Installing VDM on a fresh laptop

Take a new Windows 11 laptop from out-of-the-box to ready for a ski-jump tournament. Written for a technical operator — comfortable with Device Manager, PowerShell and editing text files, but not compiling source.

• The order matters
• 1. Software prerequisites
• 2. Antivirus exclusion (do this before copying files)
• 3. Running the installer
• 4. What the install directory looks like
• 5. Verifying the install
• 6. First run: cameras and GPU
• 7. Upload credentials (if you are uploading)
• 8. Venue calibration
• 9. Verification checklist

The order matters

Two steps in this sequence fail silently and expensively if done out of order:

1. The antivirus exclusion goes on before the files are copied in. If you extract first and exclude second, Norton may already have quarantined capture.exe and you will spend an afternoon chasing a phantom bug.
2. Camera and GPU selection happen on the target machine, not in a config file you bring with you. Those values are machine-specific by design and no amount of copying a known-good settings.txt will produce them.

Check the machine against Prerequisites before you start. In particular, verify the USB controller topology — a laptop that routes all three USB ports through one root hub cannot run three 1080p60 feeds, and that is not something you can fix once you are at the venue.

1. Software prerequisites

Install these before copying VDM onto the machine.

Visual C++ 2015–2022 Redistributable (x64)

Every VDM binary links against the MSVC runtime. Without it VDM.exe will not launch — Windows shows VCRUNTIME140.dll not found, or the process exits silently with code 0xc0000135.

winget install --id Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x64

Alternatively download vc_redist.x64.exe from aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe and run it.

NVIDIA driver R570 or newer

Required by the NVENC encoder path in videogen.exe. An older driver fails with a version error along the lines of Required: 13.0 Found: 12.0 when videogen tries to load the NVENC interface.

Download the latest Studio or Game Ready driver from nvidia.com. Verify at a command prompt:

nvidia-smi

The Driver Version column must read 570.xx or higher.

2. Antivirus exclusion (do this before copying files)

Norton 360

1. Open Norton 360.
2. Settings → Antivirus → the Scans and Risks tab.
3. Find Items to Exclude from Auto-Protect, SONAR and Download Intelligence Detection → Configure → Add Folders.
4. Browse to C:\VDM\ → OK.
5. Find Items to Exclude from Scans → Configure → Add Folders → the same path.
6. Apply → OK → close Norton.
7. Restart the laptop. SONAR caches the old exclusion list and only re-reads it at boot.

Windows Defender

1. Settings → Privacy & security → Windows Security.
2. Virus & threat protection → Manage settings.
3. Scroll to Exclusions → Add or remove exclusions → Add an exclusion → Folder.
4. Browse to C:\VDM\ → Select Folder.

Defender applies exclusions immediately with no reboot. Sanity-check by re-extracting the package — the files should persist on disk.

3. Running the installer

Unpack the install package somewhere convenient — Downloads is fine, it is only a staging directory. If it arrived as a zip, right-click the zip → Properties → Unblock → OK before extracting, to clear the mark-of-the-web flag.

The unpacked package looks like this:

vdm-install-package\
    app\                  executables, SDL3.dll, the FFmpeg libav DLLs,
                          numbers.txt, NorgeLogo.png, jumpers.csv
    config\               settings.txt, settings_sample.txt, pixel_frames.txt,
                          jumpers.csv, netrc.template
    doc\                  this documentation
    Install-VDM.ps1
    Verify-Install.ps1
    README.txt
    MANIFEST.json         every shipped file with its size and SHA-256

Open PowerShell, change into that directory, and run:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\Install-VDM.ps1

Administrator rights are not required for the default C:\VDM target on a normal Windows 11 machine. The installer writes nothing to Program Files, nothing to HKLM, and no system settings; the Start Menu shortcut goes to the per-user Programs folder. The only case that needs an elevated shell is choosing an -InstallRoot you do not have write access to.

