Connecting Two PC's - Streaming from iClone to Unreal

https://forum.reallusion.com/Topic448517.aspx

Print Topic | Close Window

By Jayso - 5 Years Ago

In order to increase performance, I'm trying to run iClone 7 from a separate PC. Unreal is running the environment on the other PC. My Unreal PC is able to detect the Live Link, however I can't transfer the character files from the iClone project over the ethernet cable that is connecting to two PC's. I have successful pings from both machines. I've tried disabling firewalls, setting up private network between both PC's, enabled sharing on Unreal and Reallusion folders but still no luck.

Has anyone been able to correctly set this up?

By kungphu - 5 Years Ago

I haven’t even able to get it to wkrk, but will be trying again over the weekend. I asked here if anyone had tutorials to follow but didn’t get a reply. I think there aren’t many people doing this. Most people chime in to help when they can. So it’s a very small club right now! I’ll let ya know how I get along this weekend.

By oisilener1982 - 5 Years Ago

It may just cause additional latency that would slow the transfer. LAN might just be the bottleneck.
M.2 SSD is way faster than any LAN connection at the moment

In my own understanding it would just be slower.
The best solution is to buy M.2 SSD Samsung 980 Pro and latest NVIDIA card

Sell your 2nd PC and buy those things above

By kungphu - 5 Years Ago

I already have 2 SSDs, one for the OS and programs and one for files. That’s not going to give a dramatic change in frame rate??? I would think most icloners making movies are using two SSD’s already. I have an RTX Titan
So gpu is maxed out. My hope is increasing the frame rate while transferring from iclone to Livelink. Hence decoupling and trying two machines.

By Jayso - 5 Years Ago

I currently am using m.2 and 2080ti gpu’s. My hope was to be able to increase the amount of simultaneous characters without dropped frames. Using a single system, streaming two simultaneous characters used 60% of my gpu as well.

I don’t think Unreal supports SLI yet.

By Jayso - 5 Years Ago

If LAN streaming would not improve live link performance, perhaps M.2 raid would be the only way to help?

By Jayso - 5 Years Ago

I should note that the Reallusion video tutorials briefly mention using IP for streaming iClone from a separate PC. This is why I thought there may be a solution via LAN.

By kungphu - 5 Years Ago

corganb (6/23/2020)

I should note that the Reallusion video tutorials briefly mention using IP of streaming iClone from a separate PC. This is why I thought there may be a solution via LAN.

Looks like we’re two peas in a pod. Same thing. I wanted to use multiple characters and animate in one take without making several sequencer runs then tying them together. Frame rates drop quite a bit if you want to get 3/4 characters in a scene and still maintain 50fps, good luck! Those tutorials mentioned two computers being a solution. That’s what sparked my interest. Hopefully I can break some ground this weekend. We’ll see!!!

By StyleMarshal - 5 Years Ago

Yes kungphu , please share your explorations with 2 machines, I am interested too :-)

By Jayso - 5 Years Ago

I have a support ticket open and the rep had to send to the dev team for further details. Will keep the thread posted if I hear anything back.

By oisilener1982 - 5 Years Ago

Fiber optic LAN might be needed if you dont want the bottleneck due to Ethernet connection.

The better solution would be to wait and use the Samsung 980 Pro and Latest Nvidia Ampere GPU RTX 3090 in 2 or 3 months. PCIe 4.0 is needed so AMD Ryzen is a must.

By oisilener1982 - 5 Years Ago

kungphu (6/23/2020)

I have an RTX Titan
So gpu is maxed out. My hope is increasing the frame rate while transferring from iclone to Livelink. Hence decoupling and trying two machines.

Please correct me if im wrong but in my understanding Turing GPU (2018) would be outdated in 2 or 3 months. It is based on 12nm architecture while the Ampere is 7nm
There is still a room for improvement in a few months

By Jayso - 5 Years Ago

I believe that even with the updated Nvidia GPU, complex multi-character animations would benefit from being housed on a dedicated system.

