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Ncam TOP

Summary

NOTE

License: Only available in TouchDesigner Pro.

The Ncam TOP can receive image data from an external Ncam Reality tracking system for use in virtual production. To receive data, the TOP must reference an Ncam CHOP that is connected to the Ncam server. The type of image displayed in the TOP is chosen using the Output parameter. Multiple image streams may be available depending on the server settings, and additional Ncam TOPs can be used to access more than one stream.

Possible image streams include the primary film stream captured by the external camera, a lens distortion map, and a depth image. The lens distortion map is a 32 bit floating point image where the R and G channels contain coordinates of where that pixel's color data should be taken from. The distortion map is used to warp a rendered image so that it matches the optical properties of an image captured with a physical lens.

The lens distortion map can be applied to a rendered image by connecting a TOP with the rendered content to the Ncam TOP's input and setting the Output parameter to 'Distort Input'. Additionally, the rendered content can be distorted and composited onto the film content using the 'Composite' option.

PythonIcon.pngncamTOP_Class


Parameters - Ncam Page

Active active - Turn this parameter off to stop receiving image data from the Ncam server. The Ncam server only sends the image streams that are requested by active TOPs. Deactivating the TOP does not deactivate the CHOP.

Ncam CHOP chop - A link to the Ncam CHOP that is connected to the Ncam server. An Ncam CHOP is required for the TOP to receive any data, but more than one TOP can be connected to the same CHOP.

Output output - - Select what type of output this TOP should produce. Some output modes like 'Composite' and 'Distort Input' require an input image from another TOP. Not all image streams may be available from the Ncam server. If a stream is not available, the TOP will produce an error.

  • Composite composite - Apply the lens distortion map to the input image and combine it on top of the film stream using the input image's alpha as a mask.
  • Distort Input distort - Apply the lens distortion to the input image.
  • Distort Passthrough distort_passthrough - Output the raw distortion map. The map can be used to distort an image separately using a Lookup TOP or GLSL TOP.
  • Film Passthrough film_passthrough - Output the raw film image captured by the physical camera.
  • Depth Passthrough depth_passthrough - Output the raw depth image calculated by the Ncam Reality system.


Parameters - Common Page

Output Resolution outputresolution - - quickly change the resolution of the TOP's data.

  • Use Input useinput - Uses the input's resolution.
  • Eighth eighth - Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
  • Quarter quarter - Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
  • Half half - Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
  • 2X 2x - Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
  • 4X 4x - Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
  • 8X 8x - Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
  • Fit Resolution fit - Grow or shrink the input resolution to fit this resolution, while keeping the aspect ratio the same.
  • Limit Resolution limit - Limit the input resolution to be not larger than this resolution, while keeping the aspect ratio the same.
  • Custom Resolution custom - Directly control the width and height.

Resolution resolution - - Enabled only when the Resolution parameter is set to Custom Resolution. Some Generators like Constant and Ramp do not use inputs and only use this field to determine their size. The drop down menu on the right provides some commonly used resolutions.

  • W resolutionw -
  • H resolutionh -

Resolution Menu resmenu - A drop-down menu with some commonly used resolutions.

Use Global Res Multiplier resmult - Uses the Global Resolution Multiplier found in Edit>Preferences>TOPs. This multiplies all the TOPs resolutions by the set amount. This is handy when working on computers with different hardware specifications. If a project is designed on a desktop workstation with lots of graphics memory, a user on a laptop with only 64MB VRAM can set the Global Resolution Multiplier to a value of half or quarter so it runs at an acceptable speed. By checking this checkbox on, this TOP is affected by the global multiplier.

Output Aspect outputaspect - - Sets the image aspect ratio allowing any textures to be viewed in any size. Watch for unexpected results when compositing TOPs with different aspect ratios. (You can define images with non-square pixels using xres, yres, aspectx, aspecty where xres/yres != aspectx/aspecty.)

  • Use Input useinput - Uses the input's aspect ratio.
  • Resolution resolution - Uses the aspect of the image's defined resolution (ie 512x256 would be 2:1), whereby each pixel is square.
  • Custom Aspect custom - Lets you explicitly define a custom aspect ratio in the Aspect parameter below.

