Once cameras have been added to the Optitrack volume, it is important to check that all the cameras are properly setup.

Aiming and Focusing

It is critical to ensure that the Optitrack Cameras are physically mounted properly according to the plan.

Within SP it is possible to have a preview of what the camera is seeing but using the “Show in Grid” option of the Optitrack Camera and the Object Grid view in SP.

It is a good idea to switch the camera to the MJPEG or Greyscale mode to check what the camera sees in the visible spectrum so that you can check whether the camera is aiming at the correct location and whether the cameras are in focus.

Tuning

Once all cameras are aimmed and focused properly, the next step in the process is to switch to the IR mode and tune the various parameters such that the system is able to pick up your markers. In most cases, you would want to switch the camera to have IR filter on and change the VideoType to be in Object Mode.

Once again, you can make use of the templates within the Optitrack Camera to quickly switch to the IR mode as a starting point.

Various factors like type of cameras, size of the tracking area, mounting location, ambient lighting condition, type of markers, and etc, all play a role in how the system needs to be tuned such that markers can be recognized. It is a good idea to adjust parameters like Exposure, Threshold, Intensity, Radius Threshold, IR filter, and Gain.

If the marker that you are using for calibration or alignment can be picked up by the system, it would show up as a white dot on the object grid.