New GoPro Questions

[tom9933]

Hello,
I've been using RR3 for a while now with my older Go Pro 4 and I love the program!!! I typically use a data file and video from my GP 4 to create videos from track and autocross events. A few, hopefully quick questions:
1) If I upgraded to a GP5 or GP6 that has an embedded GPS can that data automatically be linked to the GPS data from the ECU?
2) Similarly can multiple GPS enabled cameras also be automatically synchronized?
3) I noticed you added support for 360 degree cameras in the summer release have you tested that with the new Fusion camera and are there any issues?
4) I noticed in the release notes that you changed something for the GP6, I'm curious what did you change?

I'm really hoping that the syncing could be automatic or very close to it as that is a very tedious process today. I've even looked into cameras that have the automatic overlay (Race-keeper, VBOX) but they are not only very expensive they also seem to lack a lot of the flexibility that I've gotten used to with RR.
Thanks
Tom

[Weston@HPTuners]

1) If I upgraded to a GP5 or GP6 that has an embedded GPS can that data automatically be linked to the GPS data from the ECU?

RaceRender supports multiple input data files at the same time, and each data display object has an "Input" selection that you can set to one data file or the other, but this situation will require a little more setup from you if you want to display data from both files. It really comes down to how you want to use it...

So, to answer your question, there's presently nothing that automatically links or syncs everything together in this case. The typical process would be:

1) For best results with GPS enabled cameras, be sure that the camera is turned on and has a GPS fix before you start recording. This helps its data and video recordings be in sync with each other so that you hopefully won't have to manually synchronize them in RaceRender.

2) Add your GPS-enabled video file to a new blank project, and then it will ask if you want to extract and use the embedded GPS data from it.
. a) If you also have a more preferred data file that provides better GPS data, then you could just choose "No" here, which will make this act as a normal video file.
. b) Otherwise, or if you want to use the GPS data from the camera for any reason, then choose "Yes", and the data overlay template menu will appear...
. . i) If you have another data file that will be used for most of your displays, then you'll probably want to just Cancel out of this screen so that it doesn't create any displays for the camera GPS data right now (we'll get to that later)
. . ii) If you want to use your camera GPS data as the primary data source, then make a selection from this menu and it will create displays for it. Keep in mind that any G-force or lap time displays would then be based on the GPS data, so if you have another data file that provides better data, you may want to switch the Input selection on these displays later.

3) If you have another data file, add it to the project now.
. a) If you hadn't created any displays for the camera's GPS data, then you should be shown the data overlay template menu, where you can now make a selection.
. b) Go through the displays listed under the "Display Objects" section, and double-click to open the properties box of any items that you want to display. You can then set the "Input" selection to make it use the desired data input. Also be sure to look at the "Active" selection to ensure that this display is not hidden.

4) If you wish to add any additional displays, click on the "Add" button under the "Display Objects" section, set the "For Input File" selection at the top to your desired data input file, then use the menu to choose the desired display type and style. After it is created, you can use its properties box to choose the data "Field" it uses, as well as customize certain colors, sizes, labels, etc.

5) Now synchronize your data file to the video. There is not presently an automatic way to sync multiple data files by their GPS... While that sounds simple enough, it's just not common for users to have multiple inputs with GPS from the same car. However, there is a wizard that will speed up syncing these data files:

. a) Select the data input file that you want to synchronize, click on the "Synchronization Tool" button, and then click on the "Data Sync Wizard" button.

. b) The input you selected should already be selected for "Step 1", so take a look at "Step 2"... You'll want to choose a data event that will occur in both this selected data file and be visible in your main video.

. c) Use the main preview controls to seek the main video to where it shows the event you have selected.

. d) Click the "Syncrhonize Data Event to Current Preview Time" button, and your data file should now be in sync with the video.

. e) If you need to synchronize another data file, select it in the "Step 1" section of the wizard, and then repeat these steps 'b' through 'e'.

2) Similarly can multiple GPS enabled cameras also be automatically synchronized?

This would essentially be the same situation as my synchronization write-up (ie Step 5) from the answer above. Start by adding the first video and its embedded data to the project, then add then next video and data... For this example, we'll assume that each data input is already in sync to the video file it came from. So, now just synchronize the second data input based on the first video (it may prompt you about unlinking the data from its video; that's ok). Once the second data input is in sync with the first video input, you could then take its resulting sync value for the second data input (ie "Starting Position in Input File" or "Offset Within Project") and enter that same value for the second video input as well.

Again, for best results with GPS enabled cameras, be sure that the camera is turned on and has a GPS fix before you start recording.

3) I noticed you added support for 360 degree cameras in the summer release have you tested that with the new Fusion camera and are there any issues?

I have not tested with the Fusion specifically, but RaceRender is designed to work with the defacto-standard format for 360 videos, which is a .MP4 file that is in 2:1 equirectangular format and includes 360 metadata. Most cameras or especially their software should be able to produce this format, as it is the most common format used to upload 360 videos to YouTube, Facebook, etc. It's also sometimes referred to as "stitched" video, meaning that the video from both camera lenses has been transformed and merged together to create one seamless picture.

4) I noticed in the release notes that you changed something for the GP6, I'm curious what did you change?

GoPro and some other cameras will split the video recording across multiple files once it reaches 4 GB in size. GoPro uses a more helpful file naming scheme for this than most, which enables RaceRender to automatically detect this and group them together in the proper order, but the file names they use changed slightly with the GoPro HERO 6.

I'm really hoping that the syncing could be automatic or very close to it as that is a very tedious process today. I've even looked into cameras that have the automatic overlay (Race-keeper, VBOX) but they are not only very expensive they also seem to lack a lot of the flexibility that I've gotten used to with RR.
Thanks
Tom

If you add your video file to the project first, and then select the data input and use the Data Sync Wizard (as described in Step 5 of the first answer), that may be able to help simplify things for you. Especially for road course and other circuit recordings that contain laps, I usually just move the video to the first time I cross start/finish, and then use the data sync wizard to sync the data file based on that.