MANUS Core 2.1 | Step By Step
The Viewport
There are two views for the main viewport, Hands View and Scene View.
Hands View
The Hands View has a Glove mode and a Data mode.
Default view and show where you can switch to Scene view
Glove View
This view allows you to view your virtual hands. It uses a skeletal hand to best show all the bones in your hands.
Data View
This view allows you to look at the data driving your virtual hands. The top three green bars translate to the rotation of the individual joints in the finger digits. The bottom row translates to the sideways motion of each finger.
Haptics View
When Haptic gloves are used you can use this view to test and visualise all haptics. The slider helps you to set the intensity of the vibrations.
Scene View
This view lets you look at an entire character with live tracking data being applied to it.
When no body-capture data is available (live or playback) your hands data will be applied to a static T-Pose for reference.
Side Panel
Users Tab
Here you will have an overview of all User Profiles and the gloves they are using.
Depending on your pipeline this will also include SteamVR Trackers for full body capture.
The main feature in this tab will be calibrating your Gloves
Calibrate: Will open the calibration popup for this user. From there you can choose what you want to calibrate.
Profile Settings: Will open the Profile Settings side panel where you can adjust and assign gloves and trackers to the user as well as change the user's profile name.
Gloves(x): This dropdown allows you to see the gloves connected to this profile. It also lets you see the battery and signal status when hovering over their respective icons.
Trackers(x): This dropdown allows you to see the trackers connected to this profile.
Add Profile: Opens a popup which helps guide setting up a new/added profile.
User Order
The order of profiles list can be changed by dragging and dropping profiles. This is useful when streaming data to some plugins, also using a certain order of characters.
Profile Settings
Name: Here you can see and change the users profile name
Remove Profile: This allows you to remove the current profile.
GLOVES
Calibrate: This will trigger the calibration process for the gloves only.
Dongle: This shows the dongle linked to the user profile for wireless glove use. If more than one dongle is connected, you can select them from the drop-down menu.
Left and Right Gloves: This shows the gloves linked to the user profile for wired and wireless use. If more gloves are connected, you can select them from the drop-down menu.
TRACKERS
Calibrate: This will trigger the full body calibration process.
BODY MEASUREMENTS
Here you can tweak the users body measurements to better represent their actual physical proportions.
Make sure the viewport is set to Scene View to see your adjustments take effect.
APPLY & CLOSE
Applies any changes made and closes the profile settings.
Devices Tab
In the Devices Panel, you can see all devices you have currently connected.
You can see all dongles connected, all gloves paired to a dongle, all gloves connected wired, all gloves ready to be paired to a dongle, and all trackers currently connected.
When there is new firmware available for your connected devices, an exclamation icon will inform you about this.
Dongle Information
When selecting/opening a dongle from the devices panel its details will show up below it.
- Series: This indicates which glove series the dongle was made for
- Dongle ID: A unique identifier for each dongle, mostly used for reference and to communicate with the MANUS Support team when needed. To copy the ID number, simply click the “copy” icon next to it.
- Dongle Firmware: Showing the current version of the firmware installed on the glove. And the ability to update the firmware with the “Update” button.
- Licence: Informs the software which features will be available.
Glove Information
When selecting/opening a glove from the devices panel its details will show up below it.
- Glove ID: A unique identifier for each glove, mostly used for reference and to communicate with the MANUS Support team when needed. To copy the ID number, simply click the “copy” icon next to it.
- Firmware: Showing the current version of the firmware installed on the glove. And the ability to update the firmware with the “Update” button.
- Hardware revision: This indicates the version of the hardware in your glove.
Calibrate will start the calibration process for that individual glove. Please check the Calibration article for step-by-step guidance.
The calibration is stored in your user profile.
Unpair will disconnect the wireless glove from the current dongle. The glove will then appear in the ‘Unpaired Gloves’ section of the devices tab.
When using the gloves wired, they will appear in the ‘Wired Gloves’ section of the devices tab. Wired gloves cannot be paired with a dongle however, a dongle will still be needed to inform the software what features will be available
Tracker information
The bottom section of the Devices panel will display all connected trackers with additional information per tracker;
- A reference color linked to the tracker color in the scene view in the main viewport
- The type of tracker
- The tracker ID
Settings
General
UI Scale: The Dashboard uses your Windows scaling settings to determine how large UI elements should be. If you want to adjust the size of interface elements independent of your Windows scaling, simply use the dropdown menu to select a different UI scale. Whether you are looking at the Dashboard on a large TV from far away in your mocap space or you’re sitting behind your desk, you can easily see and use the Dashboard.
