Leap Motion TOP
Summary[edit]
The Leap Motion TOP gets the image from the Leap Motion controller's cameras. To enable this feature the option Allow Images must be turned on in the Leap Motion Control Panel.
Licensing for Leap Motion
TouchDesigner does not include a license to use the Leap Motion hardware or software. Make sure to check with the UltraLeap website regarding any applicable licenses that you may need for your project.
Installation
As of TouchDesigner 2022, the Leap Motion library files are no longer included with the TouchDesigner installer. These files, along with the drivers, are available from the UltraLeap website here: https://developer.leapmotion.com/releases
- API Version 5 Gemini - Download Gemini v5.6.1
- API Version 4 Orion - Download Orion Beta v4.1.0
- API Version 2 Tracking - Download Orion Beta v3.2.1
Depending on your operating system, there are different instructions for installing the library:
On Windows: You can use the Library Folder parameter to point to the location of the LeapC.dll (Orion/Gemini) or Leap.dll (Version 2/3) files on your system. The file is installed as part of the LeapSDK and the location may vary depending on the version and options selected during installation.
On MacOS (not compatible with MacOS Monterey): The libLeap.dylib file must be copied into a folder where TouchDesigner can find it (the Library folder parameter is not available on MacOS). The file is available in the LeapSDK/lib folder of the driver package downloaded from UltraLeap. The file can be copied into usr/local/lib so that it is available to all copies of TouchDesigner on the system, or it can be copied into the frameworks folder inside the package contents of a particular TouchDesigner app i.e. TouchDesigner.app/contents/frameworks.
See also Leap Motion, Leap Motion CHOP
Parameters - LeapMotion Page
Active active - If set, this TOP will capture data from the cameras.
API api - ⊞ - Select between Leap Motion V2 or V4/V5 SDKs for tracking. V5 offers the fastest and most stable tracking, V2 offers some legacy features like gestures.
- Version 2 Tracking
default- Legacy tracking that includes gesture and tool tracking. Download Leap Motion Orion Beta 3.2.1
- Orion (v4) / Gemini (v5)
on- Orion offers more stable and reliable hand and finger tracking compared to v2. Download Orion 4.1.0. Gemini offers even better performance with improved stability and much faster hand recognition to start tracking. Download Gemini 5.6.1.
Library Folder libfolder - This parameter should point to the location of the library file (.dll on Windows) that corresponds to the selected API version. The dll file can be found in the driver kit downloaded from the Ultra Leap website inside the 'LeapSDK/lib/x64' folder. For V2, the file will be called 'Leap.dll' and for V4/5, it is called 'LeapC.dll'. Note: This is only applicable for Windows, on MacOS follow the instructions in the Installation section above for copying the libLeap.dylib file.
For Gemini V5, first install the tracking software, then set this parameter to C:\Program Files\Ultraleap\LeapSDK\lib\x64 where it will find the LeapC.dll file.
Camera camera - Select between the two cameras in the Leap Motion Controller.
Flip X flipx - Flips the image in X.
Flip Y flipy - Flips the image in Y.
Image Correction correction - Corrects the image for lens distortion.
HMD Mode hmd - ⊞ - Switches the device to Head Mounted Display mode.
- Default
default-
- On
on-
- Off
off-
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.
Info CHOP Channels
Extra Information for the Leap Motion 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.
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