Capture Sources represent real-world capture devices and can be loosely described as device drivers for capture devices. You need to configure the right type of Capture Source Asset for your device. Once you do, this Asset will be responsible to set some camera related information necessary to process footage coming from the device it represents.
There are two types of capture source devices:
Virtual, which points to a folder containing archives with the necessary files to represent one or more takes
Connected, which points at an IP address and enables you to directly inspect or control an active device.
Currently, only iPhone devices support remote control and Connected mode ingest. Stereo couples rarely, if ever, have remote control capabilities, and there’s no generally agreed upon protocol and commands for the ones that do.
The device class of the capture source (as obtained from the archives or the connection) is propagated to the Capture Data Asset of any ingested take.
Asset Configuration
When you first create a Capture Source Asset, its Capture Source Type is set to Undefined. You need to change this to the type that matches your device.
An unconfigured Capture Source Asset
Mobile Consumer Devices
These devices can be used with a head mount or static mount (tripod or other support). They support both Archive mode (pointing at a folder containing one or more bundles of files representing takes) and Connected mode (allowing direct access to the device’s storage from the Capture Manager window.)
In both connected mode and archive mode the ingest process for these capture sources will transcode and copy files inside your project.
Connected Mode
To retrieve data directly from a mobile device, configure your Capture Source as follows:
| Field | Configuration |
|---|---|
Capture Source Type | Set this to LiveLink Face Connection. Make sure the LiveLink Face application is running on the device and is running in the foreground (is active). |
Device Address | Set this to the IP address on the device. The Unreal Editor and the device must be able to connect across the network; make sure your network settings, firewalls, VPNs, etc. are set to allow this connection. The IP address of your device can usually be found in the Settings app on the device. |
Device Control Port | This is the port on the device listening for the Capture Manager connection. It must be set to 14785 for Connected ingest. This is currently hardcoded and cannot be changed. |
Capture Source Asset configured for connecting to a mobile device using LiveLink Face
Once a device is correctly configured, it will appear in the Capture Manager window.
Archive Mode
To retrieve capture data without connecting directly to the device, you first need to transfer the data from the device itself to a storage location that Unreal Engine can reach. You can use device storage, cloud storage applications running on the device, or transfer the data to a memory stick or hard disk.
Then, configure your Capture Source as follows:
| Field | Configuration |
|---|---|
Capture Source Type | Set this to LiveLink Face Archives. |
Storage Path | If you have one take, set this to the folder the take is stored in. For multiple takes, set this to the root folder that contains all the subfolders with individual takes. Capture Manager traverses all subfolders to look for valid take files. You don’t need to create an individual Capture Source for each take. |
Capture Source Asset configured for ingesting takes stored offline
Stereo Camera Couples
Our solution doesn’t have specific requirements for stereo camera couples, so long as they can be calibrated with our tools. In practice, head-mounted vertical couples are both the most tested and the best solutions we’ve tested. Horizontal couples are few and far between, and the camera views seem to have excessive feature self-occlusion.
Devices can theoretically be mounted statically, but Epic’s testing and tuning for quality has focused on head-mounted cases only. The solution is unlikely to produce the best results when stereo couples aren’t locked to the face (framing wise).
These devices can only be configured in Archive mode.
Stereo couples require that the ingest creates the depth media from two video streams. This is done by the Capture Manager at ingest time. The Depth sequence is a sequence of EXR images and it can take up considerable amounts of storage.
We recommend to be mindful of external linkage if you migrate or modify the project’s path.
To use capture data from a stereo couple, configure your Capture Source as follows:
| Field | Configuration |
|---|---|
Capture Source Type | Set this to Stereo HMC Archives. |
Storage Path | If you have one take, set this to the folder the take is stored in. For multiple takes, set this to the root folder that contains all the subfolders with individual takes. Capture Manager traverses all subfolders to look for valid take files. You don’t need to create an individual Capture Source for each take. |
Copy Images | Enable this to copy images (video data only, not including depth data) to the project. |
Min Distance Max Distance | Minimum and maximum distance for the footage that will be ingested from this device. Distances, in centimeters, that are the boundaries (near and far field) of the footage depth that will be inferred. A shallow range will reduce noise and the size of exr depth images, but ensure it’s not so shallow that relevant parts of the face are clipped. |
Capture Source Asset configured for working with Stereo Camera Couple takes