Crowd Visual Feedback Tool

The Crowd Visual Feedback is a dockable tool showing a Visual Feedback overview of the selected entity.

LAUNCH

  • Golaem Shelf:
  • Golaem Menu: Crowd Visual Feedback
  • In Maya Viewport, pick an Entity in the viewport to perform the selection and open the Crowd Visual Feedback focused on the selected entity.

The selection is consistent between several simulations, click outside the Entity to release the selection or change the selected Entity by setting the Entity Id in the "Select Entity Id" editor.
 
Notice that the bounding box used to perform the selection is the bounding box of the Perception Shape, which is defined in the Character Maker and can be overridden with any geometry in the Entity Type node Perception Attributes. To check what's the picking bounding box of the Entity, switch the Display Mode of the Entities to Bounding Box.

Crowd Visual Feedback Overview

The Crowd Visual Feedback is divided in several panels.

Selected Entity Overview

This panel contains the overview of the selected entity with a dynamic preview of the entity animation in its environment, a bunch of information of the picked Entity and its related particle (Ids / Velocity). The blend shapes values played in the animation at the moment are shown under the Blend Shapes Parameters panel. 

Blind Data Parameters

This panel contains the current values of the Blind Data or Blend Shapes of the picked Entity. Only Blind Data / Blend Shapes with a value different to 0. will be displayed.


Entity Blend Shape / Blind Data values in the Visual Feedback

Entity Behaviors

This panel contains the running behaviors of the picked Entity and their relative visual feedbacks.

Specific Visual feedbacks

Motion Behavior Visual Feedback

The Motion Behavior visual feedback shows the name of the currently played Motion Clip , the current amount of this animation used in the final posture and the current played frame in the animation.

Locomotion Behavior and Navigation And Locomotion Behavior Visual Feedback

The Locomotion Behavior, as well as the Navigation And Locomotion visual feedback shows the Locomotion Model and the Motion Clip related to this model.

Some info on the locomotion database are written on the upper left corner (for isntance, you can check the triangle count to ensure there are no flat triangles in the database)
There are four dots displayed on the base:
  • the red dot represent the current values of linear and angular velocities that is computed by the locomotion behavior;
  • the yellow/green and blue dots represents the motions that are currently blended rogether, and the size of each dot is related to the Motion Clip current weight in the locomotion model.
It's possible to zoom (mouse wheel) and drag (hold left mouse button + move) in the locomotion model view.
As explained in the Locomotion Behavior Algorithm, each vertex in the Locomotion Model represent a Motion Clip. Each Motion Clips information can be retrieved with a mouseover each intersection.
The Motion Clips visual feedback is showing the Motion Clip name and the current amount of this animation used in the Locomotion Behavior. The "First Motion" (see the Replay Ratio parameter in the First Motion Attributes of the Locomotion Behavior) Clip is marked with  and is displayed in purple

Navigation And Locomotion Behavior Visual Feedback

The Navigation and Locomotion behavior also display vertices for the sampled linear/angular velocity (see the Navigation And Locomotion sampling algorithm for a more detailed explanation).

SetBone Behavior Visual Feedback

The SetBone Behavior visual feedback shows the name and component of the currently edited Bones and the value returned by their Expressions (but not the resulting orientation / position / scale of the Bone).

Channel Operator Behavior Visual Feedback


Visual Feedback of the Channel Operator Behavior

The ChannelOperator Behavior visual feedback shows the name of the executed channel operators (in the order of execution) and the returned values.

Activate Sensor Behavior Visual Feedback

The Activate Sensor Behavior visual feedback displays a radar view of the perceived entities or obstacles, as well as two lists, one with their ids, called Perceived Entities/Obstacles, and another one with their distances to the selected entity, called Distances. If the Enable Visual Feedback button is unchecked, the radar view and the two perceived objects lists are not displayed, and there is no display for this sensor in Maya's viewport.

Navigation Behavior Visual Feedback

The Navigation Behavior visual feedback displays the same visual feedback view as the Activate Sensor Behavior for each of its sensors.

Controls

Several controls are available to modify the Visual Feedback appearance, these controls are the same as ones defined in each Behavior. Some of them are specific to a type of Behavior.

Common Controls
Select the current Behavior 
Motion Behavior Controls
 /  Show / hide the motion currently played
Locomotion Behavior Controls
 /  Show / hide the Locomotion Model
Show only motions currently used, i.e. motions with a non null weight
Show all motions of the Locomotion Model
No motions are shown

Maya Viewport Settings


Maya Viewport Settings in Crowd Visual Feedback

This panel contains several settings to control Maya Viewport Visual Feedbacks. These settings are the same as ones defined in the Crowd Manager and can be displayed on the currently picked Entity, all the entities or a subset.


Visual Feedback display option for Specific Entity Ids

Display on
  •  None: Disable the Visual Feedbacks for this Behavior. Visual Feedbacks will not be displayed
  •  Picked Entity (default): only the picked entity will display the Visual Feedbacks
  •  Specific Entities: only the entities which ids are specified in the Entity Ids attribute will display the Visual Feedbacks
Specific Entity Ids

See above

Entity Feedbacks

Footprints Draw a circle at the foot position when it's on ground
Entity -> Particle Draw a link between an Entity and its particle
Bounding Box Draw a semi-transparent bounding box englobing the Animation Posture
Body ori axes Draws a tripod matching the body orientation
Move ori axes Draws a tripod matching the move orientation
Reference Up Indicate which axe is considered as the up vector, used for ground adaptation and other features.
Ground Cell Highlight the boundary of the current ground cell the entity lies in
Trajectory The predicted motion trajectory

Goto Feedbacks

Path To Target Draw the planned path to the Entity's final Target
Local Target Draw the Entity local target (or targeted formation slot)
Final Target Draw the Entity final destination target (or targeted formation slot)

Navigation Feedbacks

Radius Draw a wire circle around the character
Personal Space Draw the Personal Space around the Entity
Perceived Obstacles Draw a line between the Entity and every obstacles perceived
Velocity Draw a the Entity velocity vector 
Velocity Model Draw the Velocity Model
Entity Covered Cells Highlight the cells covered by the entity radius.

Formation Feedbacks

Formation Draw the formation shape

Steer Feedbacks

Speed Draw the current speed (from position to position+speed)
Last Steering Draw last boid steering force (from position to position + steering)
Obstacles Raycast Draw boid rays for obstacle detection : one from entity position in speed direction, 4 others from radius borders which describe a 45° cone around speed.
Perception Volumes Shows the arc and radii of the separation, alignment and cohesion perception "volumes" from the boid.
Perching Position Draws a tripod at the target perching position (may move during the perching phase if the ground is moving or if a perching speed has been chosen)
Perching Cell Highlight perching cell boundary

Perception Feedbacks

Entity Voxels Draw the Entity voxels
Sensor Voxels Draw the sensor voxels
Sensor Geometry Draw the sensor geometry
Perceived Objects Draw the perceived objects

Traffic Feedbacks

Car Box Draw a 2D rectangle showing the car size in simulation (related to width / length of population). Beware it could be hidden under the geometry if configured too small. 
Car Obstacle Draw a line from the car to its closest obstacle, if any.
Car Trajectory Draw the car trajectory forecast

Entity Selection


Entity Selection in Crowd Visual Feedback

This part of the Crowd Visual Feedback allows to set the selected Entity from its id.