Cameras

Owned by Marc Lievin
Feb 12, 2024
5 min read
Cameras are the devices that renders the scene to the display.

There are the following types of cameras in Vortex® Studio:

To attach a camera in a mechanism

  • Using the Connection Container feature, connect the parent transform of the camera (as an input) and the world transform of a node (as the output).
  • Use the transform tools to move and rotate the camera to its desired final position.

Look Through

A camera that implies the user is looking through a physical window. It should be reserved for vehicle windows, physical cameras, etc.

To add a look through camera:

  1. Select Cameras in the Toolbox.
  2. Double-click Look Through to add it to the 3D View.

Note Right-click the camera in the Explorer window and click Activate Camera to switch to that camera's view.

Configure the following in the Properties panel:

  • Edit the name of the camera.
  • Target Locked: Check this box to fix the camera in space. You can still pivot the camera.
  • Position Locked: Check this box to fix the camera in space. You can not move nor pivot the camera.
  • Eye Position: Represents the position of the viewer in the virtual world. If you are integrating with a head-tracker, this is the positional parameter that represents the real world to the virtual world.
  • Bottom-Left Position: Allows you to reset the positioning of the bottom-left position of the camera's view, thus distorting the image.
  • Bottom-Right Position: Allows you to reset the positioning of the bottom-right position of the camera's view, thus distorting the image.
  • Top-Left Position: Allows you to reset the positioning of the top-left position of the camera's view, thus distorting the image.
  • Frustum Near: This determines the range from the camera that the camera will see an object.
  • Level of Details (LOD) Parameters:
    • Select FOV Correction to apply a factor to correct potential field of view distortions.

Orthographic

A camera whose view has no vanishing point, where objects all seem of equal size.

To add an orthographic camera:

  1. Select Cameras in the Toolbox.
  2. Double-click Orthographic to add it to the 3D View.

Note Right-click the camera in the Explorer window and click Activate Camera to switch to that camera's view.

Configure the following in the Properties panel:

  • Edit the name of the camera.
  • Use the transform controls to place the camera.
  • Frustum Extent: The distance (in m) between the left and right edges of the near frustum along the X-axis.
  • Target Locked: When selected, manipulating the camera does not change its orientation.
  • Position Locked: Toggles whether to lock the position of this camera.
  • Level of Details (LOD) Parameters:
    • Select FOV Correction to apply a factor to correct potential field of view distortions.

Perspective

A camera whose view has a vanishing point, where objects closer to the camera seem bigger.

To add a perspective camera:

  1. Select Cameras in the Toolbox.
  2. Double-click Perspective to add it to the 3D View.

Note Right-click the camera in the Explorer window and click Activate Camera to switch to that camera's view.

Configure the following in the Properties panel:

  • Edit the name of the camera.
  • Use the transform controls to place the camera.
  • Field of View: Enter how wide a view you want the camera to see.
  • Target Locked: When selected, manipulating the camera does not change its orientation.
  • Position Locked: Toggles whether to lock the position of this camera.
  • Level of Details (LOD) Parameters:
    • Select FOV Correction to apply a factor to correct potential field of view distortions.

Mirror

Adds a reflective surface into your scene.

To add a mirror:

  1. Select Cameras in the Toolbox.
  2. Double-click Mirror to add it to the 3D View.

Configure the following in the Properties panel:

  • Edit the name of the mirror.
  • Position: Use the transform controls to place the mirror. Additionally, you can alter the size of the mirror by specifying new dimensions for three of its corners.
  • Graphics Node: Use this field to bind the mirror to a graphics node.
  • Texture Target: Selects a texture to use for the mirror.
  • Choose whether to Enable Shadow in Mirror.

You can also set the performance of the mirror via the Adaptive Feature Controller extension's Mirror > Quality Level field.

See Tutorial: Creating a Mirror for an example.

When creating a mirror or dynamic display, the screen of the mirror polygon face must be detached from the rest of the frame. Name the object mirror or screen to locate in the Explorer panel. Each object needs a UV applied that occupies the full 0 to 1 space. Create and apply a texture with no symmetry (like the image below) to each mirror model. This is a placeholder that is replaced at runtime by the desired effect. The following is a UV mapping image used in mirror or dynamic displays:The UV map is then placed on the mirror or monitor.For better performance and look, make sure to deselect Cast Shadows and Receive Shadows on the mirror surface'sGraphics Node.

Monitor

Adds a surface that displays the output of another camera.

To add a monitor:

  1. Select Cameras in the Toolbox.
  2. Double-click Monitor to add it.

Configure the following in the Properties panel:

  • Camera Name: Specifies the camera whose output you want to display on the monitor.
  • Graphics Node: Use this field to bind the monitor to a graphics node.
  • Texture Target: Selects a texture to use for the monitor.
  • Enable Shadow in Monitor: Select this box to have the shadows appear in the image depicted on the monitor.
  • Enable Ocean Reflection in Monitor: Select this box to have ocean reflections appear on the water depicted on the monitor.
  • Active Viewport Name: By specifying the name of a viewport here, the monitor will only display an image when looking at that viewport.
  • Enable Readback: Enable reading the target texture from the CPU. This has an increased runtime cost. If disabled, the texture will be black when queried from the CPU.
  • Readback Texture Format: Format of the target texture.

You can also set the performance of the monitor via the Adaptive Feature Controller extension's Monitor > Quality Level field.

Viewpoint

This extension represents the simulator trainee in the virtual world.

To add a viewpoint:

  1. Select Cameras in the Toolbox.
  2. Double-click Viewpoint to add it to the 3D View.

Configure the following in the Properties panel:

  • Edit the name of the viewpoint.
  • Use the transform controls to place the viewpoint.
  • Head Offset: Sets additional positional information used for head-trackers. It represents the offset of the simulator trainee in the physical world, away from the origin.
  • Near Clip Distance: The near-clip distance generates a near-clip plane that is used to hide graphical elements that appear between the head of the simulator trainee and this near-clip plane. This is used to hide undesired graphical elements from the virtual world of the 3D trainee model, such as a hard-hat or a baseball cap.

Viewport Mapping

This extension links a viewport to a specific camera.

To add a viewport mapping:

  1. Select Cameras in the Toolbox.
  2. Double-click Viewport Mapping to add one.

Configure the following in the Properties panel:

  • Edit the name of the mapping.
  • Viewport Name: In this field, enter the exact name of the viewport you want to link to a camera.
  • Camera Name: In this field, enter the exact name of the camera you want to link to the above viewport.