Hello.
What's the most popular or standard, or most unencumbered format for motion
capture files? (I have this vague recollection that there's more than one).

Is there also a standard  or more popular syntax within that format?  

thanks.

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Greg M. Johnson wrote:
> Hello.
> What's the most popular or standard, or most unencumbered format for motion
> capture files? (I have this vague recollection that there's more than one).
> 
> Is there also a standard  or more popular syntax within that format?  
> 
> thanks.  

I'm not sure what the standard is, and I suspect that it depends on what 
software you're using.  I tend to like a .csv (comma separated values) 
file specifying the character DOFs for each frame combined with a .skel 
specifying the transformation hierarchy.  I use these because they're 
both pretty simple ASCII formats, so you can write your own parsers for 
them.

Your best bet for getting the most commonly used formats would be to 
take a look at what's used in CMU's motion capture database:

http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu/
http://mocap.cs.cmu.edu/tools.php

There are also tools available to read some of the more popular 
formation.  You might take a look at Dance, as it says it outputs to POV 
as well:

http://www.magix.ucla.edu/dance/

I'm curious, what are you using the mocap for?

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Greg M. Johnson wrote:
> Is there also a standard  or more popular syntax within that format?  

Not that I know much about the format, but the only format I've seen 
supported by multiple programs is "BVH". Even Second Life uses that. 
Apparently, if you understand motion capture well, it's a pretty 
straightforward format.

HTH.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     On what day did God create the body thetans?

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