Vive Mars Camtrack for Ndisplay Quick Guide

Vive Mars Camtrack Ndisplay Setup Guide

Some users experience the loss of tracking when running nDisplay, despite having tracking in the editor.

This quick guide will help you get your tracking going when your Ndisplay scene is launched

In this guide we will:

• Ensure our network is configured properly, with the Mars and the Unreal Node statically configured.
• Adjust some settings in Switchboard to let nDisplay know which NIC to look for the tracking data.

Follow the the instructions on the Vive Mars Camtrack Website:

https://www.vive.com/us/support/camtrack/category_howto/setting-up-vive-mars-camtrack.html

This will include setting Mars as an Endpoint (read further for help deciding the address):

https://www.vive.com/us/support/camtrack/category_howto/adding-mars-as-an-endpoint-in-unreal-engine.html

The Vive Camtrack system should be on the same sub network as the Ndisplay nodes NIC (Network Interface Card) .

Turn off “Obtain IP address automatically” and enter a static IP address on the Vive Mars Camtrack System.

For example, if your Unreal node is set at 192.168.254.89

Then your Camtrack System should be set at 192.168.254.x.   (e.g. 192.168.254.50)

Do not use localhost or 127.0.0.1 for this step.

To set your Unreal Node NIC to a static address:

• Go to Network Connections and right click and select “PROPERTIES”
• Click on “INTERNET PROTOCAL VERSION 4 (TCP/IPv4)”
• Select Properties
• Define the network properties in the same network

In this example the MARS is set to 192.168.254.60, so we need to set the NIC to 192.168.254.x. We chose to go with 192.168.254.89 in this example

You will now need to let Ndisplay know which NIC on the node to look for the tracking data.

• OPEN SWITCHBOARD.
• Go to the SETTINGS menu > nDISPLAY SETTINGS
• Under EXTRA CMD LINE ARGS, add -messaging

Under UNICAST ENDPOINT, add the Unreal Node’s IP ADDRESS, then :0

(ex. 192.168.254.89:0)

Quick Recap:

To Recap:

• Both the Vive Mars Camtrack and the Unreal nodes must be on the same network with static IP addresses
• In the Switchboard > nDisplay settings, “Xtra Cmd Line Args” should have “-messaging”
• In the Switchboard > nDisplay settings, UNICAST ENDPOINT should be set to the Unreal Node NIC’s address, appended by “:0” (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:0)

You are now set up to receive tracking in nDisplay!  Enjoy!

If you have suggestions on how to make this post more effective, please contact me through the comment section or email me at Jason@pixelraindigital.com

I offer consulting for ICVFX / Tracking workflows.  If you need some help to get your studio up, reach out! Jason@pixelraindigital.com