VRET Vizard

Getting Started

Vizard has a very nice tutorial and help file that is also available online on the Vizard website. It explains the basics of Vizard and also if needed the basics of Python the language used to control Vizard.

Character pack

CFG files are actually plain text files that gather up the names and locations of all the various parts of the avatars: CSF (skeleton), CAF (animations), CMF (meshes), CRF (materials). They can be opened in any plain text editor, such as notepad. I am not aware of any plugins that allow cal3d files to be imported into modeling programs such as 3ds max. (source)

Cal3D

The file format for Vizard characters (.CFG).

Vizard uses a somewhat older version of cal3d that has been slightly modified, so it is probably incompatible with the versions available on the cal3d website. (source) So get the plugin from the Vizard site

Animation files and 3DS Max

A small and quick tutorial (originally for the course IUXE) on how to import animation files into 3DS Max and export the model and its animations for use with Vizard. Click (u/p: vret_oud/vret_oud)

The end result is the following, basic looking, avatar: Click (u/p: vret_oud/vret_oud)

Resources

Vizard comes with a few build in object like avatars and a duck but you most likely want to add your own objects too your program. To avoid having to use absolute paths you can add your directory to the path list of Vizard so that you can reffere to the object directly.

viz.res.addPath(<'directory') example: viz.res.addPath('G:\Vizard projects')

you can also reffere to the directory where the main (running) .py file is located by adding the line

viz.res.addPath('\\\\')

You can also reffere to objects in subdirectory's of the path directory's you added. example:

viz.add('Avatars\Male\casual09_m_highpoly.cfg')

HMD

With just a few lines of code Vizard can easily work with an HMD. All you need to add/replace from your code to get a image on the HMD are:

viz.displaymode(800,600,32,60) <viz.displaymode(width-screen,heigh-screen,color depth,refresh rate)>

viz.go(viz.QUAD_BUFFER |viz.FULLSCREEN) <replace the viz.go() with this>

Trackers

flockofbirds

Detailed documentation

Adding flock of birds sensor

ascension = viz.add('ascension.dle')

bird = ascension.addFlockOfBirds(birds=1, port=0, hemisphere=ascension.HEMI_FRONT )[0]

link = viz.link(bird, viz.MainView) # Link the tracker to the main view

Resetting view to right position

def resetLink():

link.reset(viz.RESET_OPERATORS)

euler_offset = [123.09078979492187, 5.588435173034668, -95.282585144042969] # enter your offset here

inv_quat = viz.Matrix.euler(euler_offset).inverse().getQuat()

link.preQuat(inv_quat,target=viz.LINK_ORI_OP)

hmd_yaw = link.getEuler()[0]

link.postEuler([-hmd_yaw,0,0])

vizact.onkeydown('r',resetLink)

emagin

To get Vizard to accept input from the eMagin tracker (integrated in the HMD) you need to add the tracker as a sensor in Vizard and then link the sensor to the mainView-point

sensor = viztracker.add('emagin.dls')

viz.link(sensor,viz.MainView)

Don't forget to disable the eMagin mouse drivers if these are enabled in the "Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager" list

Also make sure that the utility program of eMagin isn't running because only one program is allowed to access the tracker

Support

We got a year payed Vizard support that can be used when you run into problems. There is a public Vizard forum where you can post your problems but if you ain't getting the required answer there a ticket can be opened on the closed Vizard support section. The ticket has to be opened by Wouter Pasman but after that can be replied by and seen by anyone having the correct url.

Overriding Mouse Navigation in Vizard

Vizard comes standard with a rather annoying mouseclick navigation. The following class extends the FlyNavigate.py class:

import viz
import vizcam

class WorldNavigator(vizcam.FlyNavigate):
   
   MOUSE_LEFT_DOWN = False
   
   def __init__(self):
       # Default movement keys
       vizcam.FlyNavigate.__init__(self,'w','s','a','d')
   
   # Only update the mouse movement if the left mouse has been clicked
   def _camMouseMove(self,e):
       if self.MOUSE_LEFT_DOWN == True:
           vizcam.FlyNavigate._camMouseMove(self,e)
       
   def _camMouseDown(self,e):
       if e.button == viz.MOUSEBUTTON_LEFT:
           self.MOUSE_LEFT_DOWN = True
                  
   def _camMouseUp(self,e):
       self.MOUSE_LEFT_DOWN = False

   # Overidden to add a bit of logic
   def _camUpdate(self,e):
       vizcam.FlyNavigate._camUpdate(self,e)
       
       mousePos = viz.mouse.getPosition(viz.WINDOW_PIXELS, True)
       windowSize = viz.window.getSize()
       
       # If the mouse cursor leaves the client window then
       # don't bother updating the _camMouseMove parent function
       if mousePos[0] <= 0:
           self.MOUSE_LEFT_DOWN = False
       elif mousePos[0] >= windowSize[0]:
           self.MOUSE_LEFT_DOWN = False
       elif mousePos[1] <= 0:
           self.MOUSE_LEFT_DOWN = False
       elif mousePos[1] >= windowSize[1]:
           self.MOUSE_LEFT_DOWN = False
           
      

Then, to apply this new navigation, add the following line in the program:

viz.cam.setHandler(WorldNavigator())

Connecting the GOAL IDE with Vizard

In order to connect GOAl with Vizard, take the following steps.

Download the file Media:XMLRPCServer.zip , extract it and add/import it to the workspace of Vizard/Eclipse.

Add the following functions to your vizard program:

def initGOALconnection(self):
   self.XMLserver = XMLRPCServer.XMLRPCServer("vizardserver", ("ip-address",8000))
   print "Listening on port 8000..."
   self.XMLserver.register_function(self.vizact, "vizact")
   self.XMLserver.register_function(self.getPercept, "getPercept")
   print "connection made!"	

• NB : the "ip-address" should be replaced by the ip address of your machine.

def vizact(self, entity):
   pass
   // do your thing here. vizact is the actions that GOAL sends to you. Don't forget to parse the strings correctly!

def getPercept(self, entity):
   return -1
   // This function should return a percept of the chosen entity in string format. 
   // for example : return "position(1,1,1)"
   //               return "state(hungry)"
   // be aware of ints/floats inside the string. For GOAL (prolog) 1 and 1.0 are different.

Now register a check function to allow Vizard to handle 1 request of the XMLServer each XX seconds

vizact.ontimer(0.1,self.checkGOAL)

def checkGOAL(self,event):
   self.XMLserver.serve_once()

Avatar Loader

Works on computer Zijl but can be edited to work on all systems just change the RESOURCEURL variable in the class file.

AvatarLoader Download

for avatar numbers check the avatar picture overview

Example

ch = CharacterLoader('Avatars') #Avatars is the directory to store the Avatar files in

avatar = viz.add('Avatars\\'+ch.getAvatar(ch.MALE,ch.CHILD,ch.NONE,'02',ch.MEDIUMPOLY))

1. getAvatar(gender,age,type,number,polyCount) type = CASUAL, BUSINESS, NONE not every age has a type

Tips

Vizard and Threading

viz.directormode(viz.DIRECTOR_FAST)

This tells Vizard to allow Python threads to run while Vizard is drawing. Technically speaking, this will instruct Vizard to relase the GIL while rendering. For more information about the GIL and how Python threads behave, have a look at this page, http://docs.python.org/api/threads.html