Creating Content to Work with Vortex Launcher

Overview

The Vortex Launcher’s main use is to launch a simulation, based on an Equipment selection. The Vortex Launcher will abstract the hardware, the version of Vortex Studio, and other settings based on the description of the simulator, the modules installed, and the configuration files provided.

Create Content

There are two ways to provide content definitions for use in Vortex Launcher:

Package content in a .vxpackage and install the package. Refer to Content Packaging
Set up content in a local directory and point to it with an environment variable.
- Create a file structure as described in the Package Structure section of the document mentioned above.
- Define the environment variable CML_VORTEX_LAUNCHER_PROJECTS to point to the root of your content structure:

set CML_VORTEX_LAUNCHER_PROJECTS=E:\ContentRoot\

You can also point to several content structures for different equipments if necessary, using ; as a separator:

set CML_VORTEX_LAUNCHER_PROJECTS=E:\Equip_A_ContentRoot;E:\Equip_B_ContentRoot

In either of these cases, the Simulator Documents, Setup Document, and Equipment Document files must be created and configured to work with Vortex Launcher.

Simulator Documents

The Simulator documents (.vxsimulator files) define the different simulator configurations that the Vortex Launcher has access to. Each simulator file should use a properly configured Setup document, following the steps described in the Setup Document section below. All the simulator documents need to be in the package resources/simulators directory.

You must create a default core simulator document for the platform, following these rules :

The name must be VX__Standalone.vxsimulator using two underscores between VX and Standalone.
If there is no document called VX__Standalone.vxsimulator, you will get an error

The file must be saved in the following location:

<YOUR_CONTENT_ROOT_PATH>\content\resources\simulators

The file can now be packaged alongside the content, since the Vortex Launcher will automatically scan for any simulator documents found at this location.

Note: You must modify the Vortex Director's simulator files path such that it points to "<YOUR_CONTENT_ROOT_PATH>/content/resources/simulators". The Host Name must be entered manually, and it must follow the following template: CML-XXX-<hostname>. The Vortex Launcher will replace the XXX part with the right CML number at runtime.

Prerequisite:

Samples:

Setup Document

The setup document needs to contain the proper pages to enable the Exercise selection. Exercise loading is handled by the Simulator Equipment Manager extension (from the Vortex Simulator category).

Place the Simulator Equipment Manager extension directly under the root of the Setup file, keeping the default parameters.

On each node:

If graphics rendering is required for the node, make sure to use either Graphics Module (for Vortex rendering) or Vortex Integration Module (for Unity rendering).
The User Interface is handled by the Simulator Main Window extension. (See https://cm-labs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VSD2402/pages/497677380/How+to+add+UI+pages+to+a+simulator#Simulator-Window-Extensions for details about simulator properties for this extension).
For the Qt Display extension in the node, set the WindowQt parameter to the above Simulator Main Window extension from the same node

If you want to make use of the equipment document's flexible renderer implementation, a given "Vortex.*" node must have an analogous "Unity.*" node.

If you want to make use of the equipment document's flexible screen layout implementation, a given "*.Horizontal" node must have an analogous "*.Vertical" node.

Equipment Document

The document's "Vortex Launcher Information" parameters are the following:

Renderer Type: Vortex/Unity
Screens Setup: Top-Bottom/Left-Right. This is the information that can be overridden by the screensSetupOverrides array entries in the admin.settings file, when the Simulator Description file indicates that overrides are supported.

If you want to make use of the equipment document's flexible renderer implementation, a given "Vortex.*" node must have an analogous "Unity.*" node.

Note: If available in the setup document, the node used in the simulator document will be replaced at runtime by the preferred Renderer Type renderer prefix defined in the equipment document's parameters, and the preferred Screens Setup postfix defined in either the equipment document's parameters or in the admin.settings screensSetupOverrides overrides.

Sample: