Introduction
When you want to make a virtual production with moving cameras, having a tracking system is mandatory. To learn more about stationary and moving cameras visit here: Stationary or Moving Cameras?
In Aximmetry we are defining 2 main types of tracking systems.
- Professional camera tracking systems.
- Object tracking systems
In this document, we will talk about professional camera tracking systems.
Professional camera tracking systems
We refer to tracking systems designed and built for broadcast production environments as professional camera tracking systems. These systems offer both transformation data (i.e., position and orientation information) as well as zoom and focus data.
More and more tracking systems are providing lens data (distortion). With Aximmetry Camera Calibrator you can use all of them.
Some participants in the market provide only lens encoders. We consider them professional because these are explicit lens encoders.
IMPORTANT: Only Aximmetry Broadcast Edition supports professional camera tracking systems.
Professional camera tracking systems and protocols supported by Aximmetry:
- Free-D
- AGTP
- Camix
- DCS
- Lonet (Glassmark, Indiemark)
- Ncam
- Mo-Sys
- Racelogic VIPS
- RocketLab
- Stype
- Spidercam
- Vanishing Point Vector
- Vanishing Point Viper
- Visca* (see NOTEs)
- Thoma
- TrackMen
- zLense
NOTE: Visca is an obsolete tracking protocol, which is not up to the contemporary standards of modern tracking protocols. It supports sending and receiving tracking data in both directions, but nowadays is mostly used only for controlling cameras.
NOTE: Products supporting Visca are not necessarily capable of providing tracking data for Virtual Production. Please see your product's description if it only supports Visca to receives control signals or if it can also send back tracking information.
What is Free-D?
Free-D is an open-source protocol that sends camera position, rotation, zoom and focus data directly from the tracking device to a virtual reality production system. The use of Free-D protocol is a common choice for PTZ tracking solutions.
Many tracking system manufacturers also use Free-D for communication, like:
- ChingMu
- EZtack
- HTC Vive Mars
- Nokov
- Shotoku
You may need additional lens encoders for these tracking systems.
What is AGTP?
Aximmetry General-purpose Tracking Protocol is a modern tracking protocol designed especially to transmit camera tracking data used for Virtual Production. In addition to tracking data, it can also include zoom, focus, aperture, lens distortion, vignetting, sensor data, etc. to provide a complete data stream that covers every aspect of modern camera tracking solutions.
We support every initiative that aims at the use of AGTP to provide camera tracking solutions.
Object Tracking Systems
Object tracking systems are designed for gaming and robotics but not for explicit camera tracking. They also can be used for camera tracking, but they won't provide additional zoom and focus data for you.
Although they were not intended to be used for camera tracking, many studios are using them because of their better price. Aximmetry also supports most of these systems.
Supported Object-Tracking Systems
NOTE: You can find Antilatency and OpenVR under the Game menu in Aximmetry Device Manager.
- Antilatency
- Augmenta
- HTC Vive and any other system that supports OpenVR
- Intel RealSense
- OptiTrack
- Perception Neuron
- PhaseSpace Impulse X2E
- RTTrP
- Qualisys
- Vicon