By oisilener1982 - 5 Years Ago

Please update us if you got any success in increasing FPS.

IF 10 gbps LAN is not enough Fiber LAN is another option but it might be prohibitively expensive

By Jayso - 5 Years Ago

I'm not able to get the IP connectivity functioning in order to test frame rate benefits. Live Link is successful over LAN, but character file transfer to Unreal is not working.

By oisilener1982 - 5 Years Ago

The only person who can answer that is the one who mentioned the LAN option for Live Link. Are there any Mods in this forum that knows the name of the tutor?

By AllenLee (RL) - 5 Years Ago

Hi corganb,

In fact, the transfer function of the iClone Live Link plugin can only work on the same machine,
because this function is not transferred through the network.

So if you want to take the character to another computer, I suggest you can use the fbx output method and import it on the computer with Unreal Engine and use our plug-in function on the Unreal side: "Apply Blueprint to Selected Character(s) "

As introduced in the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lax-l469gdo

Allen Lee

By Jayso - 5 Years Ago

Thanks very much for the clarification. I will test this method shortly.

By kungphu - 5 Years Ago

When you say transfer function, you’re taking about transferring the characters from iclone to Unreal correct? Not real time transferring of animation from one iclone computer to Unreal via Livelink? Seems logical you’d have to transfer the assets on one computer, but the streaming data would transfer from a second computer? We can install iclone on two computers. You just can’t use iclone simultaneously. I plan to transfer on one computer that I have Jnreal with my better video card. Then same the characters as custom iclone characters after removing all of their clothing, hair and materials. You can load those characters onto the second iclone machine that you will use for animation. At least that’s my hope unless you meant that animation data doesn’t transfer via Ethernet?

By kungphu - 5 Years Ago

oisilener1982 (6/24/2020)

kungphu (6/23/2020)

I have an RTX Titan
So gpu is maxed out. My hope is increasing the frame rate while transferring from iclone to Livelink. Hence decoupling and trying two machines.

Well yeah the new Titan will be out in a few months. Not sure why that’s relevant and a “better solution.” My point is I’m not using a 1060/1080Ti and getting bad results. I’m using the highest GPU currently on the market and still cannot get 3/4 characters on the screen with ~55FPS. I seriously doubt the new GPU will allow us the magically animate 3/4 characters on screen at once at 55FPS given the results of the current RTX. Could be wrong, it’ll be a long tile to wait hoping that maybe after I spend a bunch I may have a solution. The RL tutorials mentioned a second machine being a viable option if FPS was an issue. But they didn’t go in depth as to how much of a help it will be. Meaning, will it allow 60FPS with two characters but with 3 its more like 45 and with 4 more like 40 (still not very usable)? Dunno? Hence why we trying things out.

By AllenLee (RL) - 5 Years Ago

Hi kungphu,
Yes I'm talking about transferring characters from iClone to Unreal Engine.
And yes, the Link function (the real-time transfer animation you mentioned) can work on different computers but on the same network.
However, please note that if different computers are connected through the network, there will be some network latency depending on your connection way and network structure.

Allen Lee

By Jayso - 5 Years Ago

I've done the following:

1. Manual export of FBX from iClone 7 (PC #1) to Unreal 4.25 Content folder (PC#2) via functional Private LAN
2. Manually place the character skeletal mesh into the Unreal Environment.
3. Connect the Live Link source via the Live Link panel in Unreal 4.25 (PC#2)
4. Establish link in iClone 7 (PC#1) by entering the IP address of Unreal 4.25 (PC#2).
5. Select "Apply Blueprint to Selects Character(s)" from the iClone Live Link drop down menu in Unreal.
- BLUEPRINT COMPILE ERROR in UNREAL "Get Subject Data generated from expanding RLLive Link: Usage of "Get Subject Data" has been deprecated."
6. Unable to establish live link between PC#1 and PC#2.