Aspect aspect - - Use when Output Aspect parameter is set to Custom Aspect.

  • Aspect1 aspect1 -
  • Aspect2 aspect2 -

Aspect Menu armenu - A drop-down menu with some commonly used aspect ratios.

Input Smoothness inputfiltertype - - This controls pixel filtering on the input image of the TOP.

  • Nearest Pixel nearest - Uses nearest pixel or accurate image representation. Images will look jaggy when viewing at any zoom level other than Native Resolution.
  • Interpolate Pixels linear - Uses linear filtering between pixels. This is how you get TOP images in viewers to look good at various zoom levels, especially useful when using any Fill Viewer setting other than Native Resolution.
  • Mipmap Pixels mipmap - Uses mipmap filtering when scaling images. This can be used to reduce artifacts and sparkling in moving/scaling images that have lots of detail.

Fill Viewer fillmode - - Determine how the TOP image is displayed in the viewer.

NOTE:To get an understanding of how TOPs work with images, you will want to set this to Native Resolution as you lay down TOPs when starting out. This will let you see what is actually happening without any automatic viewer resizing.

  • Use Input useinput - Uses the same Fill Viewer settings as it's input.
  • Fill fill - Stretches the image to fit the edges of the viewer.
  • Fit Horizontal width - Stretches image to fit viewer horizontally.
  • Fit Vertical height - Stretches image to fit viewer vertically.
  • Fit Best best - Stretches or squashes image so no part of image is cropped.
  • Fit Outside outside - Stretches or squashes image so image fills viewer while constraining it's proportions. This often leads to part of image getting cropped by viewer.
  • Native Resolution nativeres - Displays the native resolution of the image in the viewer.

Viewer Smoothness filtertype - - This controls pixel filtering in the viewers.

  • Nearest Pixel nearest - Uses nearest pixel or accurate image representation. Images will look jaggy when viewing at any zoom level other than Native Resolution.
  • Interpolate Pixels linear - Uses linear filtering between pixels. Use this to get TOP images in viewers to look good at various zoom levels, especially useful when using any Fill Viewer setting other than Native Resolution.
  • Mipmap Pixels mipmap - Uses mipmap filtering when scaling images. This can be used to reduce artifacts and sparkling in moving/scaling images that have lots of detail. When the input is 32-bit float format, only nearest filtering will be used (regardless of what is selected).

Passes npasses - Duplicates the operation of the TOP the specified number of times. For every pass after the first it takes the result of the previous pass and replaces the node's first input with the result of the previous pass. One exception to this is the GLSL TOP when using compute shaders, where the input will continue to be the connected TOP's image.

Channel Mask chanmask - Allows you to choose which channels (R, G, B, or A) the TOP will operate on. All channels are selected by default.

Pixel Format format - - Format used to store data for each channel in the image (ie. R, G, B, and A). Refer to Pixel Formats for more information.

