Body v2 Changelog

v2.64

• added plugins for MotionBuilder 2024, 2025 & 2026
• switched to a new crash detection & logging system
• improved, streamlined, styled and updated installer

v2.63

• updated to new build environment
• installer and app are now signed by a new EV code certificate

v2.62

• updated internal libraries to latest versions
• updated to FBX 2020.3.1
• updated to FFmpeg 5.0.1
• updated to Visual Studio 2022 with all the latest compiler optimizations

v2.61

• Added MotionBuilder 2023 plugin

v2.60

• Added MotionBuilder 2022 plugin

v2.59

• lots of small bugfixes, prevention measures, optimizations and potential memory leaks based on static code analysis

v2.58

• improved compatibility with more audio devices
• updated internal libraries
• updated code signing certificate

v2.57

• internally now forces the use of desktop OpenGL drivers (which was the default on almost all machines anyway)
  • overruling a QT_OPENGL environment setting that a user or other program may have set
  • a QT_OpenGL setting of “angle” could prevent some GUI widgets from being drawn
• updated internal libraries

v2.56

• last message log file is now moved to a _old folder at startup so we always keep the current and previous log for debugging / crash reporting purposes
• updated 2D & 3D OpenGL windows and drawing internals to a more modern widget class
• updated to new compiler profiting from new optimizations
• updated a bunch of internal libraries to the latest versions

v2.55

• fixed an issue with “opencv_world430.dll” not loading on some machines in previous version

v2.54

• small update to Remote Triggering
• updated some of the internal libraries

v2.53

• fixed issue with crash report generation/upload

v2.52

• moved all licensing options to their own menu in the top menu bar
• added functionality to the top menu to remove license file (so you can install it on a different machine)

v2.51

• updated the GUI stylesheet
• added MotionBuilder 2020 plugin
• trial now records up to 10 seconds
• consolidated some cross application code
• added option to directly upload a crash report to the Brekel server
• added toggle option to Settings menu at the top for turning High DPI Scaling On/Off on next application start
• started digitally signing executable to help alleviate anti-virus false positives

v2.50

• added error message popup window when a file cannot be written to alert the user more vigorously
• internal changes to movie writer
• internally switched to a different library packaging system
• updated internal libraries to latest versions
• cleaned up dll files

v2.49

• Unreal Live Link enabled state wasn’t saved/loaded between sessions, fixed now
• added MotionBuilder 2019 plugin
• rearranged MotionBuilder plugins page in the installer
• moved log and all other user settings file to Brekel folder in Documents folder
  • to avoid clutter when using multiple Brekel apps on a machine
• updated to latest Qt and OpenCV libraries

v2.48

• fixed save/load of Finger Pose Tracking checkbox
• added a fix for a problem where on a small number of machines acquisition threads couldn’t be stopped after a recording
  • which could result in many additional frames
  • which could appear as no animation being exported or with very weird timestamps
• changed video writer to an all new FFMPEG backend
  • made some changes to the supported codecs
  • most files export to an MP4 container now
• changed the preview movie output to H264 MP4 files

v2.47

• added functionality for live streaming into Unreal Engine4 using their “Live Link” protocol
  • added example FBX file (“UnrealEngine4” folder in installation folder)
  • added chapter to the documentation
  • note: live streaming is not available in the free Trial version, simply request an evaluation version if you want to test this

v2.46

• timestamp in TCP/UDP stream sometimes wasn’t accurate due to floating point precision
  • the timestamp now rolls around every 1000 seconds to leave more room for decimal precision

v2.45

• added functionality to render preview to a movie file
• added NI-mate compatible modes to OSC live streaming
  • NI mate Basic (positions vectors)
  • NI mate Orientation (orientation quaternions)
  • NI mate Basic + Orientation (positions vectors & orientation quaternions)
    • should in theory work with their scripts for
      • Blender (not tested)
      • Cinema 4D (not tested)
      • Maya (tested and working)

v2.44

• when network streaming (TCP/IP, UDP & OSC) and playing back data on the Preview tab it should now stream the data from the last recording instead of live data

v2.43

• removed GUI widget to set Oculus Rift rendering, as it wasn’t functional anymore anyway
• switched to latest FBX SDK
• added extra options for writing older FBX formats
• changed FBX file type naming to 2006-2018 naming convention, with internal file format (v6.1 - v7.5) in parentheses

