Using demo - few questions

Hello. I have used Photoscan so far and I am concidering switch to Reality Capture because using from the demo i see RC has faster creation times and far better results.

Few questions:

1)ehat is the correct order to work after i have a model ? colorize ? texture? Unwrap and then texture? its not clear

  1. what types of UVS i have in RC, what gives the best results ?

  2. Can i use dimplify after i have UVS and texture? or only before?

  3. Can i delete points with lasso ? so i can delete floors and stuff like that

My goal is scanning for games. im looking to get out of RC a 5-15K model after being optimized from best quality model.
Thank you : ) !

A simple workflow:

  • import images
  • Align
  • Reconstruct
  • smooth (if needed)
  • simplify
  • unwrap
  • texture
  • export

If you only need 5-15k meshes then preview quality may be enough for you if you change the parameters for it to return a higher resolution mesh (300-900k tris)

thank you.
I will try now.

Btw, the demo allow me to export and test ?
And how can i delete the floor in RC?

thanks

Hi Amit
the DEMO is DISABLED for any data export, except RENDERING
What do you mean under deleting a floor ?

I im taking photos of stuff, they are stitting on the floor / ground
How Can i remove this ground in Reality Capture?

Thank you

Hi Amit
set a RECONSTRUCTION REGION and use the FILTERING tool to remove the unnecessary data. Or next time set the reconstruction region to reconstruct the model without the floor…

I have to say that not allowing export in the demo is a (IMO) terrible idea. I’m vetting CapturingReality for my pipeline with the demo, and not being able to get a good look at my mesh in Zbrush, Max, etc. is a killer for me.

It looks and feels like good software. It’s interface definitely gives my current software (Photoscan) some competition. Unfortunately, the disabled export brings my evaluation to something of a halt.

I hope CapturingReality reconsiders this limitation, and I may revisit their software.

Lee Williamson wrote:

I have to say that not allowing export in the demo is a (IMO) terrible idea. I’m vetting CapturingReality for my pipeline with the demo, and not being able to get a good look at my mesh in Zbrush, Max, etc. is a killer for me.

It looks and feels like good software. It’s interface definitely gives my current software (Photoscan) some competition. Unfortunately, the disabled export brings my evaluation to something of a halt.

I hope CapturingReality reconsiders this limitation, and I may revisit their software.

Hello Lee,
don’t be shy, just start new topic (thread) for this.
Anyway, allowing export of mesh in DEMO version would cause, that everyone would process their data in unpaid version of the application. If you want to check quality of the mesh, you can use ‘Render’ button in WORKFLOW/Export or RECONSTRUCTION/Export tab.

Would it solve your problem having full mesh render (not only pointcloud) directly in RealityCapture?

I would add that about 100 bucks for a PROMO version is not outrageous! :wink:
Especially for a professional (I assume Lee is one)
From my point of view it is definitely worth it!

Kruzma wrote:

Lee Williamson wrote:

I have to say that not allowing export in the demo is a (IMO) terrible idea. I’m vetting CapturingReality for my pipeline with the demo, and not being able to get a good look at my mesh in Zbrush, Max, etc. is a killer for me.

It looks and feels like good software. It’s interface definitely gives my current software (Photoscan) some competition. Unfortunately, the disabled export brings my evaluation to something of a halt.

I hope CapturingReality reconsiders this limitation, and I may revisit their software.

Hello Lee,
don’t be shy, just start new topic (thread) for this.
Anyway, allowing export of mesh in DEMO version would cause, that everyone would process their data in unpaid version of the application. If you want to check quality of the mesh, you can use ‘Render’ button in WORKFLOW/Export or RECONSTRUCTION/Export tab.

Would it solve your problem having full mesh render (not only pointcloud) directly in RealityCapture?

Your point it well taken. I failed to realize that the demo is not a 30 day trial, but is free and without a time limit. I think I would prefer a 30 to 45 day full featured trial over the current non-time limited version.

The 2D render isn’t really enough for me to evaluate. A full mesh render in CR would certainly be more helpful, but in the end, I find having the mesh in my modeling package of choice is a MUCH better way for me to get a feeling for the mesh quality.

Götz Echtenacher wrote:

I would add that about 100 bucks for a PROMO version is not outrageous! :wink:
Especially for a professional (I assume Lee is one)
From my point of view it is definitely worth it!

Considering a full license is $8000+, you are right about the promo price. While I am indeed a ‘professional’, every little bit of $ saved counts, as I’m an currently working in a freelance capacity.