Render to VR headset: If you want to visualize your gloves or Polygon in VR, make sure that this checkbox is on.
Scale Skeleton: Use the size adjustments made in the profile settings and apply them to the model from the scene view.
Render when unfocused: Switching this off will help lower CPU and GPU usage when using another application, minimising MANUS Core.
MANUS Core Connection: This opens a dialog where you can switch to another local or networked device running MANUS Core.
Hardware
Force firmware update: In case your device got disconnected during firmware update and did not update correctly, you can go through the installation process again if you check this box on.
Automatic Channel Optimization: Each dongle automatically selects the best available wireless channel when you start MANUS Core. If you want your glove and dongle pairs to always use a specific wireless channel, for example when you're using many wireless devices at the same time, you can disable this automatic channel selection.
Glove
Prime Series Thumb and Finger IMU Data: The MANUS Prime II & X Series gloves use 2 kinds of sensors: orientation sensors and bend sensors. When you experience sensor drift, you can decide to disable the orientation sensors. With these settings, you can select to only use the bending sensor data.
Quantum Pinch Correction: This prioritizes finger endpoint position over accurate joint angles.
Hand Rotation: The hand orientation slider allows you to rotate the visualization of the digital hand in the Gloves Hand Viewer. With this setting you can make the finger articulation more visible when looking at your digital hand.
Tracking
Keep tracker position: This option lets you retain the last known tracker position in the viewport after it loses connection.
Tracker timeout: If this option is on, the trackers that lose connection will disappear from the viewport.
Tracker timeout time: You can set the amount of time that will have to pass before a disconnected tracker disappears from the viewport (in seconds)
Tracking System
ART: The ART tracking system can't be detected by the system, so this manual toggle allows you to select it when using.
Updates per second: This sets the amount of captured samples per second for the tracking system.
Port: This sets the port through which communication with the tracking system is handled.
Recording
MANUS Core has triggered recording functionality for OptiTrack Motive, Vicon Shogun, PeelCapture and Qualisys.
Motive trigger: If you are using OptiTrack Motive software and you want the recording of the hands to start at the same time, make sure this checkbox is on.
Motive port: For Motive you will need to enable the Remote Trigger functionality inside Motive.
Then in the Manus Dashboard enable the Motive trigger and set the port 2 higher than your command port.
By default, this means your trigger port number will be 1515.
PeelCapture trigger: If you are using PeelCapture software and you want the recording of the hands to start at the same time, make sure this checkbox is on.
You will also needs the PeelCapture Plugin for MANUS Core 2. You can download this from our resource center.
PeelCapture port: By default, your trigger port number will be 1212.
Vicon Shogun trigger: If you are using Vicon Shogun software and you want the recording of the hands to start at the same time, make sure this checkbox is on.
Vicon Shogun port: For Shogun you will need to enable the Triggered Capture functionality inside Shogun.
You can set your trigger port to a specific number, by default it is set to port 30.
Then in the Manus Dashboard also enable the Vicon Shogun trigger and set the port to the same number as in Shogun.
Qualisys trigger: If you are using Qualisys software and you want the recording of the hands to start at the same time, make sure this checkbox is on.
Qualisys port: By default, your trigger port number will be 8989.
Auto Save Recordings: This will automatically save any recording you make to the specified folder.
Timecode
Timestamp data using timecode: This allows for using a timecode signal with your recordings.
Interface: Here you can choose the device you are plugged into. If you don’t see your device, you can refresh the list and try again.
Genlock: This setting allows you to turn on and off the Genlock functionality. By default, it’s turned on.
Keep interface alive: If you disconnect your device and you plug it in again, it will automatically reconnect.
About MANUS Core
In this panel you can see which version of MANUS Core and its Dashboard you are currently using.
You can also check for software updates from here.
Recording
Pressing REC in the top right corner will open the control panel as well as the recording side panel for additional options.
Control Panel
Frame Backwards: Allows you to go back one frame at a time.
Play: Will toggle playback of a recording.
Record: Starts recording your movements.
