Blog | Spring 2025 Critical Software Update
Last update: April 26, 2025
This spring, the Virtual CRASH team rolled out a new update for the Virtual CRASH 6 family of users! This update delivers significant enhancements to the Easy Video and Image Analysis tool, featuring faster calibration. We've also included new vehicles, materials, and street lights, and implemented a critical fix for Windows 11 24H2 compatibility issues. Learn more below!
Video and Image Analysis
Calibration Procedure Improvement
Learn more about the Video and Image Analysis tool at this link. Users will notice significantly faster calibration and a reduced need for semi-manual adjustments. The calibration button can be pressed multiple times to iterate through alternative solutions, though most runs should converge on the same result.
Re-projection error display
The re-projection error (in pixel units) will be displayed beneath the “calibrate” button. This represents the total RMS re-projection error, calculated as the root mean square of the distances between the observed 2D image points and the projected 2D points obtained from the 3D object points using the computed camera parameters. As the 12 camera parameters are updated, the re-projection error is automatically recalculated, which can assist with semi-manual optimization if needed.
A visual representation of the individual residuals is shown when “show residuals” is enabled, with red lines connecting each observed point to its corresponding projected point on the image plane.
Lock position and orientation toggles
The camera calibration menu now includes new toggles: “lock position” and “lock orientation.” When enabled, these toggles snap the camera back to the user-defined position-local (x, y, z) and/or rotation-local (yaw, pitch, roll) values after the calibration process completes. This can be useful when the camera position is known and the user wants to reposition the camera object after solving for other parameters. Note that, unlike the "fix" toggles, the user-defined position and orientation values are not used in the optimization process when the "lock" toggles are enabled. Therefore, after calibrating, users may wish to manually fine-tune the other constants to further minimize the re-projection error.
Upcoming in-person training classes
Interested in scheduling a customized training class for your organization?
Reach out to sales@vcrashusa.com!
Adjustable Object Tracking Point of Interest
When using the “auto track point” or “analyze” tools in the “object tracking” menu, users can now choose from a list of candidate pixel locations of interest within the object tracking bounding box.
The selected point is then reverse-projected into the scene to determine its corresponding 3D location. The default location is at the bounding box center.
Variable Frame Rate Video Performance Improvement
Users will also notice improved performance when working with variable frame rate videos.
Video-Texture Resolution Setting
When videos are loaded into a camera's background, they will be reprocessed to conform to the resolution limit specified in the project settings under render > “max. video-texture resolution”. This setting helps ensure stable performance across a wide range of video files. Users should consider setting this property at the start of each project.
New Assets
This update includes 20 new vehicle models, several streetlight models, and additional PBR materials in the assets browser.
New street light objects and a highway sign are available in assets > miscellaneous.
Each of these new objects has a "glass" material found in the material menu. To enable the emissive glow effect, set the opacity to 90% or higher and increase "emissive" to the desired value. Note that emissive lighting does not illuminate the scene; volumetric light objects must still be attached for scene lighting.
Material properties are discussed in great detail in Chapter 23 of the User’s Guide.
Lighting is discussed in Chapter 22 of the User’s Guide.
Virtual CRASH 6 Dependency Fix for Windows 11 Update 24H2
At this time, the Windows 11 version 24H2 update inappropriately alters certain software libraries, potentially affecting joint-coupled-object simulations (such as multibodies) in Virtual CRASH 6. While differences typically remain within acceptable tolerances, simulations may show differences when files saved before 24H2 are opened on 24H2 updated systems (or vice versa). Microsoft is aware of the underlying issue, but has provided no guidance on when a patch to 24H2 will be rolled out to fix this specific issue. Therefore, the Virtual CRASH Spring 2025 Software Update pro-actively removes dependencies on the affected libraries, aims to restore simulation reproducibility without waiting for Microsoft to issue a patch at some unknown time in the future, and limits exposure to (unlikely) future potential inappropriate software library modifications caused by Windows updates.
Note: Versions 5, 4, 3, and Public Safety are not affected by 24H2.