AVI recording and offline parameter settings

[Chandan]

Hi,
In my virtual world example, the number of objects are huge.This consumes a lot of time and the realtime simulation goes really slow:-).Is it possible to record the simulation to a file such as a ".avi" for a specific period of time and view the file later? How do I turn off the world view window when such a simulation is running?Also is it possible to record a parameter from my world to the disk?

Thanks in advance

[Gladsomebeast]

In Vizard 3.0 you can press CTRL-F12 to toggle avi recording of what is on the screen.

Check out the examples in Vizard30/examples/file_io for how to write to files.

[Chandan]

Hi,
Thanks for the AVI recording details.Seems like this process takes a huge amount of disk space.A particle simulation example takes huge amount of physical memory(as the particle numbers grow).The vector method of recording the simulation looks a better option.Can some one please comment on the following

1) how can I configure to run the world view recording for a specified amount of time?

2) can this be done without the worldview window being displayed?(in background)

Thanks in advance

[Gladsomebeast]

The "vector" recording method simply records the Vizard fucntions called and executes them again when you play the recording. This will not solve your graphics limited framerate problem as you will still have a poor framerate when you play the "vector" recording.

The AVI takes lots of space because it is recored uncompressed. Editing it in Windows MovieMaker and exporting it will greatly reduce the size.

[Chandan]

Hi,

I am adding a large number of particles into my world using the command add("<file>.wrl").The world view window fails to open if the particle number cross a certain limit. How do I overcome this problem?

also ,
I belive the computation hardware requires better processing capabilities as I see the framerates going down as the particle numbers increase.

Thanks,

[bjgold]

Originally Posted by Gladsomebeast

In Vizard 3.0 you can press CTRL-F12 to toggle avi recording of what is on the screen.

Check out the examples in Vizard30/examples/file_io for how to write to files.

I'm trying to do something similar. We're reading in a buffer of data and playing it back on the screen as an animation, and we'd like to save the animation as an AVI file from the first display of data to the last display. However, I can't quite figure out how or where Ctrl-F12 saves the file in 3.0a. And I'm not sure how to incorporate write.py with my code (ie, where to put the call to start recording and end recording). Any ideas?

[Gladsomebeast]

CRTL-F12 creates an avi file in the same directory as the script you are running. There is no Python command to start AVI recording.

The file io stuff is about using the Python file fucntion to write text. It not related to AVI recording.

[Gladsomebeast]

Chandan,
What do you mean when "the world view widnow fials to open." Does this mean that Vizard is stuck on the loading screen where the ball moves around the logo? If this is so, then I susspect that Vizard is simply taking a very long time to render the first frame of your program.

[bjgold]

Originally Posted by Gladsomebeast

CRTL-F12 creates an avi file in the same directory as the script you are running. There is no Python command to start AVI recording.

The file io stuff is about using the Python file fucntion to write text. It not related to AVI recording.

Is the Control-F12 functionality available in the version of Vizard we have (3.0A)? It doesn't seem to work for me. Is there also a programmatic way to start and stop the recording (ie, make Vizard think that a Control-F12 is pressed each time through a for-loop?)?

[Chandan]

Hi,

I am referring to the world view window which appears after pressing the "run" button in the vizard window.This window appears for some time and terminates unexpectedly. My world never appears. rather I see the ball-head swinging for some time.The workaround is to reduce the number os "particles".after this , my world displays in the world view window and the simulation works fine.

I am testing this in a uniprocessing environment, Intel 2ghz processor, Intel extreme graphics processor and Windows XP.Can you please suggest any workarounds?Ideally this should work(trading off performance) :-)

Thanks,

[Gladsomebeast]

BJ: Control-F12 should toggle AVI recording in Vizard 3.0. To do this hold CTRL and then press F12. Try unintalling and re-installing if that is what you have been pressing. There is currenly no way to trigger AVI recording prgrammaticly, but we will to implement that in the next release.

[Gladsomebeast]

Chandan: For each of the nodes that you add which have particles try calling <node3d>.hasparticles() on them. This may help Vizard render them. Also, getting a "serious" graphics card, like an nVidia will significantly improve performance and may also increase the number of particles the simulation can run.