Parameters

What the installer does and does not do

Automatic: creates the install root; copies everything from app\ (executables, DLLs, numbers.txt, NorgeLogo.png, jumpers.csv); copies the config\ files into the same directory alongside the executables; creates empty CapturedVideos\, output_videos\ and cache\; writes VDM.bat; copies doc\ into the install root; and creates the Start Menu shortcut unless you passed -NoShortcut.

Left to you:

The prerequisite checks are all read-only. Windows 10/11 x64, the VC++ redistributable, and at least 2 GB free on the target volume can each FAIL and abort the install with a nonzero exit code; the NVIDIA GPU and driver check is WARN-only and never blocks. -SkipPrereqCheck downgrades every FAIL to informational.

4. What the install directory looks like

C:\VDM\
    VDM.exe                  <- controller (main UI, the one you launch)
    capture.exe              <- USB HDMI capture (3 instances at runtime)
    motion.exe               <- motion detection (3 instances at runtime)
    videogen.exe             <- merge feeds + encode mp4s
    viewer.exe               <- live distance-measurement viewer (SDL3)
    fileviewer.exe           <- offline viewer for saved mp4s (SDL3)
    capfile.exe              <- continuous mp4-per-feed recording
    practice_player.exe      <- practice mode from saved videos
    launch_viewer.exe        <- viewer launcher helper
    captest.exe              <- standalone USB capture diagnostic
    shmem_diag.exe           <- shared-memory health diagnostic
    shmem_query.exe          <- shared-memory state query

    SDL3.dll                 <- REQUIRED for viewer / fileviewer
    avcodec-61.dll           <- REQUIRED for videogen / capfile
    avdevice-61.dll
    avfilter-10.dll
    avformat-61.dll
    avutil-59.dll
    swresample-5.dll
    swscale-8.dll
    libbz2-1.dll
    libiconv-2.dll
    libwinpthread-1.dll
    zlib1.dll

    numbers.txt              <- bitmap font for overlays (REQUIRED)
    NorgeLogo.png            <- logo bitmap
    jumpers.csv              <- tab-separated jumper roster (per event)
    settings.txt             <- venue configuration
    settings_sample.txt      <- commented template
    pixel_frames.txt         <- auto-setup output (regenerated per venue)
    netrc.template           <- reference for %USERPROFILE%\.netrc
    VDM.bat                  <- launcher written by the installer

    CapturedVideos\          <- capfile.exe output
    output_videos\           <- videogen output (name set by archive_dir)
    cache\
    doc\                     <- this documentation

The recommended path is C:\VDM\: short, no spaces, no special characters. A few launch-path edge cases inside the controller break on paths containing spaces, so avoid installing under C:\Program Files\ or a user folder with a space in the name.

5. Verifying the install

Run the bundled self-test from the package directory:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\Verify-Install.ps1

It checks the 9 required executables (VDM, capture, motion, videogen, capfile, practice_player, viewer, fileviewer, launch_viewer), 5 optional executables, 12 runtime DLLs, a LoadLibraryEx dependency probe per DLL, the data files, that settings.txt parses as key=value with the expected prefix conventions, the three working directories, and VDM.bat. It prints a PASS/WARN/FAIL table with a TOTAL line and exits nonzero on any FAIL.

The LoadLibraryEx probe is the useful part: it catches a DLL that is present but cannot actually load because one of its dependencies is missing — a failure that otherwise only shows up as a mysterious crash the first time you start the viewer.

6. First run: cameras and GPU

Launch VDM.exe (or the Start Menu shortcut, or VDM.bat). The controller window opens with four tabs — Preview, Processes, Feeds, Settings.

6.1 Confirm Windows can see the capture devices

Plug all three capture boxes into USB 3.0 ports on different controllers, connect the HDMI sources, then from a command prompt in C:\VDM\:

captest.exe --list

You should see exactly three entries for the capture devices, plus any internal laptop webcam. If you see fewer, stop and fix that before going further — see Troubleshooting § cameras. Assigning a camera in VDM cannot succeed for a device Windows has not enumerated.