Lee Williamson wrote:

Considering a full license is $8000+, you are right about the promo price. While I am indeed a ‘professional’, every little bit of $ saved counts, as I’m an currently working in a freelance capacity.

Yeah, I know what you mean.
Me too! :slight_smile:
But the investment was definitely worth it in my view!
And the only limit is 2500 images, no CLI and no batch (I think that’s all).
Depending on your camera resolution, shooting abilities (I need to work on mine!) and experience, you can do quite impressive projects. I’ve been blown away by one of Wishgranters examples with 2500 images, but I can’t find it right now. It’s a whole huge castle by the way…
I hope nobody is going to decide to do away with promo any time soon…

Lee Williamson wrote:

Kruzma wrote:

Lee Williamson wrote:

I have to say that not allowing export in the demo is a (IMO) terrible idea. I’m vetting CapturingReality for my pipeline with the demo, and not being able to get a good look at my mesh in Zbrush, Max, etc. is a killer for me.

It looks and feels like good software. It’s interface definitely gives my current software (Photoscan) some competition. Unfortunately, the disabled export brings my evaluation to something of a halt.

I hope CapturingReality reconsiders this limitation, and I may revisit their software.

Hello Lee,
don’t be shy, just start new topic (thread) for this.
Anyway, allowing export of mesh in DEMO version would cause, that everyone would process their data in unpaid version of the application. If you want to check quality of the mesh, you can use ‘Render’ button in WORKFLOW/Export or RECONSTRUCTION/Export tab.

Would it solve your problem having full mesh render (not only pointcloud) directly in RealityCapture?

Your point it well taken. I failed to realize that the demo is not a 30 day trial, but is free and without a time limit. I think I would prefer a 30 to 45 day full featured trial over the current non-time limited version.

The 2D render isn’t really enough for me to evaluate. A full mesh render in CR would certainly be more helpful, but in the end, I find having the mesh in my modeling package of choice is a MUCH better way for me to get a feeling for the mesh quality.

I do agree with Lee on this. It’s the ability to import and clean up, simplify, and manipulate the mesh and UV in our modeling software is what’s most important. I will probably pay $99 to evaluate further once I determine this is superior than others. But it would’ve been nice to allow it in the demo.

One option might be to limit the size of the exportable mesh to a rather small number - that would allow people to at least look at small, critical parts of the mesh but would make it unreasonably difficult to export anything useful.
What I can’t understand is that it isn’t even posible to continue using projects with a licenced version. I think it would make more sense to not allow LOADING a saved project in the Demo - that would make it possible to try it out, save it if wanted and give an even a greater incentive to continue with the paid version.
Just my 10 cents…

You can display full mesh in the 3D view since version 1.0.2.2742: Version 1.0.2.2742 RC release

It’s sad that the demo version has a highly valuable feature like “mesh display” and the paid version doesn’t. I skipped the demo and just bought the 3 month license so I could evaluate the software and and test it in my pipeline. But I can’t see or edit the model in RealityCapture, and when I export the .obj file to edit in ZBrush, it can’t read the files. I get memory errors, but I have a ton of memory and the files are a fraction the size of other models I’ve had open in ZBrush. 3DS Max can’t handle files with millions of polys well, hence the need for the ZBrush pipeline. The models have these hideous box regions that have to be cut away from my model, I would prefer if the software didn’t extend empty areas out to the reconstruction region boundaries, because all that stuff then has to be deleted and cleaned up. And it is MESSY.

Not being able to select and delete data points is a real loss compared to *****. People use that feature on every single model to isolate the areas they want to build data from. Having that choice at the point cloud stage saves SO MUCH TIME at the modeling stage. A bounding box is NOT useful for that purpose because nothing in nature conforms nicely to a box.

Hi, TJ.

Did you compared version number in DEMO and in Paid version? Demo is a newer version. Full version just not released yet.

Regarding zBrush and crashes… Using RC every day for more than 1 year. And did not have crashes even on more than 2000images and 600-800mln poly on my i7 6700/GTX960/64Gb.

Probably you tryied use raw billion poly mesh from RC, while you just need decimate it up to 10-20 times. And use 10-50Mln poly decimated mesh in work (it have enough details for 16K normal texture for 3-4m tall object). More poly is just a noise on normal maps.

Regarding deleting points. RC did not use dense cloud as it used in obsolete software. So editing of dense cloud just not possible. This is internal data, that not a “human readable” and “dirty”. Mesh is final and “cleaned” data.
But if you want reconstruct only required part. You can use masks. Tiff+alpha channel as mask. Or just fill unneeded part on images with uniform color. In this case RC will not calculate not depths not points not mesh in masked area.