardware you may be able to test with? Even if it is just a web cam or something like that?? Truly, any UVC device should do for testing. I just want to confirm that this problem you are experiencing is specific to the hardware.

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

Hi All,

 

I've been following this thread. 

 

I just wanted to reconfirm the need for NDI support. I'm currently using Vision to see how it compares to other previs products and while I do love Vision there are a few features that need to be added. NDI support is one of them. 

 

Hopefully this will be added in the near future.

 

 

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

We haven't had any issues with that device.

Try using it with Skype or another application to make sure the device works.

 

VW does not interact with the device only Vision.

In VW follow these instructions to setup the capture source so Vision will recognize it when you open the file.

http://app-help.vectorworks.net/2019/eng/index.htm#t=VW2019_Guide%2FEventDesign2%2FIdentifying_a_Video_Source_for_the_Vision_Program.htm

 

 

 

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...