Brekel PointCloud / v1
Brekel PointCloud v1
Pointcloud recording with the original Kinect v1 sensor
Brekel PointCloud v1 is a Windows application that records animated 3D pointclouds with the original Microsoft Kinect sensor (Kinect for Xbox 360 or Kinect for Windows v1) and exports them to mesh, particle and texture formats for use in most 3D packages.
If you have a Kinect v1, this is the cheapest way to record pointclouds with it. The sensor is from 2010 and long out of production, but it still works, and so does this app on Windows 10/11. No new features are planned here: Brekel PointCloud v3 is where development continues, and it supports the v1 sensor too.
You need the sensor including its power supply, plus a 64-bit Windows PC with an Intel Core i5 or equivalent CPU and 4 GB of RAM. Pointcloud recordings are large, so plan for disk space rather than for a fast machine. One sensor at a time, and both the Xbox 360 and the Kinect for Windows unit work.
Installs like any other app. No subscription, no cloud processing, no login. All data stays on your machine.
Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit) · from $49 (excl tax)
Recording
The app uses the official Microsoft Kinect drivers/SDK (the installer downloads and installs these for you). Pointclouds and/or meshes record at the full 30 fps of the sensor to a custom file format, along with color or infrared video and audio in sync from the Kinect microphone or any other audio source. Its focus is capturing moving subjects, not scanning static objects.
An Extended Depth mode uses the full range of available depth: out to 10 meters instead of 4, and in to 40 centimeters instead of 80, even on the Xbox sensor. Recording can be synced between multiple instances of the app on the same machine or across machines on the same network, for simultaneous recording of multiple Kinect sensors (without alignment or fusion, that is a PointCloud v3 feature).
Export
Conversion to the output formats happens as a post process. Recordings come out as animated meshes (Alembic and OBJ sequences being the ones most 3D packages read), as point and particle caches for the major VFX tools, or as image sequences and video. The full list:
- Meshes: Alembic, RealFlow BIN, OBJ sequences, PLY
- Points/particles: RealFlow BIN, BGEO (Houdini pre-v12), PDB, PDC (Maya), PRT (Krakatoa), PTC (Renderman), PCD
- Textures: JPG, PNG, TGA, TIFF, OpenEXR depth, AVI video
There are example files so you can check whether the data suits your project before buying.
Licensing
The free trial is the full application with one limit: recording and export stop at 10 seconds. Every output format works, which is the part worth testing, since whether the data suits your pipeline is mostly a question of what your 3D package does with it.
A license is perpetual: it never expires and you can always run and install the application. All updates within the v1 branch are free, there are no maintenance plans for this app. The download link arrives by email right after purchase; the license itself is delivered manually by email, usually within 24 hours or less. How trials, evaluations and licenses work in general: see licensing.
Supported sensors
- Kinect for Xbox 360 / Kinect for Windows v1 (one sensor at a time, and it needs its power supply, not just the USB cable)
Full specs for these, and 91 sensors in all: depth sensor comparison.
Exports
- Meshes: Alembic, RealFlow BIN, OBJ, PLY
- Points and particles: RealFlow BIN, BGEO, PDB, PDC, PRT, PTC, PCD
- Textures: JPG, PNG, TGA, TIFF, OpenEXR depth, AVI
Requirements
- Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit)
- Kinect for Xbox 360 or Kinect for Windows v1 sensor, including its power supply
- Intel Core i5 or equivalent CPU
- 4 GB RAM
- Dedicated USB 2.0 bus for the sensor
- Graphics card with OpenGL support
Compare versions
| PointCloud v3 latest | PointCloud v2 | PointCloud v1 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supported sensors | Azure Kinect, Kinect v1/v2, Orbbec, RealSense, ZED | Kinect v2, Orbbec Astra, Intel RealSense | Kinect v1 (Xbox 360 / Kinect for Windows) |
| Multiple sensors (alignment + fusion) | yes | no | no |
| Mesh export formats | Alembic, RealFlow BIN, OBJ, PLY, SenseXR | Alembic, RealFlow BIN, OBJ, PLY | Alembic, RealFlow BIN, OBJ, PLY |
| Point/particle export formats | Alembic, RealFlow BIN, BGEO, E57, GEO, LAS, OBJ, PCD, PDA, PDB, PDC, PLY, PRT, PTC, PTS, PTX, RIB, XYZ, UnityCoder | RealFlow BIN, BGEO, PDB, PDC, PRT, PTC, PTS, PTX, XYZ, UnityCoder | RealFlow BIN, BGEO, PDB, PDC, PRT, PTC, PCD |
| Texture export formats | JPG, PNG, TGA, TIFF, OpenEXR, video (H264/H265 and more) | JPG, PNG, TGA, TIFF, OpenEXR depth, video | JPG, PNG, TGA, TIFF, OpenEXR depth, AVI |
| Audio recording | yes | yes | yes |
| Still updated | yes | no | no |
| Price (excl tax) | $149 Single Sensor $299 Multi Sensor | $99 | $49 |
scroll sideways for every version, the labels stay put
Trial / Buy
Free trial
Trial restrictions Limited to 10 seconds of recording/export.
The documentation PDF ships inside the installer, and is also a separate download (zip).
Buy a license
- License $49 Shop
prices excl tax · perpetual license · free v1 updates
How licensing works (trials, evaluation licenses, delivery).