Frame Forwards: Allows you to go forward one frame at a time.
Stop: Stops recording or playback
Loop: This will loop playback.
Set-In: Will set the starting point for a selection of the recording.
Set-Out: Will set the end point for a selection of the recording.
Framerate: Lets you select the playback framerate to 24, 25, 30, 48, 60, 90 or 120 frames per second (fps).
Frame Position: Let's you know what frame the play head is at and the total amount of frames of the recording.
Main Time: Shows the current time during playback. Time is shown as HH:MM:SS:FFF by default. When the recording has timecode available, this will be shown as HH:MM:SS:FF
End Time: Indicates the total time of the recording.
Side Panel
Open
You can also load previously saved files. Simply click Load and select the recording you would like to open.
Save
By default, a recording will be saved once you stop recording.
You can select the folder where these files are saved.
You can also easily open this folder to see your recorded files.
If you are using triggered recording, the files will be saved in the folder you configured in Motive or Shogun.
Clear
When you finish your recording, the recorded animation will be loaded automatically, so you can easily review and edit it. When you want to go back to your live data, you can click the Clear button to unload the recorded data. With Automatic save disabled, you can discard your unsaved recorded data, and go back to live data.
Export
With the recording done we can now export. If you trim your recording, only the selection will be exported.
Pressing Export will open a popup window with all Export Settings.
Batch Export
For exporting multiple FBX files using the same settings.
Pressing Batch Export will open a popup window with all Batch Export Settings.
Current
This shows the name of the recording currently loaded.
Auto save recordings
This will automatically save every recording to the folder chosen below. Make sure Auto Save Recordings this is toggled on when using triggered recording
External timecode
This will show the live external timecode and if one is available. It will also show if genlock is active.
Export Settings
Filename
Here you can choose the name of your exported FBX file.
Files
For Batch Export only. This will list all files you have added (with the ‘Add Files’ button) for batch exporting.
Location
Here you can set the folder where the exported file(s) should be placed.
Suffix
For Batch Export only. The exported filenames will be copied from the original .MREC files. These filenames will be appended with the suffix set here.
Skeleton Structures
You can choose different skeleton structures depending on your use case for the exported FBX file.
- MANUS
- Polygon Avatar
- Autodesk
- HumanIK
- Xsens
- MVN Avatar (Mo)
- Unreal 4
- Unreal Default
- (external) Mannequin Male
- (external) Mannequin Female
- Unreal 5
- Unreal Default
- (external) Mannequin Male (Manny)
- (external) Mannequin Female (Quinn)
- Metahuman
- (external) Metahuman Female Short Underweight
- (external) Metahuman Female Short Normalweight
- (external) Metahuman Female Short Overweight
- (external) Metahuman Female Average Underweight
- (external) Metahuman Female Average Normalweight
- (external) Metahuman Female Average Overweight
- (external) Metahuman Female Tall Underweight
- (external) Metahuman Female Tall Normalweight
- (external) Metahuman Female Tall Overweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Short Underweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Short Normalweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Short Overweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Average Underweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Average Normalweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Average Overweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Tall Underweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Tall Normalweight
- (external) Metahuman Male Tall Overweight
- Mixamo
- X Bot
- Y Bot
Settings
Framerate: Setting the exported framerate to 24, 25, 30, 48, 60, 90 or 120 frames per second (fps).
Units: Setting the measurement units to millimetres(mm), centimetres(cm), decimetres(dm), meters(m), kilometres(km), inch or foot.
Include SMPTE timecode signal: This will embed the available timecode signal into the FBX file.
Include meshes: This will include the MANUS robot model with the export.
Use wrist rotation: When only exporting glove data, we could use the wrist rotation setting to select if we want to include the orientation of the hand in the export.
Export hands individually: Checking this will export two separate files. One for each hand using the suffix _L and _R.
Use full skeleton: Will export the entire full body skeleton regardless of having body tracking data.
Include tracker transforms: This will include the original tracking data which was used to solve the skeleton.
Use first frame bind pose: This will add one frame of the default (T) pose to the front of the export.
Use keyframe reduction: This option offers the ability to shrink the recording file size by discarding some data, but this will reduce tracking accuracy.
Keyframe interpolation mode: Can be set to Cubic or Linear.
Scale skeleton: Includes body size adjustments made in the profile settings.
