ReCap Pro 2018 Local Processing

[Anonymous]

Hello,

 Autodesk ReMake fit my needs completely. I am asking for the ability of local processing. My machine was created so I could complete field work without the use of an internet connection. Also, the cloud processing is to slow. To find out after the process the model did not come out correctly is an issue when you are charge per model. I would gladly pay a yearly fee like Autodesk Remake had instead of paying for cloud credits.

[nicolasmenu]

So much agree...

[Anonymous]

 The cost is way to expensive and processing is way to slow.  Items I am asked to photogrammetry are bones at times and I have to explain to the curators the cost for that unidentifiable bone to scanned in now will be 12 dollars for 100 photo's. I seen cloud credits are 1 dollar per after the 100 are used. Which 100 can be used on one statue. I do artifacts/artefacts attempting to help preserve our history digitally. Autodesk ReMake was and is a fantastic piece of software. Having my museum spend the money to build the recommended specification to run ReMake locally at fastest possible speed was no small feat. Now, I have to explain to the organization the cost skyrocketing because of greed. Cloud computing is a nightmare.

 I want to process locally period. I have been diving into trials and other photogrammetry software because of the changes. Using my phone as my internet connection source out in the field is not an option. Locations I visited are to remote and once I arrive I want to confirm the object came out correctly before leaving. 

 Please Autodesk bring back ReMake or charge a yearly fee.

Best Regards,

Chris 

[dgorsman]

For now the word is clear, there will be no local processing option regardless of how many votes this gets.  It's not greed (reviewing the ground rules is probably a good idea before getting too far into that idea), there's legitimate development reasons for this.  That might change in a few years, but for now it is what it is.

We too have people doing scanning in the field (not "in a museum" field, like "outdoors in the waaaay far north" in the field).  However, there is the expectation that they will only be doing data collection while on site.  It's accepted (and considered very acceptable) that any kind of processing is going to wait until they get back to the office where they'll have the appropriate resources.  They are expected to use professional judgment as to what to scan and whether the scan is acceptable using ReCap, SCENE, or Cyclone (depending on equipment).

[Anonymous]

@dgorsman, I have been working at Autodesk for about 10 years, and I know Autodesk is listening a lot to their customers to refine product strategy. I would not be surprised to see some local processing options back in the futur, to offer a better workflow. Keeping cloud services for high quality rendering, as this is only there that the cloud processing power is interresting technically speaking.

So let's folks vote and cross fingers. 🙂

[DEVR2098]

its really frustrating. I've invested in top end hardware. Sure its great for working with large data sets, but i watch in despair as all the processes and gpu activity drops to nothing while I wait hours for recap to register and index.

[Anonymous]

@dgorsmanSorry I can't believe that technical limitations are a huge factor, the fact that it currently exists today and works properly is a testament to that. They are taking away functionality that exists. They could just as easily put remake into a state where it receives no further updates yet is still usable via  fee, or an outright purchase.

It's seems like magic hand waving in order to silence users who want this and currently use it.  Most people using Autodesk software are technically savvy as it is it's a poor excuse and we see through it.

[nicolasmenu]

Using professional judgment to to know what to scan is ok, but very restrictive. It s fine if you stay within the well defined boundaries of what photogrametry is used for but not enough if you pioneer new fields
When pushing the limits you never exactly know if it can work or not... That s why you need a
way to test locally...

[Anonymous]

@dgorsman you or your acceptance of an object will differ from other organizations and mine. I have ten years of experience as a system analyze / programmer at a museum as well as working on my masters in Media Arts and Sciences with a focus in photogrammetry. I analyze data more than likely differently than you or your organization does. I will determine from my experience if it is quicker to re-shoot the subject, clean / fill, or another method. The workflow affordability for an organization such as a museum to purchase Autodesk's recommended hardware for their product Autodesk Remake was more affordable than it is to cloud process.

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but after the 100 photos it cost twelve dollars for every 100 photo model to be cloud process. My organization wants me to develop an interactive kiosk with one-hundred subjects. That is twelve-hundred dollars at minimum for a kiosk experience. This does not account for botched or unusable models that are finished by cloud processing. By reading on this forum processed scans coming out incorrectly, unusable, or past the point of repairing in such programs as Zbrush, Maya, Blender, etc. You are still charged, is this correct? This is unacceptable because the recommended specification that were posted for Autodesk Remake can be designed for under five-thousand dollars. With the advancement of and affordable multi-core processors I believe these station will become even more affordable.

I tried one cloud process scan since the changes from Remake to Recap Pro. It is slower than my not recommended specced work station. It took 4 hours to cloud process 79 photo scan. My station of an i7-7700k, 16 gb, 1 tb solid state, and video card of a 1080 8gb gtx processed in remake the same model in two hours. The scan was not repairable for both and I would have to make a decision on re-shooting the same artifact or to change the subject entirely.

