Vicon Pegasus user interface
The Vicon Pegasus user interface includes the following elements:
Vicon Pegasus window
The Pegasus user interface consists of: Viewport, Subjects and Solvers pane, and Attributes panes, menus, and a toolbar.
For more information, see:
Subjects and Solvers pane
The Subjects and Solvers pane displays the hierarchy of all characters loaded in the scene as well as all Position Tasks and Orientation Tasks.
Attributes pane
The Attributes pane contains the following tabs:
Transforms tab
In the Attributes pane, the Transforms tab displays translation, rotation and scale attributes for the selected objects. Where applicable, you can change attributes by inputting numerical values.
Retarget tab
When skeletons and rigid bodies are linked to the target avatar, the connections are displayed on the Retarget tab in the Attributes pane. The columns’ order corresponds to:
Source bone Target bone Type of connection
The type of connection:
- ret - for FK (Forward Kinematics) retargeting mode
- rotl - for Orientation Task
- pos - for Position Task
Joints tab
In the Attributes pane the Joints tab enables you to disable or enable a single joint in the solver by clearing or selecting Joints Enabled in the Solver. Use this check box to remove roll bones or other bones that are not driving meshes.
You can also disable a full hierarchy in the solver by clearing Joints Hierarchy Enabled in the Solver. The selected joint remains in the solver. Use this check box to remove solving for fingers, face rigs, and any auxiliary bones in the target.
Presets include settings that can be applied to the selected joint.
Retargeting gain defines the importance of the source animation from Shogun or Blade skeleton for the target. 1 corresponds to 100% and 0 to no influence.
Stiffness defines the mobility of the bone. Full mobility corresponds to stiffness 0 and zero mobility is stiffness of one.
IKinema tab
IKinema uses Position Tasks and Orientation Tasks in addition to the animation pose to keep the solved avatar closed to the original mocap in world space.
- Position Tasks keep the position of the bones in world space.
- Orientation Tasks keep the orientation of the bone to the source in world space.
The first two options enable and disable the effect of the task on the bone.
Tasks presets include several options for tuning the importance of the IK constraint (Task). You can choose from low precision to high precision.
Weight along X, Y, and Z degrees of freedom for the selected task can be changed from the Weight attribute. By default the weight is set to 1 for all tasks. Higher values put more importance on this task.
Solver iterations define how many steps the solver will make to find a solution. Default for runtime is set to 150.
Vicon Pegasus menus
The following menus are available in Vicon Pegasus.
File menu
The following options are available on the File menu:
Option | Description |
|---|---|
New project | Start a new Pegasus project |
Open project | Open a saved project |
Save | Save and overwrite the project |
Save As | Save a scene as a new project |
Import FBX | Load characters in the scene. You can also load environments, prop FBX objects, or any other data. |
Export FBX | Export selected character as a new FBX |
Exit | Close the application. |
Edit menu
The following options are available on the Edit menu:
Option | Description |
|---|---|
Undo | Undo a command. |
Redo | Redo a command. Only a subset of undo/redo actions are currently supported. The supported actions are: use of manipulators (rotate, move, scale); association of joints to tasks and associations of rigid bodies to tasks; delete on tasks. |
Associate Character | Link characters for retargeting, Shogun (or Blade) only. This option scales the mocap data to the target avatar. The algorithm links characters for retargeting and solving. Based on naming conventions, bones are automatically linked. The link also performs automatic scaling of the source data and translation of the target avatar to overlap the source data. The algorithm automatically excludes zero length bones from the solver. |
Connect without scaling | Link as above but without scaling of the source avatar. |
Apply template | Apply a pre-stored association between source and target bones. Before executing the command, you need to select any bone from the target avatar. |
Save template | Select a bone from the target and run this command to save the association for future use with Apply template. |
Group selection | Select a number of rigid bodies from Tracker and group as a single object (character) for rigid body solving. |
Scale and move target to rigid bodies | Used for Tracker solving. This option scales the target avatar (V6 or Jack or any custom avatar) and moves/matches it to the rigid bodies. |
Scale and move rigid bodies to target | Used for Tracker solving. This option scales the rigid bodies to match to the target avatar (V6 or Jack or any custom avatar). |
Start RT preview | Start the real-time solving server. |
Start RT detached | Start the real-time solving server as a detached standalone application. You can close the Pegasus user interface and leave only the real-time server running. In detached mode, the user interface and the real-time pipeline are detached so that you can close the UI preview and leave the real-time solver running. See also Running multiple instances of Pegasus and run-time solvers. |
Rotate Character 90 | Select the group locator of any character and select this option to rotate with a predefined angle of 90 degrees clockwise. |
Rotate Character -90 | Select the group locator of any character and select this option to rotate with a predefined angle of 90 degrees anti clockwise. |
Rotate Character 180 | Select the group locator of any character and select this option to rotate with a predefined angle of 180 degrees. |
Delete scene | Delete from the project anything that is currently in the scene, such as props, characters, rigid bodies, etc. |
View menu
The following options are available on the View menu:
Option | Description |
|---|---|
Center camera on selection (shortcut F) | Focus the camera on the selected object so that all rotations are about this object. |
Front, Back, Left, Right, Top, Bottom, Perspective | Switch to a predefined orientation of the camera with the appropriate view. |
Draw skeletons | Hide or show drawing of skeletons in the scene. |
Draw tasks | Hide or show drawing of IKinema tasks in the scene. |
| Joint Size | Change the thickness of joints and bones for display purposes. |
Settings menu
The following options are available on the Settings menu:
Options | Description |
|---|---|
Server | Opens the Server settings dialog box, where you can adjust settings for the incoming data from Shogun, Blade or Tracker. |
Output | Opens the Output settings dialog box, where you can adjust settings for the stream out server on output from Pegasus Real Time. |
Settings dialog boxes
When you click the options on the Settings menu, Vicon Pegasus enables you to define the following settings:
Server settings
The Server Settings dialog box enables you to define Vicon servers. In this dialog box, you specify:
- The IP number of the Tracker/Shogun/Blade applications
- The port for streaming
- The coordinate system, which is autodetected for versions of Shogun, or Blade later than 3.3, but must be explicitly set for previous releases, depending on the coordinate system set in Blade.