v2.42

• Fixed cosmetic issue where Record Triggering would incorrectly set the Video tab’s title
• maintenance release
• upgraded internal libraries for latest security and performance updates
• now compiled with visual studio 2017

v2.41

• fixed crash log files as some filetypes were giving issues with the new mail server
• when using “Record Triggering” the “Append Date/Time” is now respected when it’s enabled on the Master

v2.40

• solved problem with smoothing filter where joint could potentially stay lost after disappearing
• updated internal libraries to latest version to take advantage of latest
  • performance updates
  • security updates

v2.39

• “Auto Filename” is now renamed to “Append Data/Time”
  • it will now always respect the manually set filename
  • and when turned ON simply append the date/time to it
• added logger window
  • the info from the black console window is now displayed in a logging window in the GUI of the app
  • logging info is also saved to a log file (in your My Documents folder)
• Added crash reporting feature
  • when a crash is detected log files and debugging info is collected
  • a zip file will be placed on your desktop
  • and a dialog box will ask you to send this file by email so the cause can be debugged

v2.38

• added MotionBuilder 2018 plugins
• 2D and 3D openGL drawing should be a bit more efficient now
• increased size of font in black console window
• file browser windows now handle symbolic links correctly
• fixed a bug where camera could get too close to it’s target
• updated libraries to latest versions

v2.37

• fixed a problem with “error loading aruco130.dll” on some machines (bug was only in v2.36)

v2.36

• added link to the Unity live streaming example script/scene to the help menu
• rotation filter wasn’t always applied correctly, fixed now
• redrawing of some of the OpenGL widget should be a bit quicker now
• file browsers should now work with symbolic links
• prevented the 3D camera to dolly past it’s near plane
• updated some of the internal libraries to latest versions

v2.35

• added timestamps to Brekel OSC packets
• license installer should now warn if no license key file was found in a zip archive
• “new version available” window now shows full changelog, not just the last change

v2.34

• added option to stream OSC (Open Sound Control) data out to other applications (see documentation on available OSC messages)
  • including Synapse emulation mode for joint messages (works with apps like Kinectar)
  • including OSCeleton emulation mode for joint messages (works with apps like Kinectar)

v2.33

• solved some audio related crashes on certain machines
• upgraded C++ 2015 redistributable installer to SP3 to avoid problems for fresh installs

v2.32

• option (from the top menu) to slowly flash the sensor’s LEDs during recording
• added options (in sensor tab) for controlling auto or manual exposure of the color camera
• added internal options that try harder to maintain 30 fps mode for the color camera
• made compressed BPC files a little smaller

v2.31

• fixed multi threaded race condition in recording code
• fixed console font size for Win10 anniversary update
• small fix in FBX exporter for non-standard frame rates

v2.30

• better support for high DPI screens
• added support for for MotionBuilder 2017
• updated to Visual Studio 2015 & Qt 5.7
• discontinued Oculus Rift support (for now)
• 8-bit audio is no longer supported

v2.29

• audio waveform display now turns red if audio is clipped when volume is set too high
• added a slider for adjusting the audio recording volume
• added the option to play the audio from the selected input over the speakers
• body timestamps now are aligned across machines when using Multi Sensor
• added option to turn of audible beeps at recording start/stop
• small change to the MotionBuilder internals when switching between TCP/UDP

v2.28

• fixed possible crash at startup
• frame timestamps are measured more accurately now
• mouse-over tooltips are now opaque for better readability

v2.27

• fixed bug in MotionBuilder plugins for multi person tracking
• fixed minor bug for foot orientation and filtering for multi person tracking
• internal changes for Multi-Sensor alpha: http://brekel.com/multi-sensor
• some small change to update mechanism
• C++ redistributable libraries (vc_redist) are now installed in a different way

v2.26

• internal changes for Multi-Sensor alpha (coming soon for pointcloud recording)
• small modification on checking if update is available

v2.25

• “Colorize Bodies” for Depth got broken, fixed now
• “Clip Bodies” for PointCloud got broken, fixed now

v2.24

• each video recorder now does it’s compression on a separate thread
• MJPEG codec red & blue channels are no longer swapped
• sensor transform is now correctly saved to the registry when running headless mode
• internal memory management speed optimizations
• more work done under the hood to support the upcoming Multi Sensor add-on
• updated audio dlls

