Julien Mercier
Hello everyone,
With the SimplyCube, one of our main goals is to make 3D applications’ creation as easy as it can be for all kind of users from developers to casual hobbyists without any programming experience. This is why we have chosen Microsoft C# .NET to develop our software (Blogpost). Nevertheless, C# could remain complicated for non-developer users. That’s why we also provide an alternative for novice users through the Microsoft Visual Programming Language (VPL) included in the free Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio programming environment. Combined with the SimplyCube, VPL allows users to create a 3D application and interact with it without writing a single code line. The only thing the user has to do is to drag and drop boxes (each one is a service with a specific functionality) and link them together.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of services you will find in the SimplyCube. Each of these services will be an easy to use “box” that you can drag and drop in your VPL diagram. Of course the SimplyCube will also provide some tutorials explaining how to use these services in different types of applications:
- A simulation engine service which allows loading a 3D scene and configuring it.
- Graphic services:
- Node Translation Applicator: Apply translations on scene nodes.
- Node Rotation Applicator: Apply rotations on scene nodes.
- Node Scale Applicator: Apply scales changes on scene nodes.
- Node Visibility Manipulator: Set nodes visible or invisible.
- Global Emissive Manipulator: Changes the global emissive power (lightning) of a scene.
- Situation Manipulator: Changes the date and the location of the scene.
- HUD Text Manipulator: Manages an on-screen Text.
- HUD Image Manipulator: Manages an on-screen image.
- Weather Manipulator: Changes the scene weather configuration.
- Window Inputs Notifier: Sends notifications on mouse and key interactions.
- Physic services:
- Torque Applicator: Applies a force on one or more dynamic actors.
- Motorized Hinge Manipulator: Changes the velocity and maximum torque of one or more motorized hinge joints (hinge joint = rotation joint).
- Motorized Slider Manipulator: Changes the velocity and maximum force of one or more motorized slider joints (slider joint = translation joint).
- Collision Detector: Sends a notification when a collision is detected with one or more actors.
- Pair Collision Detector: Detects collisions between two actors list.
- Actor Pose Tracker: Get the position and the orientation of a dynamic actor.
- Actor Velocity Tracker: Get the angular and linear velocity of a dynamic actor.
- Ray caster: Cast a “ray” from a 3D point in a direction and returns a list of actors hit by the rays.
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Hello everyone,
We are happy to introduce you today in this article a few words about interfacing between third-party programs and the SimplyCube.
First of all, let me introduce you Christian Barat, who is a robotics specialist (PhD) working at SimplySim at part time and who is also a researcher and teacher at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis. He is specialized in robotics and image processing. His scientific expertise is a significant asset in our team as he advises us on many issues, from image processing to artificial intelligence, and more globally on the whole robotics simulation domain. His contribution has been crucial to the quality and realism of the SimplyCube. His research job at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis often leads him to use MATLAB in order to solve scientific problems, and he was interested in seeing how could interact and work together the SimplyCube and MATLAB. Lately he worked on a project where the objective was to control the UAVs from our Drone Simulation Pack with MATLAB.
This project has been made in two steps:
First, Christian created a controller for MATLAB, using its different libraries. In other words, he did a MATLAB workspace in C# to interface with the SimplyCube.
Then, he has implemented a MATLAB code that gets variables from the C#, treats them and sends them back to the C# code. For each of the three drones, this MATLAB code has:
- An input variable, which is the drone pose (position + orientation) from the DroneLibrary of the Drone Simulation Pack.
- An output variable, which is a table of double values containing flight instructions for the UAV (demand signals).
- A 3D plot of the trajectory of the drone.
As a result, visible in this video, the three drones fly in a SimplyCube simulation with a MATLAB PID Controller:
You will be able to find the MATLAB interfacing controller in a few months in the SimplyCube official release.
If you have any questions or feedbacks about this feature, feel free to post it on our forum and we will be happy to answer you in the shortest delays.
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Hello everyone,
After your many feedbacks and requests about our UAV simulation, we are happy to release today a Drone Simulation pack designed for the SimplyCube beta version.
For the last four months, you may have experienced the SimplySim real time 3D simulation engine and you can now go deeper in your SimplyCube experience with this UAV pack.
Nowadays, real time 3D simulation is the best way to test real life hardware and software, especially UAVs. This Drone Simulation pack offers to you a free library for creating your own UAV. It also provides a basic environment for trying it with realistic physic behaviors.
The simulation is delivered with three ready-to-use UAV samples and all the things you need to easily create your own one. You will also find fly controllers such as one using keyboard and a another allowing you to see your drone flying through the environment by following pre-defined points.
Please note that in this demo we only focused on the physic realism with no special effort provided for the graphic quality. For a more complete idea on what can be achieved with the SimplyCube, check out our NanoConcept demo series.
We invite you to take a look at the SimplySim forum if you have any questions about this simulation or drones. Feedbacks and suggestions are also welcome !
Furthermore, improvements will be added as extensions later, such as wind simulation in the environment or drone’s engine breakdown scenarios.
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Here it is! The final NanoConcept demonstration is online.
This suite of five demonstrations is designed to show you how to use the SimplyCube engine by creating a mini serious game. The goal of the game is to destroy viruses with a Nano robot in a blood vessel while avoiding red cells and lymphocytes.
In the two first demonstrations, we created the different objects needed for our mini game. The first one show you how to create graphic objects with physic properties and the second one started the game play by adding weapons, graphic effects and particles to the objects.
