Release Notes

Version 2.2.0 (August 20, 2024)

  • Added VizEventDialog message type to VizMessage.proto. EventDialogs allow the user to create a GUI panel that pops up in Vizard with informational text and optional button choices that the viewer can select to provide input to the simulation (via a VizEventReply message). There are three dialog format types: informational, caution (yellow), and warning (red).

  • Added ability to send keyboard and EventDialog selection inputs live to connected Basilisk simulation, via the new VizInput message in VizMessage.proto, this feature requires Vizard to be connected to Basilisk in the Receive & Reply mode

  • Added Receive Only streaming mode to allow additional Vizard instances to subscribe to a Basilisk simulation as viewers. Receive Only connections cannot provide input back to the Basilisk simulation

  • Added forced synchronization of EventDialog and certain settings (orbit line visibility, coordinate frame visibility) of Receive Only (broadcast) viewers with the Receive and Reply user (trainer). When forced synchronization is enabled, broadcast Vizard instances will display the current choices and settings selections of the trainer. The trainer can release forced synchronization mode under the Broadcast tab of the Settings panel to allow broadcast viewers to control their own displays.

  • Improved Vizard handling of incorrect socket address or connection type: failure to connect will result in error message and user will have a chance to correct socket address and/or connection type

  • Improved camera transition between scale regimes (spacecraft local view to planet local view to hello view)

  • Improved camera transition on selection of new camera target

  • depth map shader output textures changed to red-channel only while multi-channel shader issue is resolved

Warning

  • depth map shader color output values are being adjusted by Unity after being written by fragment shader, resulting in incorrect depth measurements using the three-channel decoding

  • The use of vizInterface.opNavMode is now depreciated. See Live Communication with Vizard for more information. The setting opNavMode=1 is now liveStream and opNavMode=2 is now noDisplay.

Version 2.1.6.1 (March 20, 2024)

  • force Vizard to show the most recently received message when a camera image request is received in 2-way comm (this was not required in noDisplay mode because we stay on the head of the received messages, but because we do not stay on the head when the display is on we needed a way to make sure the images were taken of the correct timestep)

  • moved ASyncIO.ForceDotNet.Force() call to before sockets are created (solved a Windows issue where 2-way comm was not completing handshake)

Version 2.1.6 (March 1, 2024)

  • Buffered loading of file playback messages (only 10 MB will be loaded into memory by default) This value can be customized with the new messageBufferSize setting

  • Migrated to Unity 2022.3 (Addressables built with Unity 2020 version are compatible with Unity 2022 Vizard and do not need to be rebuilt or replaced)

  • Added fall-back non-native file browser for Linux platform

  • Black Lion removed from startup screen options

  • time-out on socket connection attempt in start-up screen (if a vizMessage is not received within 4 seconds, Vizard will try to close the open socket and the user can try again)

  • playback will be paused and playback controls will be hidden during model loading (to prevent confusion during large model imports)

  • hot key “c” added to pop up Console Log panel

  • automatic pop up of Console Log for errors that need the user’s attention

  • hot key “v” added to pop up VizMessage panel

  • GenericStorage display will now show “Unavailable” when currentValue is less than 0 to allow simulation of lost telemetry

  • Added check for remote Addressables bundle modelKey validity before trying to load

  • Fixed playback speed displaying infinity on Windows

  • Fixed bug with thruster cone geometry not scaling appropriately when spacecraftLocalView scale is changed and MaxThrust was not specified (occurs in some old LASP files)

  • Fixed bug in the sub-dropdowns (used when Effectors are present) when a Location’s properties are updated

Version 2.1.5 (June 28, 2023)

  • main camera range to target display (hot key = r, or toggle under Camera menu)

  • very far zoom-out of main camera in spacecraft local view when the forceStartAtSpacecraftLocalView setting is set to 1

  • depth map generation available on instrument camera - can only be turned on in CameraConfig message

  • command line start of Vizard with file load (use argument -loadFile followed by the filepath)

  • updated NetMQ plugins to be compatible with Basilisk ZMQ 3.5.0 libraries

  • fixed the cause of the effectors appearing to fly-in at start-up

  • support for nested toggles for effectors for all HUDS and devices under the Actuator and Devices menus

  • Add the ability to visualize ground locations using a simple colored sphere. This allows 1000’s of locations to be visualized. This is set through the useSimpleLocationMarkers flag.