v2.23

• moved Color & Point compression settings to the BPC groupbox under 3D Output Formats
• added a Video tab for recording the 2D views in AVI format
  • select one or more of these video sources: InfraRed, Depth, BodyIDs, Color
  • select from these codecs: XVID, MJPEG, X264, Lagarith, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV, FLV, Ogg Vorbis (note that this may be dependent on your machine’s resources and installed codecs)

v2.22

• added Color & Point compression setting for BPC files With compression enabled filesize reductions of 75% compared to Lossless can typically be achieved Compared to older versions of the software this can even be 85-90%!
• installer now removes files of previous version first before installing

v2.21

• added option to render 3D viewport to an Oculus Rift Virtual Reality headset (tested with SDK 0.6.0.0)
• added option to menu to help with manual license installation
• a Network Triggered recording will now create a folder if it has to
• internal engine updates to support upcoming Multi Sensor Calibrator Alpha
• updated to Qt 5.5

v2.20

• fixed bug in smoothing code that could cause problems especially on fast machines
• removed “Synchronize Streams” toggle as it was buggy when switching at runtime on some machines
• added a “Viewport Settings” window under the top “Settings” dropdown menu allowing to customize the viewport drawing and colors
• double clicking the main viewport now toggles it being fullscreen can be disabled from the top “Settings” dropdown menu

v2.19

• CPU usage is now measured more accurately
• torso confidence calculated more accurately now
• added a headless mode
  • allows running the application without a GUI
  • in case you only want to stream data to other applications with minimal overhead
  • in case you just want a machine to be a Record Triggering slave with minimal overhead
  • see PDF documentation for commandline options
• fixed bug where Remote Trigger could fire record start signals for formats that were disabled
• if dropped frames are detected during recording this is now printed in the widget that lists recording length
  • this could for example happen when:
    • computer is too slow
    • disk is too slow (especially when recording BPC pointcloud files)
    • another program is interfering with the recording (for example overactive security software)

v2.18

• installer will now warn if not running Windows 8 / 8.1 / 10
• renamed the Unity script so it fits nicely in a project with a Pro Face v2 script
• added zipped Unity assets in case you don’t want to use the UnityPackage
  • for example when non-Unity users want to peek at the C# network code
• added plugin for MotionBuilder 2016

v2.17

• license installation is now done with elevated administrator privileges to avoid problems on certain machines

v2.16

• now provides some additional help when license extraction/copy fails

v2.15

• fingers are now added to the characterNode in recorded FBX files
• tips and documentation are now displayed in the statusbar when you mouse-over buttons/settings

v2.14

• removed CPU RDRAND check at startup as it may have been too restrictive

v2.13

• removed Sensor Mirror toggle as it wasn’t working well
• fixed MotionBuilder plugin applying wrong sensor transformation after last update
• added additional check for CPU RDRAND support required for 2D face tracking (used for head twist)
• added option to turn Finger Pose Tracking OFF (defaults to relaxed pose then)
• minor updates to the documentation

v2.12

• added Unity3D example scripts and scenes (see Unity3D folder inside your installation)
• internal speedups for body and 2D face processing
• added joint confidence heuristics for more accurate values
• joint confidences are now drawn in a red->yellow->green gradient
• filtering settings on R finger poses were always default, fixed now
• when not drawing pointcloud CTRL+A (frame pointcloud) now frames the bodies instead (like CTRL+F)
• CPU SSE support is now checked at startup (needed for face tracking)
• body joint drawing in 2D views should be more stable now
• changed some things in the network protocol so it’s easier to read from user’s code
• updated MotionBuilder plugins with the new network protocol (user experience hasn’t changed)
• added Network Streaming Protocol chapter to the documentation for those interested in writing their own software

v2.11

• face isTracked property now works properly
• skeleton boxes are now slightly colored by Body IDs
• when floor can’t be detected this is now mentioned in the GUI on the Sensor tab
• compacted the GUI margins a bit
• increased speed for text drawing in 3D and 2D viewports
• removed 2D Face Tracking checkbox, this is now controlled internally (and ON by default)
• fixed a bug where FBX character offsets weren’t initialized properly
• “Write Positions” is now automatically disabled for Biped and Poser/Daz BVH types
• added “Camera Follow” and “Body IDs” toggles to preview window
• preview window toggles now load/save correctly on startup/exit
• added “Blender” BVH type preset (same as Generic/HumanIK with Write Positions OFF)

v2.10

• added image with suggested sensor placment to GUI
• fixed bug with floor plane detection and automatic sensor alignment