By oisilener1982 - 5 Years Ago

Leaks from various tech sites indicate a huge IPC increase over Turing and 4X ray tracing capability. NVIDIA will also be using 7nm+. Turing GPU's FPS drops everytime ray tracing is on while ampere will have a negligible drop. Im hoping it will improve the FPS issue

Many might doubt the performance of RTX 3090 but im certain it will smoke the previous cards.

By kungphu - 5 Years Ago

oisilener1982 (6/24/2020)

I hope it does and doesn’t cost a kidney or two!!! Would like to find a solution now rather than wait. But who knows... there just might be a limit to how many characters we can record in sequencer at once?

By oisilener1982 - 5 Years Ago

2nd Gen NVIDIA TITAN

GA102-400-A1 5376 24GB 17Gbps
Price: 3 Kidneys

GeForce RTX 3090

GA102-300-A1 5248 12GB 21Gbps
Price: 2 Kidney

GeForce RTX 3080

GA102-200-Kx-A1 4352 10GB 19Gbps
Price: 1 Kidney

By Jayso - 5 Years Ago

Is the low frame rate due to the live link animation data stream? Or is the frame rate performance only related to SSD and GPU specs?

By Jayso - 5 Years Ago

Is the low frame rate due to the live link animation data stream? Or is the frame rate performance only related to SSD and GPU specs?

By kungphu - 5 Years Ago

Man, I better find an extra kidney!

That’s the question... the iclone project is super simple it’s only naked characters in a blank environment. Runs at 60dPS no probs. Once Livelink is turned on, bleh. Not sure what the driver is for the reduced performance? Wonder what sort of Animation performance LL gets with other software packages like say Maya? Is it similar worse or better?

By oisilener1982 - 5 Years Ago

corganb (6/24/2020)

Is the low frame rate due to the live link animation data stream? Or is the frame rate performance only related to SSD and GPU specs?

GPU = FPS
SSD = Data stream

Im not really sure but slow data stream between iClone and UE4 might result in lower FPS especially if it is Live.
Live Link = Unreal would always wait for the input from iClone. IF there is only 1 character then it should be fine since we are transferring little data. IF there are 4 or 5 characters then we are transferring higher amount of data all at the same time

By bernierao - 5 Years Ago

I would love to know if anyone finds a good solution for increasing FPS running two computers. I'm using a single desktop with a 2080Ti/Ryzen 9 3900 and still can't over 18fps in unreal, and sometimes even drops to 10fps or so. I was considering getting a less powerful machine just for iClone... this thread made me rethink my strategy. I agree with Kungphu - if a Titan can't handle this load than what GPU can? - I wonder what type of machine they are using at reallusion to record the tutorials...

...Ads

By amckenzie - 5 Years Ago

I'm still experimenting - early days here, did consider running the two CPU option, but I think my workflow will be using FBX export once the animation is cleaned up and then import that into Unreal - I'm running a older I7 3770 with 32 gig of ram, but have RTX 2060 Super - as most of my work runs off GPU these days. The test I ran last night had frame drops when using the live link to stream but worked smoothly on the FBX import. I've played around with some sample export out of sequencer using some megascans sample files and the fact that it can render nearly 60 seconds of 4k video in about 7 minutes makes raytracing a winner.

By oisilener1982 - 5 Years Ago

bernierao (6/30/2020)

...Ads

Can you please Press Control Alt Delete then Task Manager >> Maximize the Window >>> Performance
Im curious about the GPU usage of 2080 Ti. IF it is always 100 percent then that must be the limiting factor. IF it is not then it might be the Write Speed of M.2 SSD

By bernierao - 5 Years Ago

The performance of my 2080Ti (Gigabyte GeForce RTX OC) running two animations from iClone (Minimal settings) via link oscillates between 90% - 100%. Unreal is set to Medium Scalability and LIT mode. If I set unreal to wireframe or unlit mode I can easily get 70fps and smooth animation (with iClone running at 60fps and the GPU cruising at 20%. I wonder if I can just record animations in UE using the unlit method. I'll do some tests

https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/1c31f04f-f52b-412c-80f7-00fa.jpg

By StyleMarshal - 5 Years Ago

thats very interesting , looking forward for your results !