6.2 Assign the cameras

1. In the controller, open Tools → Select Cameras…
2. The dialog has one row per feed, labelled Feed 0 (TOP), Feed 1 (MIDDLE) and Feed 2 (BOTTOM), each with a combo box listing the detected Media Foundation devices plus None.
3. Assign each detected device to the feed matching its physical position on the hill. Feed 0 is the top of the landing hill, feed 1 the middle (the k-point area, and the camera whose motion fires the movie trigger), feed 2 the bottom outrun.
4. If Windows' enumeration order does not match the physical order, use the [Swap 0↔1], [Swap 0↔2] and [Swap 1↔2] buttons rather than re-plugging cables.
5. Click OK.

Assigning a device auto-starts capture and motion for that feed; selecting None stops both. The assignments persist to *camera_device_path[0..2] in settings.txt, so subsequent sessions resume automatically.

6.3 Select the NVENC GPU

The shipped configuration pins the encoder to a specific GPU by name. On a different laptop that name will not match. Use Tools → Select GPU to re-select the GPU present on this machine, which rewrites *capfile_nvenc_gpu_name.

6.4 Fix the window geometry

big_window_width and big_window_height ship as 2880×1620, matching the display of the machine the configuration came from. On a different panel this is wrong — too big and the window extends off-screen, too small and you lose working area. Set them to suit the actual display. See Configuration § machine-specific settings.

6.5 Watch it come up

On the Processes tab, capture[0..2] and motion[0..2] should reach Running with stable PIDs within about three seconds. Then watch the title bar's Δ(N,N,N) indicator:

• Δ[0] under roughly 30 — normal USB jitter. Fine.
• Δ[0] climbing without bound — USB bandwidth problem. See Troubleshooting. This is a hardware topology issue and will not resolve on its own.

7. Upload credentials (if you are uploading)

After each encode, videogen.exe can spawn upload_video.bat, which FTPs the clip to the tournament server using curl.exe --netrc. The server settings come from settings.txt; the credentials never do.

1. Open Notepad — a plain-text editor, not Word or WordPad.
2. Enter one line, substituting the real values:

   machine thehansens.com login YOUR_USERNAME password YOUR_PASSWORD

   Replace thehansens.com with whatever *upload_host is set to if you are pointing at a different server.
3. Save as %USERPROFILE%\.netrc. In the Save dialog set Save as type to All files so Notepad does not append .txt.
4. Verify:

   curl.exe --netrc -v ftp://thehansens.com/

   A successful login reaches the FTP welcome banner. 530 Login incorrect means the file is wrong — check for a stray .txt extension first, it is the usual cause.

netrc.template in the install root has the same shape with placeholder values, if you would rather copy and edit it.

If you are not uploading — testing on a closed network, or a demo install — set upload_enabled=0 in settings.txt. The encode still happens; only the upload spawn is skipped.

8. Venue calibration

Do this once, when the cameras are first mounted, and again after any physical movement of a camera. It is the most operator-intensive part of a deployment.

1. Motion regions. Controller → Preview tab. For each feed click Set Region N, then click the upper-left and lower-right corners of the area where motion should be detected — the landing zone, not the spectator stands. The rectangle draws in red on the preview. Click Save Regions to write the values back to settings.txt.
2. Grid lines. The core of distance measurement, and the step to budget real time for — about 30 minutes on a first deployment. See User guide § grid-line calibration for the anchor-point workflow.
3. Auto-setup (optional). Derives timing and pixel-to-meter interpolation from practice runs and writes pixel_frames.txt. Either from saved practice footage via VDM.exe --auto-setup, or live at the venue using warm-up jumpers via the Auto Setup button. See User guide § auto-setup.

9. Verification checklist

Run all five checks the day before the event. Never on event morning.

Where to go next

• User guide — running the system on tournament day.
• Configuration § machine-specific settings — read this before copying a settings.txt from another machine.
• Sample footage — exercise the whole pipeline without cameras.
• Troubleshooting — when a step above does not behave.