What's new?

Vulkan Support in Vortex Editor (Tech preview)

Improvements in this release:

Resize tools for CG
Resize Inertia
Cylindrical cable rendering
Support in Vortex Player

System Requirements

Supported Platform

Vortex Studio 2022.10 runs on the following platforms:

Microsoft Windows 10 (x64), version 21H2.

Starting with Windows 10 2004 Update, the Windows Timer Resolution default behavior has changed.

You need to upgrade to 2021b and above in order to benefit from the code changes we made to alleviate these changes and keep the Vortex Application with the same real-time capabilities.

Your system needs a high-performance power plan for Vortex to run properly on Windows.

Windows 11

Vortex Studio is expected to run properly on Windows 11.

It will be fully supported once CM-Labs has completed a comprehensive validation. It will be announced in the release note.

Not all features are available on the Linux operating system. See Features and Capabilities Overview for more details.

2022.7 is the last version supporting CentOS7 or equivalent. An update to the latest Ubuntu LTS and equivalent systems is in progress.

Hardware Requirements

Recommended Configuration

CPU Intel i7-9700 or better
RAM 32GB
GPU NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 or better

Any computer running Vortex Studio Create or Activate must support AVX2 instructions set.

Supported Graphics Cards by the OpenGL rendering module

The Vortex OpenGL rendering module (named Cyclone) while still supported is now considered a legacy mode.

For advanced simulation application rendering, we recommend using the Unity or Unreal graphics together with the Vortex integration plugin.

See Integrating Unity as Graphics Renderer in a Vortex distributed simulator and Integrating Vortex Studio with Unreal Engine.

Vortex Studio 2022.10 has been extensively tested with the following drivers and graphics cards:

NVIDIA 511.79, 466.27 and 461.40 WHQL drivers
NVIDIA RTX 3060 TI and RTX 3060
NVIDIA RTX 2070 and GTX 1070

Other GTX and RTX graphic cards listed in the NVIDIA release notes work with Vortex Studio, however some performance or rendering degradation may occur.

The 466.27 driver may cause issues when running many graphics simulations concurrently on the same computer. While this was only observed in extreme cases, the driver can be downgraded to 461.40 if needed.

Vortex Studio Create 2022.10 has also been tested with NVIDIA Quadro P5000 graphics cards.

Vortex Studio 2022.10 supports AMD and Intel graphics cards as a tech preview with limited feature set in the Vortex Editor.

On computers equipped with multiple graphics cards (e.g., laptops with both integrated Intel card and dedicated NVIDIA graphics card), the default configuration of these systems is to auto-select the card to run the application, which might prevent Vortex Studio from running with the NVIDIA card. In the NVIDIA Control Panel, select Manage 3D Settings and change the Preferred graphics processor to High-performance NVIDIA processor and restart the Vortex application.

Some monitors have factory refresh rates set to high frequencies, i.e. 144Hz. Vortex applications will process the graphical information at 60 Hz by default, which might lead to visual artifacts. Please set the monitor refresh rate so it matches the Vortex simulation rate.

Windows Remote Desktop is not supported by Vortex Studio running in OpenGL mode, we recommend using another remoting application that uses the remote graphics card for rendering, e.g. VNC or the Vulkan mode of the Editor (tech preview).

Legacy Support of VR rendering in OpenGL mode

It is strongly recommended to use Unity or Unreal integration for advanced VR rendering support.

The extension VR system has been deprecated.

Software Capabilities

Mongo DB

Mongo DB is the database engine used in Vortex Activate.

The version supported is Mongo DB 4.2.

Qt

Vortex Studio uses a custom version of Qt 5.15.2.

Python

Python 3.8 is supported. Vortex Studio contains an embedded version of python 3.8.6.

The corresponding Python or Anaconda distribution can also be used to include more modules in the scripts.

Python 3.8 has to be used. Python 2.7.13 might still be functional on Windows but content creation support has been removed in Vortex Studio.

See Converting Python 2 scripts to Python 3 Dynamics Script to upgrade your scripts

Unreal Engine Integration

Vortex Studio 2022.10 supports integration Unreal Engine version 4.26.

Unity Integration

Vortex Studio 2022.10 supports integration with Unity 2021.3.4f1 LTS.

Supported Compiler

Vortex Studio 2022.10 supports Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 (VC14) compiler and above.

GCC 7.3 is the supported compiler on Linux.

Simulink/MATLAB

Real-time UDP protocol of Simulink/MATLAB is supported.
Vortex S-Function block in Simulink is supported as a beta feature.

Supported 3D model File Types

The following 3D model file types can be imported into Vortex Studio Editor.

.cive, .dae, .fbx, .flt, .ive, .obj
.osg2, .osga, .osgb, .osgs, .osgt, .osgx, .shp

The CAD plugin feature is at the end of life and its support is discontinued in 2022.10.