Version 2.1.4 (March 24, 2023)

  • support for changing the true path trajectory line color allowing a path line with multiple colors that can be used to indicate phases of interest in the trajectory

  • added support for reflection probes on Custom spacecraft models imported via Addressables, Vizard will detect any reflection probes included on the model and configure them to display correctly with Vizard’s internal settings

  • added parentSpacecraftName field to the VizMessage.proto spacecraft message definition which will allow the creation of effectors using the spacecraft message template. Providing a spacecraft name in that field will indicate that the message belongs to an effector of that parent spacecraft.

  • added Vizard support for effectors including:

    • not showing orbit lines for effectors

    • adding a coordinate system toggle for effectors

    • adding subdropdowns to the GUI to indicate which bodies are effectors and to reduce clutter in the main body dropdown

    • added parent spacecraft name to effector name on any HUD or panel toggles to clarify effector parent

  • fixed bug in thruster and transceiver particle systems that did not correctly scale for small sats

  • fixed bug in hemisphere mesh generation (used by CSS and location range) that would result in failure if the field of view was very small

  • fixed bug where GenericSensor HUD was not correctly illuminated by the HUDShell lighting

  • fixed bug where CSS would incorrectly turn on after exiting Sprite mode when they should have stayed off due to current settings

  • fixed bug in orbitLine template that would sometimes throw an error when reference was accessed before being set

  • migrated Vizard to Unity Editor 2020.3.45f1

  • removed auto creation of the two standard camera panels, now camera panels will only be generated when requested by user in the GUI or in messages

  • added support for spacecraft where no spacecraft name was specified in Basilisk, user will see an error message in the VizConsole Log panel and Vizard will automatically name the spacecraft and continue to run

Version 2.1.3 (Jan. 20, 2023)

  • added support for Settings flag forceStartAtSpacecraftLocalView. If this flag is set to 1, the main camera will stay in the spacecraft local view and has been improved to allow zooming out to very large distances from the camera target spacecraft. Vizard will remain locked in spacecraft local view unless a non-spacecraft camera target is selected.

  • added MultiSphere support to VizMessage.proto and support visualizing the MultiSpheres on a spacecraft.

Version 2.1.2 (Dec. 13, 2022)

  • added instructions and public Unity project allowing users to import custom models and export them into Unity Addressable bundles that can be imported at runtime by Vizard by using the modelDictionaryKey setting in both Celestial Bodies and Spacecraft objects

  • fixed bug with OBJ imported models when applied to celestial body whose equatorial radius is set. Now if radius is set the model will be scaled such that largest dimension will equal the equatorial radius. If radius is not set, the model will be scaled to the settings specified by the user and then the model’s extents will be assumed to be the desired size of the celestial body in kilometers.

  • added clarifying text to the Adjust Object/Adjust Model panel to help users understand how the model will be handled internally by Vizard

  • added support for use of multiple Instrument Cameras in opNav mode

  • added support for new field “Color” in CustomModel import message: Vizard changes the albedo color of the imported model’s material to what is specified by user

  • moved playback speed +/- controls to fix bug on Windows machines when Vizard was maximized and the +/-buttons became inoperable

  • removed orbit lines layer from Standard Camera views (orbit lines will not be visible in any camera panels, only in the main view)

  • added Light marker spheres to visible layers in Standard and Instrument Camera views

  • fixed bug where true path and osculating orbit lines when using a small sat (minimum extent < 1 m) were not drawing at proper scaling

Warning

  • small sats whose minimum extent is < 1 m require the spacecraft local view scale to be increased from 1m being 1 Unity Unit to 1m being(1/minimum extent) Unity Units to properly calculate self-shadowing on the model. At present, a way to correctly scale the Instrument Camera post processing settings for small sat scaling has not been found and a solution is in work.

  • native File Browser plugin does not support users running Vizard on Linux Ubuntu with Wayland. The plugin developer provides this work-around. To add support for Wayland, please create a shell-script that starts your application with X11 as backend, like this: GDK_BACKEND=x11 ./<applicationName>.x86_64 or GDK_BACKEND=x11 ./<applicationName>.x64

Version 2.1.1 (Oct. 1, 2022)

  • added support for loading spacecraft and celestial body models created by users and saved as Addressable Bundles using the VizardCustomContent Unity project. This Unity project will be released to users in the near future to allow custom Addressable bundles that can be loaded at Vizard start-up and automatically applied by supplying the desired model key for each body needing a custom model loaded and applied

    • custom celestial body models will be scaled using the radius message in the celestial body submessage. If the radius field is not populated, the maximum dimension of the custom model will be used as the radius and the imported model will be assumed to be scaled in kilometers

    • custom spacecraft body models will be assumed to be sized 1 meter to 1 Unity Unit

  • added support for science cameras and opNav camera use of Unity’s Depth of Field post-processing effects. Updated built-in post-processing to Unity Post Processing Package 3.2.2. Vizard now support up to five different post processing profiles (up to five different cameras can have different depth of field settings profiles, more than five cameras will have to share settings). Added fields in the vizMessage.proto CameraConfig sub message to allow access to all the Unity Depth of Field post-processing settings.

  • added support for Ellipsoids HUD. User can specify the creation of ellipsoidal shells using the vizMessage.proto Ellipsoid sub message. Ellipsoids can be used to illustrate position uncertainty or keep-out zones. They can be aligned with the spacecraft Hill or body frames.

  • changed appearance of Coarse Sun Sensor and Location HUD shells to use the shadowed shell material created for the Ellipsoid HUD. The appearance of these HUD shapes with the new material greatly improves user ability to interpret the shapes.

  • fixed bug in the chief spacecraft selection dropdown menu to ensure a new spacecraft selection updates the orbit line calculations of all spacecraft in scene

  • fixed bug in the relative osculating orbit calculations to correctly plot multiple orbits

  • removed internal handling for asteroids Bennu and Ryugu that would automatically specify the model key for objects named after these asteroids. Now the model key field must be populated by the user to apply the Bennu or Ryugu Addressable asset correctly (as was already true for all other asteroids included in the Asteroids bundle)

  • fixed bug in the true path trajectory plotting that occurred during live streaming when the position arrays of the chief spacecraft and the deputy spacecraft might temporarily be of different lengths

  • added setting in vizMessage.proto and on the Settings panel to allow user to specify a different spacecraft scale in solar system view vs. spacecraft local or planet local views

  • fixed bug in Light HUD where light did not correctly hide when spacecraft was in Sprite mode

Version 2.1.0 (May 25, 2022)

  • moved the large asteroid and Martian moon models and the optional MilkyWay skybox to be Addressable Assets. These are large assets that are rarely used. By making them Addressable Assets, they will no longer be automatically loaded into memory by Vizard at the start and instead will only increase the Vizard runtime memory footprint when in use.

  • added 6U and 3U cubeSat models that include reflective solar panels, they can be applied with the modelDictionaryKey field in the Spacecraft vizMessage or by using the ModelDirectory GUI panel (model keys are 6Usat and 3Usat)

  • modified the spacecraft local view scaling to support self-shadowing on satellites with dimensions of less than 1 meter: If the camera target spacecraft’s dimensions are less than 1 meter, the spacecraft local view scale will increase from 1m to 1 Unity Units to 1m to 2UnityUnits/minimumSpacecraftMeshDimension. This scale is applied to both size and distance, ensuring the relative position and size of the all objects in the scene remains true to the simulated distances/sizes.

  • added customizable logo patches to the sides of all three built in spacecraft (BSKsat, 6U cubeSat, and 3U cubeSat) that users can change by providing a path to their own image file as part of the Spacecraft protobuffer message

  • fixed bug with HD atmosphere not initializing correctly when its attached planet is specified in the vizMessage as the camera target on start-up

  • improved the automatic resizing/repositioning of spacecraft HUD objects when their attached spacecraft model is changed (takes into account the new dimensions and ensures the HUD objects shrink or grow accordingly)

  • fixed bug with Custom Cameras in headless mode not applying the user specified skybox

Version 2.0.4 (March 12, 2022)

  • Updated User Guide to list the built-in CAD shapes in Vizard to show planet and asteroid shapes

  • added support for the Vizard flag celestialBodyHelioViewSizeMultiplier to script in python how much the celestial bodies are enlarged in heliocentric view

  • shows spacecraft true path trajectory correctly around small bodies and in solar system view

  • fixed bug in scaling of non-spherical celestial bodies in solar system view, these bodies will now show up at the artificially large size of the other bodies in solar system view

  • added a setting to protobuffer so user can set the default size of celestial bodies in solar system view

  • added modelDictionaryKey key field to both Spacecraft and Celestial Body sub messages to allow users to specify one of the internally supported spacecraft or celestial body models without having to match the model’s name to the object’s name (i.e. you could use “Phobos” as an asteroid model)

  • fixed bug in primary body calculation for custom celestial bodies

  • fixed bug with double clicking on celestial bodies in solar system view

  • made matching of supported celestial bodies with their included textures/models case-insensitive

  • instrument camera skybox will correctly show the chosen skybox instead of always defaulting to black

  • camera skybox defaults to NASA SVS skybox

  • generic sensor labels stay off when HUD isHidden changes

  • made the setting of main camera near and far clipping planes dynamic to better accommodate distant small objects

  • added a panel label string to the standard camera protobuffer settings, user can also rename the camera panel view by clicking on the label and typing a new name in it

  • standard camera panel windows will open with the settings sub panel hidden if they were automatically set up with a camera settings message for a cleaner appearance on start up

  • added settings to spacecraft sub message to allow user to set the colors of both the osculating and true path trajectory lines

  • added setting to allow user to toggle showing the Mission Time in the playback bar on startup

  • ground locations will update all their parameters at every time step, allowing them to be reused for multiple ground targets

  • fixed bug when zooming out from spacecraft when it is in deep space and its parent body is the sun

  • added support to main camera hill frame following so that a transition across spheres of influence can be correctly managed

Version 2.0.3 (Dec. 15, 2021)

  • built-in high vertex count models of Bennu and Ryugu asteroids. These models will automatically be applied when a celestial body message’s name field contains the key word bennu or ryugu.

  • added user configurable spot lights that can be placed as desired on any spacecraft object. See scenarioFormationBasic for an example use of a spacecraft light

    • lights can be configured from messages using the new Light sub message in vizMessage.proto

    • lights can be manually configured using the new Lights panel available under the View menu

    • lights can be customized by position, normal vector, color, field of view, range and intensity

    • each light can be toggled on/off from messages or in the Lights panel

    • each light has an optional GUI marker in the form of a sphere whose size and emission gamma saturation can be set in the panel or the light message

    • each light has an optional lens flare whose brightness and fade speed can be set in the panel or in the light message

    • each light has a label that can be turned on from the Labels panel under the View menu

Version 2.0.2

  • added About Panel (under the File menu) to provide information Vizard, Basilisk, and about the third party scripting assets as well as the many imagery, texture, and model assets that Vizard uses

  • sun light attenuation setting: enabling this will cause the lighting to dim as you move further from the sun. This setting can be set under the General tab of the Settings panel or in the vizMessage Settings message.

  • main light intensity setting: the user can set their own light intensity for the sun or the main directional light (if no sun message present). This setting can be set under the General tab of the Settings panel or in the vizMessage Settings message.

  • improved Saturn and Saturn’s Rings. Rings are now shadowed by the planet.

  • fixed bug with camera zooming when the user’s mouse is on the About Panel, Settings Panel, and Main Camera Target dropdown

  • updated the default star map with a newer NASA SVS star map of 8k resolution

  • fixed bug with Phobos and Deimos models sizing that was introduced when the model assignment script during planet creation was revised. Phobos and Deimos models will now appear correctly scaled when targeted by the main camera

  • improved planet atmosphere shader to attenuate the ring of light seen around the planet in eclipse

Version 2.0.1

  • Fixed a start-up issue on Windows and Linux where the application only started up in full screen mode that could not be exited. Now the application starts in a Window. You can start up pressing Option or Windows key during start up to ensure the application starts in a size that fits the monitor.

Version 2.0.0

  • The version 2.0 release main feature is the new improved atmosphere shader which is currently enabled on Earth, Venus and Mars whenever one of these bodies is the camera target or the parent body of the camera target in spacecraft local and planet local views. This is a computation intensive shader and is turned off when these conditions are not met. The old Atmosphere scattering shader is enabled in all other cases.

  • The atmosphere rendering can be turned off completely using the atmospheresOff user setting in the protobuffer messages.

  • Added support in the new atmosphere shader for artificial nighttime albedo lighting

  • Added multipliers for distance to the planet view transition and hello view transition to allow the user to zoom further out before triggering the transition (new vizMessage.proto file attached). This change required some rescripting for how the transitions thresholds were set and used by various scripts, but luckily a small change overall.

Version 1.9.2

  • Apple Silicon compatible native file browser, Vizard can be run in M1 native mode

  • added message and GUI support for Generic Storage Devices. Vizard can now display a panel for each spacecraft showing the remaining capacity for storage devices like hard drives, propellant tanks, etc.

  • Instruments tab on the main menu bar was renamed Devices to accommodate the inclusion of Generic Storage

  • moved RelativeOrbitChief setting to the LiveSettings message to allow user to change the relative orbit chief spacecraft by message automatically. Manually setting the relative orbit chief is still available under the View menu.

  • added MainCameraTarget setting to the Settings message to allow user to designate the main camera’s target on startup instead of defaulting to the first spacecraft in messages. The main camera target at startup can also be set to any available celestial body.

Version 1.9.1

  • added Generic Sensor message to vizMessage.proto and HUD support in Vizard

  • added Transceiver message to vizMessage.proto and HUD support in Vizard

  • updated startup screen Vizard image to show the lizard is now vaccinated

  • migrated Vizard to Unity 2020.3.13f1 LTS.

  • added support to visualize a conical or rectangular generic sensor, including the device status state. This can illustrate a sensor field of view, as well as if the sensor is active. Multiple activity states can be visualized in the HUD

  • added support to visualize the transceiver message information. The user can specify if the transceiver is sending, receiving or sending and receiving. Further, the animation speed can be varied from 1 to 10 to illustrate slow or fast communication modes

  • The macOS Vizard binary is still Intel only for now until the issues with the native file browser are resolved.

Version 1.9.0

  • native file browser support for all platforms except Apple M1 Silicon. We expect the fix from the developer in July. In the mean time only run Vizard in Rosetta if on an M1 computer.

  • improved the Moon and Earth textures to higher quality pixel counts

  • fixed skybox bug in OpNav mode: skybox will now correctly default to black and will try to load and apply and custom user skybox texture specified in messages

  • updated BSK SAT to use the new Basilisk 2.0 logo

  • fixed an issue where the directional light was not getting created when no celestial bodies were present (spacecraft only mode).

  • changed the HUD offset calculation to use the maximum dimension of the model envelope.

  • added Creative Commons 4.0 BY image and link to documentation to the start up screen

Version 1.8.4.1

  • main camera was not transforming the camera up-axis for the changing Hill Frame resulting in drift that was very noticeable at large time steps or rapidly changing orbits, added recalculation of up-axis for each change in Hill Frame to resolve this issue for most cases

  • known issue: long mouse drags when running through messages at frame rate at large time steps can result in the main camera spinning about target. This problem does not manifest when using the keyboard camera controls.

Version 1.8.4

  • reflective solar panels(!) on the default spacecraft model

  • removed dedicated scene for OpNav mode and added support in Main scene for OpNav mode functionality. This change will improve maintainability of the code base going forward

  • changed names of directComm mode toggles to LiveDisplay and NoDisplay. NoDisplay mode will result in the OpNav functionality wherein no image is rendered to the window and the camera is only refreshed when a new image is requested by the sim, LiveDisplay will take the user to the interactive screen where the messages will be rendered to the screen as they come in or at the user specified rate

  • added command line argument support for -noDisplay to launch into OpNav functionality and clearly link the startup screen options with the command line arguments. The old arguments -opNav or -opNavMode will continue to be supported to launch into OpNav function.

