Pegasus PDFs

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
(Pegasus Advanced only)

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
(Pegasus Advanced only)

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
(Pegasus Advanced only)

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 SizeChange 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.