v2.09

• added “Rotation Filter” control in the output formats tab for selecting “None”, “Unroll” or “Gimbal Killer” (used to always be Unroll) this applies a filter on rotation animation curves to prevent euler gimble flips
• added “Constant Key Reducer” control in the output formats tab, used to be always ON this applies a filter on all animation curves to remove static values

v2.08

• fixed bug that could cause keyframe to be placed on negative frame

v2.07

• fixed bug with audio devices not being recognized on some systems
• fixed bug where “Preview after record” didn’t work anymore
• fixed bug where preview timeline didn’t change to the length of the clip
• updated to Qt 5.4

v2.06

• small change to updating mechanism

v2.05

• fixed MotionBuilder crash on recording start
• added the option to inverse “Clip Bodies” (same checkbox now has 3 states)

v2.04

• fixed startup crash when no license found

v2.03

• FBX files now contain a Character Node for the Kinect skeletons for very easy retargeting setups
• added Lower Body Only tracking mode, with the ability to set the legs in a fixed Standing or Sitting pose
• added a number of bodies seen readout to the GUI
• using slightly faster math to calculate depth and IR greyscales
• hand state detection should be a bit jittery as it now uses a bigger buffer internally
• custom sensor position/rotation is now correctly loaded & applied at startup
• camera auto follow speed is a bit quicker now
• forced some additional Unicode compiler settings to help with foreign language Windows versions
• changed font on drawing options so it fits on smaller window sizes
• unique sensor hardware ID is now printed to console
• horizontal, vertical and diagonal field of views are now printed to console
• added toggle to draw body IDs in the 3D viewport

v2.02

• upperlegs solve more stable now during squat and sitting motions
• MotionBuilder plugin wasn’t properly clearing animation of confidences, 2D face tracking etc when recording over an existing take
• MotionBuilder is set to stream 1 skeleton it now automatically picks the closest one to the sensor
• cleaned up console output for TXT file exporter
• many options (output formats, networking etc) now display information in the tool section title bar
• joint confidences are now also smoothed just like the joint transforms
• changed recording memory management to possibly help for really long recordings

v2.01

• changed the roll calculation algorithm for the legs should be more stable in general especially when walking towards the sensor
• added Upper Leg Roll Sensitivity control
• added Lower Leg Roll Sensitivity control

v2.00

• includes PDF documentation (link in start menu)
• sometimes a body could initialize wrongly resulting in missing arms, should be more robust now
• fixed a bug concerning smoothing filtering for multi person tracking
• added an option in the top menu toggle warning for deleting a preview take

v0.62

• fixed legs not always being correct in previews, especially in sitting poses
• fixed bones disappearing in 2D views when 2D Face drawing was enabled
• added toggles for drawing in preview window
• application now starts with output format controls selected
• timeMode in FBX file is now set correctly for known framerates
• FBX reference now has a scale of 1 (scale difference is baked into joint data)
• installer should now autodetect if latest drivers/SDK need to be downloaded and installed (and tick the box if needed)

v0.61

• fixed FBX first frame (introduced in last version)

v0.60

• compiled against the latest official release version of the drivers/SDK
• SDK version now detects latest official release version of the SDK/drivers
• added Camera Follow toggle to make the camera automatically keep any visible bodies in frame
• implemented Preview tab, for quick replay of the last take after recording
• fixed crash in TXT exporter
• built in check to prevent NaN (Not a Number) values during file export this could potentially corrupt BVH files for certain importers
• T-pose & default pos/rot now falls back to previous recording or sensible defaults when a bodypart wasn’t seen during the take
• leg roll should be more stable now even if feet are jittery
• foot length is now kept fixed
• a recording can now be stopped when the start delay countdown is still running
• removed Re-Tpose button in MotionBuilder plugin since it didn’t work properly in all versions
• added Help/About
• network streaming is now turned ON by default

v0.59

• implemented BVH recorder
• added neck joint (needed for some BVH importers/retargeters)
• FBX now applies a Constant Key Reducer filter to reduce filesize
• FBX now exports additional data as custom properties on hips, things like: tracking state, hand pose detection, lean, 2D face tracking states etc
• TXT & CSV now save the exact same data as FBX (including resampling & T-pose)
• TXT & CSV now save 2D face tracking data
• MoBu plugin now uses the same joint orientations as the recorded formats
• MoBu plugin no longer disables buttons to create character nodes then Live is disabled So the following workflow now can be done:
  • record a clip with T-pose
  • disable Live
  • scrub to T-pose frame
  • hit button to create character node(s)
  • enable Live
• MoBu plugin fixed some bugs regarding character node creation
• MoBu plugin when recreating character nodes it now disables retargeting on characters that use Kinect as input as this can crash MoBu
• T-pose is now more accurate now
• removed support for writing global coordinates for TXT/CSV
• removed finger poses for unknown state, as it would only make things jitter
• removed coordinate system selection for smoothing as it was buggy
• upperleg boxes draw correctly again

