The following commands are provided on the Microsoft Visual Simulation Environment (VSE) window.

The File Menu

v  Open Scene - Loads a scene.

v  Save Scene As - Saves a scene. When you save a scene, the simulator saves the simulator state along with the state for every entity in the scene. It also saves a manifest which can be used to re-initialize the scene and any services associated with the entities.

v  Save Material Changes - Saves changes made to materials in Edit mode.

v  Open Manifest - Load a service manifest.

v  Create Embedded Resources - Creates a single saved file containing all effects, textures, meshes, etc.

v  Capture Image As - Save the current view of the simulation to a file.

v  Exit - Exits the simulation and shut down its Decentralized Software Services (DSS) node. The Simulator will remember the window size and position for the next time it is started.

The Entity Menu

The Entity Menu is only visible when you select Edit from the Mode menu.

v  Undo - Undoes the previous change.

v  Redo - Repeats the last change that was undone.

v  Cut - Removes the currently checked entities.

v  Copy - Copies the currently checked entities.

v  Paste - Adds the last cut or copied entities back into the scene.

v  Paste As Child - Pastes the last cut or copied entities as a child of the currently checked entity.

v  New - Displays a dialog that enables you to create a new entity.

v  Load Entities - Loads entities from a file.

v  Save Entities As - Saves the currently checked entities to a file.

The View Menu

v  Playback bar - Displays the playback bar for recording and playing back recorded sequences.

v  Status bar - Displays or hides the status bar. The status bar shows you the current frame rate in frames-per-second, the simulation time, as well as the current camera position and look at point.

v  Profiler - Brings up the Profiler UI dialog.

v  Look Along - Sets the camera view to a specific viewing axis. Useful for accurately re-orienting the camera after you have moved it around a lot.

The Render Menu

The first four entries in this menu enables you to change how entities in the simulation are rendered. You can toggle between these modes using the F2 key.

v  Visual - Renders a full 3D view. Meshes associated with each entity in the scene are rendered with realistic lighting and shading.

v  Wireframe - Renders the scene as a wireframe view. This mode enables you to get a rough idea of how many polygons make up each mesh and where the polygon edges are.

v  Physics - Renders the scene showing physics outlines. This mode enables you to see how each entity is modeled in the physics engine. The scene is not rendered completely if the physics engine is disabled.

v  Combined - Renders the full 3D view with physics. This mode makes it easy for you to determine how well the physics shapes match the visual mesh for each entity. The physics part of this scene is not rendered completely if the physics engine is disabled.

v  No Rendering - This option turns off the rendering to economize on CPU time. The simulator continues to run.

v  Graphics Settings - Enables you to change settings that control how the scene is rendered.

v  Physics View Settings - Allows you to select the items that are shown in Physics View.

The Camera Menu

The Camera menu allows you to easily switch between cameras if you have more than one in the scene. You can press F8 to quickly switch between cameras.

v  Main Camera - Sets the view from the simulated camera provided by default.

v  Other cameras - Sets the view from other cameras defined in the current scene. Note that there are also options to display cameras in separate windows. This allows you to have, for example, a view from a camera mounted on a robot at the same time as the main view so that you can see not only what the robot sees but also what it is doing. This is very useful for diagnosing computer vision programs.

The Physics Menu

v  Enabled - Enables, or disables, physics forces in the simulation. You can also use the F3 key to toggle physics on/off.

v  Settings - Enables you to control whether default camera is treated as a rigid body and the gravity setting. If the camera option is set, you can use the camera to bump objects in the scene. You can also adjust the simulation speed.

The Mode Menu

The settings on the Mode menu enable you to change how you can interact with entities in the scene. Pressing F5 toggles between the options.

v  Run - The normal operation mode for running your simulation.

v  Edit - The mode that enables you to edit state of entities in the simulation. This mode automatically disables Physics.

The Help Menu

v  Contents - Shows web pages that provide more information about how to use the various features and controls of the VSE.

v  About - Shows a dialog that displays information about the version of the VSE and also information about the current graphics hardware.

10. Virtual Simulation Environment