Well if you have museum or artifact experience I can scan and process for days which could take decades to come to a point in time where my organizations collection is digitized is an acceptable catalog or for the utilization of the object models to be used in an exhibit area. The models will become assets for future exhibit, learning experience, etc. It is more affordable and workflow from start to finish is by far quicker than cloud processing. 

Now from reading of other responses Autodesk can make the claim they do not use or see the data that is being sent to be process. Yet, for those who do R&D I would personally would be hesitant to send a new design, NDA, etc. type of model to be process to any company. Local processing is even more important for those type of companies.

Those of us just want the same capability as we once had with Autodesk Remake. Also, I have and been testing Autodesk Play I understand the ability to export the Recap models can be added to this software. I have not tested out Play in a few months but has this been considered an issue?

[johnsonttf]

Another big reason that Local Processing is needed is that certain clients, especially in the entertainment industry, have strict security requirements that do not allow cloud processing. All client data must be stored offline. Recap could be a great solution for my company if it allowed local photo-to-point-cloud and point-cloud-to-mesh processing. Currently though, we're looking at other solutions. 

[nnikbin]

The lack of local processing will cause many users - including me - to migrate to competing products

[Anonymous]

Maybe Autodesk should launch their next software in a happy meal as compared to software like 3DS Max, Recap seems more like a children's toy.

I've already found better software to do the job for me that allows for way more configurability. I have no clue where this software is headed but I think Autodesk needs to realize that a lot of smaller organizations and enthusiasts wouldn't even consider Autodesk for photogrammetry anymore.

My friend who ows a large 3d virtualization company already dropped their license and started using blender and other photogrammetry software instead because they spend a ton on a render farm specifically for photogrammetry.

I think one of you guys should bother checking some graphs on the total amount of scans processed and licences bought. I can't imagine that's looking very nice.

gotta love capitalism right

[nicolasmenu]

@Anonymous

Do you mean they use Blender to do 3D reconstruction from photos (photogrammetry) ? Do they need an add on to Blender to do that or do the use just plain vanilla Blender ?

[Anonymous]

No, they just dropped all their autodesk products

[ambrose]

@dgorsman  you are wrong. There can be no legitimate technical reasons for this, the functionality we are asking for has been demonstrated by Autodesk in a released product which worked well, and by numerous other companies' products.

I wouldn't use the word greed, but this is plainly a commercial decision. From a developers point of view, cloud is awesome. It's much harder for people to steal your software or your IP and you can make them pay to run your massiver server farm. However, from the user perspective, I find it lacking. This is partly because we have relatively slow internet connections in my area, so uploading gigabytes of photos at the start and then downloading hundreds more megs at the end adds a good few hours to the process. Even excluding the upload/download time, the few times I have tried using it, it has taken a long time to process. That part at least should be super fast since it should be running on a massive cluster of computers, but I think in reality, each job gets processed by a single machine, and not a particularly fast one at that.

There is at least one photogrammetry product on the market which costs less and will process up to 2500 photos offline. It will often process a whole job in less time than the upload would have taken for recap.

What may be a normal and acceptable limitation to your workflow (no on site processing) at one time, may become uncompetitive in future. Technology moves on. The pioneers of a field often end up as the unimaginative stick-in-the-muds who don't move with the times and assume they know best just because they were there first.

[Light_Guy]

Here here! Well said!! We are a DoD contractor, cloud is 100% out of the question. If you want us to continue to be Autodesk customers, we need you to start listening.

[ambrose]

Unsurprisingly, there are several copies of this request. It seems that this one has been marked as accepted so hopefully we are in luck (fingers crossed for ReCap 2019). Funnily enough, it was marked as accepted several months before dgorsman made the rather categorical statement above. Perhaps they know something we don't.

[imajar]

I was personally very happy with the results of Autodesk Remake when it could do local computation, I totally agree with @ambrose - When Autodesk dropped this functionality, I quit using it.  And I will gladly come back when they re-enable local computation.  Meanwhile, I will be using competitors software.

[Anonymous]

I second all this. I work with security sensitive data that CANNOT be uploaded as it is against my organisations protocols. Therefore only a tiny fraction of what I want to do can be done using Recap. Yet again, even though I have Recap as part of my suite, I am forced to look for a competitors product. Very frustrating.

Furthermore, I have been trying to get a small data set to upload for a test and Autodesk Cloud services keeps failing - being "unavailable". 2 days of wasted time, I could have done it locally about 5 times over by now....

[Anonymous]

Absolutely do not end Remake's offline.
As a 3D photographer, it is absolutely necessary function.
Anyway, the world will change from 2D photos to 3D stereoscopic images.
The time when the general public needs 3D images is absolutely sure to come.

[jmcpeek]

My Remake license ends in 10 days so I decided to check out the ReCap forums to see if any changes have been made to local processing. Per Anil's comments here that local processing is back on top of the Road map " https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/recap-forum/recap-without-cloud-ie-using-your-own-hardware-to-process... " I definitely want to vote this up. It was a silly mistake to take it away in the first part.