v0.58

• internal changes to skeleton solver
  • more stability for orientations
  • tuned for minimal amount of euler gimbal problems for export
• internal changes to export engine (with the eye on better BVH/TXT/CSV support in future beta versions)
• added option to resample the output framerate (sensor operates natively at 30fps)
• added option to export a T-pose on the first frame (capturing one instead of relying on a mathematically generated one is usually better for retargeting though)
• default position/rotation in FBX file now uses T-pose
• FBX should comply better with Unity Mecanim bacause of new default pos/rot
• upperarm roll should be a lot more stable now
• collar bone orientation should be correct now
• roll smoothing strength now also applies to legs
• FBX now sets quaternion interpolation ON
• FBX format can now be set to v6 and v7 both in ascii and binary flavours
• FBX reference node no longer has Y rotation set to 180, now baked into skeleton itself
• changed default finger poses in GUI a bit so they appear less jittery when state is unsure
• removed support for Microsoft orientation solver

v0.57

• FBX files: are now more accurate, especially for the lower body when bending over
• FBX files: Unity’s Mecanim should now be able to correctly identify the skeleton (first frame is used for initialization)
• FBX files: should now start at frame 0 and not on a small negative value
• FBX files: renamed “Foot_end” to “Toes”
• FBX files: now properly store the time units as 30 fps
• FBX files: now properly store the space units as meters
• FBX files: now properly store the coordinate system as Yup and Right Handed
• floor compensation should be more accurate for all output formats (in case sensor is not mounted perfectly horizontal)
• 3D viewport now correctly uses the saved sensor transform when “Auto Align” is turned OFF at startup
• Recording button now changes color after stopping a recording to indicate how long writing files to disk takes

v0.56

• MotionBuilder plugins (2009-2015) added internal testing done on 2015 only, please report issues with other versions!

v0.55

• docking windows can now be nested
• fixed a crash when toggling Synchronize Streams
• 2D Face tracker wasn’t being initialized when Synchronize Streams was selected
• TXT & CSV file formats can now save local coordinates or global coordinates)
• TXT & CSV order of joint in the header description was incorrect, fixed now
• feedback to user when no license is found is a bit more clear now
• updated to Qt 5.3.2
• updated to latest Kinect for Windows v2 SDK v1409

v0.54

• did a fix to prevent the collar bones from not initializing properly sometimes
• only bodies that were tracked for at least 5 frames are exported now (to prevent ghosts)
• implemented CSV recorder
• added beeps for recording start/stop
• added beeps for countdown when using start delay
• Record Triggering should now work can sync recording & filename between all other Brekel Pro applications
• added BPC compression option to reduce filesize a bit
  • at the cost of lower quality 3D point information
  • quality difference is visualized in the live viewport

v0.53

• now automatically checks if you’re using the latest drivers/SDK
• forearm and hand joint confidences are now lowered if hand is closed (since roll becomes less stable)
• head joint confidence is now lowered if face is not tracked (since twist can then not be calculated)
• lowered default filtering strength a bit
• added skeleton roll smoothing strength setting to GUI
• added roll settings reset button to GUI
• face twist is now integrated better with joint filtering
• added link to “Kinect v2 Configuration Verifier” to the help menu

v0.52

• added option to utilize 2D Face Tracker to drive twist for head joint (looking left/right)
• added the ability to draw 2D face bounding box and points in the IR/Depth/Color windows
• face detection results are now active in spreadsheet window
• lots of changes under the hood for future expansion

v0.51

• installer now includes some missing dll files
• several fixes in BPC exporter
• increased timout while looking for sensor at startup a bit
• more descriptive window title, including expiration date
• icon now contains multiple resolutions so it’s nicely anti-aliased on smaller sizes
• low fps warning doesn’t pop up immediately now, waits for more slow frames in a row
• implemented network streaming (no MotionBuilder/Unity or other plugins available yet though)

v0.50

• initial public beta release