By oisilener1982 - 5 Years Ago

If that is the case 100% utilization and drop in fps then we might have to sell 3 or 4 kidneys for rtx3090 or Titan 2

By oisilener1982 - 5 Years Ago

Your shared GPU memory also got used. Did you observe if the GPU used more than 11gb? It is only used if the memory of GPU becomes full

By oisilener1982 - 5 Years Ago

https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/2803a653-a778-43ff-a72f-3b4d.jpg

THis is All I want for CHristmas.

By bernierao - 5 Years Ago

Oh yeah! This RTX should do the job! :D

By oisilener1982 - 5 Years Ago

There might be no need for connecting 2 PC with 3090

https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/e95440fd-a71b-4ddd-8bb9-4872.png

By StyleMarshal - 5 Years Ago

oisilener1982 (9/4/2020)

There might be no need for connecting 2 PC with 3090

hahahaha :-) better wait 4 xmas :-)

By oisilener1982 - 5 Years Ago

bernierao (9/4/2020)

Oh yeah! This RTX should do the job! :D

3080 Does not solve the Low FPS in iClone 7.8 if Livelink is activated :( Any devs who can Answer if I also need to upgrade my SSD?

By Jayso - 5 Years Ago

The Samsung 980 pro SSD’s release this month. Some users here suggest that this will help boost single system live link performance.

By bernierao - 5 Years Ago

Lately, I've been using the Live Link just to transfer characters from iClone but I export their animations via FBX. Live Link works for me with very simple animations. It's a great tool but maybe it's my system that needs upgrading. The 3090 looks like a dream!

By gareth_15 - 4 Years Ago

Thats weird, i get 40fps on a i5 4 years old with 8 gig of ram and a inbuilt gtx 950m card,

Only draw back why it does not go to 60fps is the cpu,

in unreal put as minimal, turn all objects and cameras props of, you can export after, turn onto frame recording to decrease frame drops

In unreal don't use ray trace for capture, turn on wire frame preview, speeds up by 25%, I'm still however having issues with dropped frames, if it goes lower then 50 it drops i read, i get 41,

, next task is to link to pcs together, two i5's, this should work ok i think, one for iclone, one for capture

Good luck

By Marniche - 4 Years Ago

Someone has an update on this topic? Average framerates when using Live Link with rtx3090 and decent cpu? Live link over the network with gigabit ethernet? Tnx!

By Jayso - 4 Years Ago

I haven’t been able to increase live link fps performance, even on ONE machine. However, the 3090 gpu has significantly increased FPS within iClone by at least 20fps. Now complex animations with face and body mocap are running at 60fps in iClone. This is not sustained through livelink sadly.

By Marniche - 4 Years Ago

Did you try Nvidia DLSS already?

By onewone - 4 Years Ago

im using rtx 3070 but it merely able to handle 3-4 character at the same time with a stable fps. Im also trying to use two machine but no luck

By oisilener1982 - 4 Years Ago

@onewone Overclocking the CPU and Memory increases the Livelink Framerate which means that we need to upgrade both CPU and Memory. Intel might be the better choice this time with 12th Gen that supports DDR5 coming Late 2021 / Early 2022

By onewone - 4 Years Ago

I've found a way around, at first connect everything and record the animation in level sequencer after that easily retarget them into the cc3 characters. A bit of hassle but you dont need to export fbx and retarget anything so worth it.

By livecleo - 3 Years Ago

Guys reallusion support is so slow its taking weeks to get a working answer so far.
Wouldn't have invested in this if I knew support was so poor.
is there a way to just transfer characters then link and animate between two pcs?
Its not working for me and there's no clear answers out there I can only get it to work on one pc and its way to laggy for live streaming.
Both pcs are connected to my home router switch via long Ethernet cables.
Otherwise how exactly would I connect the character for live animation with my Xsens suit.
I'm relying on the transfer so far to create neccesary files to control my character via live link.