The following CAD file types can be imported into Vortex Studio 2022,7 with the purchase of the CAD Importer add-on.

.step, .3dxml, .stl, .catproduct, .stp, .catpart, .vrml, .cgr, .wrl, .jt, .sldasm, .sldprt, .x_t, .x_b

Modbus extension

The extension is no longer available.

Vortex Human

The Vortex Human library is targeted for deprecation. It will be removed in a future version.

In the editor, humans can be represented as a capsule and moved around with script or an animation path extension.

Visualization of human can be done in a simulator using Unity or Unreal.

Licensing

Vortex uses RLM by Reprise Software™ for licensing.

Academic License is not offered anymore. The previously provided Academic licenses will still be functional until expiration.

Compatibility Notice

Files created with previous versions, up to 2 years, can be used in the newest release.

We recommend that you use the "Save All Child Documents" feature of the Vortex Editor to ensure that all components are properly saved.

We also recommend that you back up your assets before migrating to the latest version. When overwritten, they will not be recoverable in their original version. Assets include any files created with the Vortex Editor, Vortex Director or programmatically with the Vortex SDK, including: code, extensions, legacy parts, assemblies, mechanisms, galleries, scenes, setup files, simulator files and any other proprietary Vortex file.

Part documents no longer exists; Opening Assemblies in the editor will automatically merge it's part document into it. Opening a part file will create an empty assembly document with the part in it.

A VHL Interface extension in an Assembly document will automatically be converted in a Linking Interface.

Between any Vortex version

Record-and-Playback as well as Key frame files created with previous versions may not work with Vortex Studio 2022.10.

End-of-life Notice

Python 3.8 should be used.

The CAD plugin feature is no longer supported. 2022.7 is the last version supporting this feature. In order to benefit from new Vortex Studio versions until the expiration of your purchased CAD license,

2022.7 can be used to import CAD files and the generated Vortex content can be loaded in subsequent Vortex Studio versions.

Feature Snap to Surface in the Vortex Editor was removed.

Deprecated API

Class ApplicationConfigSerializer is deprecated: Use VxObjectSerializer class.

Minor Improvements in Vortex Studio 2022.10

In addition to features documented in the what's new, minor improvements have been made during the development of Vortex Studio 2022.10:

ID	Summary
VP-41384	Improved documentation for Kinematics Sensor

Fixed Issues in Vortex Studio 2022.10

Various bugs and workflow issues have been fixed during the development of Vortex Studio 2022.10:

ID	Summary
VP-44384	Vulkan Rendering: Changing the first albedo texture on a material is not reflected on the model
VP-44434	Using Unity as a renderer: Sometimes a 3D display fails to show up
VP-44445	Vortex Editor(Vulkan Renderer): Move Tool and Rotate tool do not follow on Undo
VP-44486	Vortex Editor(Vulkan Renderer): The translate/rotate manipulator are jerky
VP-44508	Vortex Editor: Crash when loading an Assembly file that references a missing Part file
VP-44538	Vortex Player(Vulkan Renderer):The zoom overlay is not shown in the window
VP-44541	Vortex Editor(Vulkan Renderer): Picking for Manipulators does not work reliably
VP-44561	Vortex Editor(Vulkan Renderer): The rotate manipulator doesn't follow "Reset inertia "
VP-44592	Vortex Editor(Vulkan Renderer): switching between Rotate Inertia and Move COM breaks the Rotate manipulator
VP-44594	Vortex Editor(Vulkan Renderer): Rotate and Move manipulator is still displayed even when not activated
VP-44606	Vulkan Renderer: Crash on texture loading
VP-44643	Vortex Editor(Vulkan Renderer): cannot see the spheres to grab to operator resize manipulator
VP-44665	Vortex Editor(Vulkan Renderer): Resize manipulators are too bright and mask the object
VP-44765	Vortex Editor : Setting an invalid material table in the Options page will cause Vortex Editor to crash

Known Issues in Vortex Studio 2022.10

ID	Summary	Workaround
VP-41437	When a sound is created such that the listener and the emitter are exactly at the same location, or the listener is moving together with the emitter such that it is precisely above it, the sound that the operator hears becomes garbled.	This happens for monaural sound track when the listener and the emitter are moving in tandem while being either too close or aligned vertically. The workaround is keep the sound emitter and the listener separate and make sure they can't be move in a way where they could align with each other.
VP-43810	Memory blocks dumped, when terminating the application.	None. This memory leak is not growing, it's memory that should be returned before the end of the process. Requires a 3rd party update.
VP-44315	Memory leak related to VxContactMaterial when there is a contact upon termination of a VxCore application.	Removing all parts and collision geometries before destroying the VxUniverse ensures that any ongoing contact is invalidated before destroying the VxUniverse. Optionally, using the higher level VxSim API and loading content created in the Vortex Studio Editor seems to work around this issue as the content is automatically unloaded before the application is destroyed.

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