The third and fourth demonstrations added the environment (the blood vessel). Graphic options and post processing effects were added too to bestow the visual looking of the game. We also created a pursuit camera which follows the Nano robot. We set up an “in game” menu which allow us to change graphic options and the Nano robot controls. The “Head up Display” (HUD) was almost done with a speedometer and an arrow which shows the closest target.
In this final demo, we will create the game by adding some features at what we have done in the previous demonstrations. We will create a wind effect in the blood vessel in order to transport red cells through it, and we will add sounds to make the game more immersive. Then, we will generate all the viruses and red cells (hundreds). The final step will be the implementation of the game mechanics: paralyzing and destroying objects, time limit and, of course, scoring system.
Hurry up! You have five minutes to destroy as many viruses as you can!
I also invite you to visit the SimplySim forum, where you can make some feedbacks and ask questions about these demonstrations, or just share your best score with the other SimplyCube beta users!
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Hello everyone, the fourth demo is released!
NanoConcept Demo is a suite of five demonstrations which designed to show you how to use the SimplyCube engine by creating a mini serious game. The goal of the game is to destroy viruses with a Nano robot in a blood vessel while avoiding red cells and lymphocytes.
In the two first demonstrations, we created the different objects needed for our mini game. The first one show you how to create graphic objects with physic properties and the second one started the game play by adding weapons, graphic effects and particles to the objects.
The third demonstration added the environment (the blood vessel). Graphic options and post processing effects were added too to bestow the visual looking of the game. We also created a pursuit camera which follows the Nano robot.
In this one, we will create an “in game” menu. We will be able to set up graphic options and control’s key binds through it. We will also start the “Head up Display” (HUD) of the game by adding a speedometer and an arrow which will show you the closest target.
Remember that you can post at any time feedbacks or questions on the SimplySim forum!
Last demonstration to come next week! It will be the final step and will add game mechanics, a wind map, and much more!
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Here it is, the third NanoConcept demonstration is now released!
For the record, NanoConcept Demo is a suite of five demonstrations which designed to show you how to use the SimplyCube engine by creating a mini serious game.
The goal of the game is to destroy viruses with a Nano robot in a blood vessel while avoiding red cells and lymphocytes.
The two previous demonstrations were about creating the different objects we’ll need to make a full mini game.
The first one show you how to create graphic objects with physic properties and the second one started the game play by adding weapons, graphic effects and particles to the objects.
This demonstration is more about the environment. It is time to create the blood vessel, add our objects previously created in it. We will also set up a “pursuit type” camera which will follow the Nano robot trough the vessel.
Finally, we will make our environment look pretty nice by adding post processing effects and creating a graphic settings window which will allow you to choose (and try) different graphic configurations.
Remember that you can post at any time feedbacks or questions on the SimplySim forum!
Stay tuned for the next week’ demonstration release!
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Hello everyone, last week I released my first demo on the NanoConcept. I am very happy to announce you today that the second demo is now launched!
If you didn’t download the first demo, refer to the previous post for system requirements.
NanoConcept Demo is a suite of five demonstrations which designed to show you how to use the SimplyCube engine by creating a mini serious game. The goal of the game is to destroy viruses with a nano robot in a blood vessel while avoiding red cells and lymphocytes.
The first demonstration was about constructing graphic objects with physic properties: creating the nano robot and blood cells. This one is about the first element of gameplay: adding effects to these objects and weapons to the robot, such as particles when you destroy a virus or changing the graphic appearance of it when you touch it with a paralyzing ball.
I created this demonstration based on the first one, so you can even try to make it by your own with the help of the documentation included! If you have any feedback to share or any question about this demo, you can post it on the SimplySim forum!
Third demo release to come next week!
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Hello everyone, as Bertrand announced a few weeks ago, I have joined the SimplySim team at the beginning of March 2010 and since then I’ve been experiencing with the SimplyCube to create content for the community. Today is an exciting day for me as we release the first results of my work. This is the first part of series of 5 small demos and each one will introduce a new aspect of what you can do with the SimplyCube. At the end of the fifth demo, you will have a complete 3D serious game. Ok, now let me explain you the concept of the application we’ll be creating in this demo:
The concept
The idea is to create a video game where a small robot navigates through a blood vessel. The game is simple: the robot must avoid healthy cells (red cells, lymphocytes) and destroy viruses. This little game could then easily be transformed into an educational serious game.
You will learn throughout this series of demonstrations how to create your objects, add effects on it, set up the environment and add the game mechanics that will make, by the end, a very cool serious game from these demonstrations. The goal of this series of demo is to complete the tutorials already available in the beta, and better explain how the technology can be used to create a complete 3D application.
Getting started
Ok, now you probably want to download the package and start working on this project. Let me explain what you need to get started:
- First, if it’s not already done, register for the beta of the SimplyCube
- You’ll receive a link by email, that will enable you to download the beta.
- Be sure to install all the required software listed in the “system requirements” (we know that the installation process is long and boring, sorry for that but for this first version of the SimplyCube we couldn’t include everything in a single installer, in part for legal reasons).
- Once you’ve installed everything, you can download the first “Nano Concept demo” here.
In today’s demo you’ll learn how to create a new scene, how to create simple objects like viruses, lymphocytes or red cells. You will also learn how to create a complex object such as the NanoBot and understand how it moves.
We’ll try to release a new demo each week, so stay tuned! You can also follow me on my twitter where I try to give regular updates on my work.
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