These settings are saved for the session.
Output settings
The Output Settings dialog box enables you to define the server side of Pegasus RunTime. In this dialog box, you define:
- The interface (Data Stream or VRPN)
- The port for streaming
Vicon Pegasus toolbar
The Pegasus toolbar contains the following icons:
Name/function | Icon | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|
Select tool |
| Selects objects in the viewport | |
Move tool |
| Moves objects in the viewport. With Pegasus 1.2 and later, you can click and hold the button to choose the coordinate system in which to transform the pose: World, Parent, or Local. | |
Rotate tool |
| Rotates objects in the viewport. With Pegasus 1.2 and later, you can click and hold the button to choose the coordinate system in which to transform the pose: World, Parent, or Local. | |
Scale tool |
| Scales objects in the viewport | |
Associate characters (default action) |
| For Shogun/Blade solving: Links characters for retargeting and solving. Based on naming conventions, bones are automatically linked. The link also performs automatic scaling of the source data and translation of the target avatar to overlap the source data. The algorithm automatically excludes zero length bones from the solver. | |
Connect using template | For Shogun/Blade solving: Enables you to link the source to a target using a predefined template of bone matching saved on local hardware. | ||
Connect without scaling | For Shogun/Blade solving: This is same as the default action but with this option the source data is not scaled. This option can be used to associate props to joints, for example a virtual camera. | ||
Scale and move target to rigid bodies | For Tracker solving: Scales the target avatar (V6 or Jack or any custom avatar) and move/match it to the rigid bodies. | ||
Scale and move rigid bodies to target | For Tracker solving: Scales the rigid bodies to match to the target avatar (V6 or Jack or any custom avatar). | ||
Disconnect selected joints (default action) |
| For Shogun/Blade solving: Disconnects the selected joints from the retargeting setup. | |
Disconnect selected skeleton | For Shogun/Blade solving: Disconnects all joints and disables the retargeting. | ||
Link bone to bone manually |
| For Shogun/Blade solving: Enables you to link a source bone to a target bone. This is typically needed when the automatic association does not recognize the associations by name. | |
Link bone to task (position and orientation constraints) |
| For Shogun, Blade and Tracker: Enables you to link a source bone or a rigid body as an IK constraint to a target bone in terms of Position and Orientation Tasks. | |
Create Position Task | For Shogun, Blade and Tracker: Link a source bone or a rigid body as an IK constraint to a target bone in terms of Position Task. | ||
Create Orientation Task | For Shogun, Blade and Tracker: Link a source bone or a rigid body as an IK constraint to a target bone in terms of Orientation Task. | ||
Snap hands to source | For Shogun/Blade only: Link a source bone as an IK constraint to a target bone by maintaining zero offset between the source and the target. This is typically used for maintaining world position and match of hands. | ||
Snap feet to source | For Shogun/Blade only: Link a source bone as an IK constraint to a target bone by maintaining zero offset between the source and the target. This is typically used for maintaining world position and match of feet. | ||
Delete position and Orientation Tasks |
| For Shogun, Blade and Tracker: Removes and deletes the Position and Orientation Tasks. | |
Delete Position Task | For Shogun, Blade and Tracker: Removes and deletes only the Position Task. | ||
Delete Orientation Task | For Shogun, Blade and Tracker: Removes and deletes only the Orientation Task. | ||
Import characters from Vicon datastream |
| For Shogun, Blade and Tracker: Imports a pose from Shogun, Blade or Tracker. | |
Start/Stop Pegasus RunTime |
| Starts the real-time solving server. | |
Start Pegasus RunTime detached | Starts the real-time solving server as a detached standalone application. You can close the UI interface and leave only the real-time server running. In detached mode, the UI and the real-time pipeline are detached so that you can close the UI preview and leave the real-time solver running. | ||