  • Use Input useinput - Uses the input's pixel format.
  • 8-bit fixed (RGBA) rgba8fixed - Uses 8-bit integer values for each channel.
  • sRGB 8-bit fixed (RGBA) srgba8fixed - Uses 8-bit integer values for each channel and stores color in sRGB colorspace. Note that this does not apply an sRGB curve to the pixel values, it only stores them using an sRGB curve. This means more data is used for the darker values and less for the brighter values. When the values are read downstream they will be converted back to linear. For more information refer to sRGB.
  • 16-bit float (RGBA) rgba16float - Uses 16-bits per color channel, 64-bits per pixel.
  • 32-bit float (RGBA) rgba32float - Uses 32-bits per color channel, 128-bits per pixels.
  • 10-bit RGB, 2-bit Alpha, fixed (RGBA) rgb10a2fixed - Uses 10-bits per color channel and 2-bits for alpha, 32-bits total per pixel.
  • 16-bit fixed (RGBA) rgba16fixed - Uses 16-bits per color channel, 64-bits total per pixel.
  • 11-bit float (RGB), Positive Values Only rgba11float - A RGB floating point format that has 11 bits for the Red and Green channels, and 10-bits for the Blue Channel, 32-bits total per pixel (therefore the same memory usage as 8-bit RGBA). The Alpha channel in this format will always be 1. Values can go above one, but can't be negative. ie. the range is [0, infinite).
  • 16-bit float (RGB) rgb16float -
  • 32-bit float (RGB) rgb32float -
  • 8-bit fixed (Mono) mono8fixed - Single channel, where RGB will all have the same value, and Alpha will be 1.0. 8-bits per pixel.
  • 16-bit fixed (Mono) mono16fixed - Single channel, where RGB will all have the same value, and Alpha will be 1.0. 16-bits per pixel.
  • 16-bit float (Mono) mono16float - Single channel, where RGB will all have the same value, and Alpha will be 1.0. 16-bits per pixel.
  • 32-bit float (Mono) mono32float - Single channel, where RGB will all have the same value, and Alpha will be 1.0. 32-bits per pixel.
  • 8-bit fixed (RG) rg8fixed - A 2 channel format, R and G have values, while B is 0 always and Alpha is 1.0. 8-bits per channel, 16-bits total per pixel.
  • 16-bit fixed (RG) rg16fixed - A 2 channel format, R and G have values, while B is 0 always and Alpha is 1.0. 16-bits per channel, 32-bits total per pixel.
  • 16-bit float (RG) rg16float - A 2 channel format, R and G have values, while B is 0 always and Alpha is 1.0. 16-bits per channel, 32-bits total per pixel.
  • 32-bit float (RG) rg32float - A 2 channel format, R and G have values, while B is 0 always and Alpha is 1.0. 32-bits per channel, 64-bits total per pixel.
  • 8-bit fixed (A) a8fixed - An Alpha only format that has 8-bits per channel, 8-bits per pixel.
  • 16-bit fixed (A) a16fixed - An Alpha only format that has 16-bits per channel, 16-bits per pixel.
  • 16-bit float (A) a16float - An Alpha only format that has 16-bits per channel, 16-bits per pixel.
  • 32-bit float (A) a32float - An Alpha only format that has 32-bits per channel, 32-bits per pixel.
  • 8-bit fixed (Mono+Alpha) monoalpha8fixed - A 2 channel format, one value for RGB and one value for Alpha. 8-bits per channel, 16-bits per pixel.
  • 16-bit fixed (Mono+Alpha) monoalpha16fixed - A 2 channel format, one value for RGB and one value for Alpha. 16-bits per channel, 32-bits per pixel.
  • 16-bit float (Mono+Alpha) monoalpha16float - A 2 channel format, one value for RGB and one value for Alpha. 16-bits per channel, 32-bits per pixel.
  • 32-bit float (Mono+Alpha) monoalpha32float - A 2 channel format, one value for RGB and one value for Alpha. 32-bits per channel, 64-bits per pixel.


Operator Inputs

  • Input 0: -


Info CHOP Channels

Extra Information for the Ncam TOP can be accessed via an Info CHOP.

Common TOP Info Channels

  • resx - Horizontal resolution of the TOP in pixels.
  • resy - Vertical resolution of the TOP in pixels.
  • aspectx - Horizontal aspect of the TOP.
  • aspecty - Vertical aspect of the TOP.
  • depth - Depth of 2D or 3D array if this TOP contains a 2D or 3D texture array.
  • gpu_memory_used - Total amount of texture memory used by this TOP.

Common Operator Info Channels

  • total_cooks - Number of times the operator has cooked since the process started.
  • cook_time - Duration of the last cook in milliseconds.
  • cook_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the component timeline.
  • cook_abs_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the absolute time.
  • cook_start_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator started cooking in the frame it was cooked.
  • cook_end_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator finished cooking in the frame it was cooked.
  • cooked_this_frame - 1 if operator was cooked this frame.
  • warnings - Number of warnings in this operator if any.
  • errors - Number of errors in this operator if any.