  • added console message to inform user the file path they are currently playing back or the tcp address they are connected using

  • added a LiveSettings sub message to allow user to continuously update the supported fields.

  • added TargetLines to the LiveSettings message. All PointLines in this field can be updated with every message, added, modified, or removed, and only the current message’s array of lines will be drawn to the screen.

  • added support to the VizMessage Logging panel to show the contents of the LiveSettings sub message

  • increased the opacity of the menu bar and menu panels to improve user experience

Version 1.8.3

  • When a spacecraft is the target of the Main Camera, the Main Camera will track the spacecraft in that spacecraft’s Hill Frame provided that there is a parent body in the sim. If there is only a spacecraft in the messages or if the camera target is a celestial body, the default inertial frame tracking and offset of the target by the Main Camera will occur.

  • added ability to show FPS under Time menu

  • added command line argument -saveMetrics to record the rendering times to the file ~/VizardData/opNavMetrics.txt

  • the Apple M1 version of Vizard is now able to cast shadows like the other versions of Vizard did

Version 1.8.2

  • added ability to show true orbital trajectory. This works both for trajectory relative to planet or another spacecraft

  • added ability to show local osculating orbit in spacecraft-centric view

  • added toggle to View menu to specify if osculating or true orbit should be show relative to planet or another spacecraft

  • improved the custom shape import panel

  • on macOS the Vizard binary is now a Universal binary supporting both the Intel and Apple M1 processors

  • new Display Console Log under View menu to show any Vizard error or warning messages

Version 1.8.1

  • Keep Out cone bug fix to restore cone detection of Sun impingement (even when the Sun is named “sun_planet_data”)

  • Improved utility of the Adjust Model panel:

    • “Create Custom Texture” button renamed “Preview Custom Texture”

    • when user selects the Apply button, the custom texture and normal map will be automatically loaded into a texture, even if the user has not pressed the Preview button

Version 1.8.0

  • user can create bodies that are not in the internal viz support dictionary. Bodies included in the internal dictionary: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon, Mars, Phobos, Deimos, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto

  • added mu, equatorial radius, and radiusRatio to CelestialBody sub-message to support creation of custom bodies and also allow modification to those properties for previously supported bodies

  • added support for intermediate sized bodies (like asteroids or small moons)

  • improved the sphere of influence calculations used to choose the parent body for a spacecraft or custom celestial body (parent body needed when calculating osculating orbit lines)

  • added support for custom models for celestial bodies to OpNav mode

  • fixed bugs with sprite mode that would cause spacecraft to be incorrectly determined to be in contact

  • fixed bugs with custom location range and added a hemisphere to range cone to better indicate the location range when custom range is enabled

  • improved the custom shape importing GUI to allow an object to return to the default shape and texture

Version 1.7.1

  • extended GroundLocation from celestial bodies to spacecraft and changed the name to Location to reflect new capability. Now a Location can be added to any celestial body or spacecraft and used to detect line-of-sight with other spacecraft or locations.

  • added setting to the Save Message panel (under File) to opt in to saving a copy of all messages to a file on Vizard exit

  • added command line argument -saveMsgFile to allow user to opt in to saving message file during launch of Vizard

  • changed how opNav stores its received messages: unless the -saveMsgFile argument is used on launch, the message dictionary will retain only the most recent 20 messages. This was done to prevent unnecessary memory usage by Vizard during long opNav runs.

  • brought Phobos and Deimos prefabs to current standard Celestial Body prefab configuration.

  • Add was changed to Edit for the three items under the View menu

  • Added a script for protection for 2 finger scrolling to all scroll bars in the Viz: If the mouse cursor is over a scroll window, the zoom function of the main camera is disabled

  • added a new View/Display VizMessageLog option which brings up a panel to see the raw protobuffer messages being displayed.

Version 1.7.0

  • added a protobuffer setting and a GUI setting to allow users to set the Spacecraft scale size in Planet View or Solar System View.

  • changed the standard camera positioning in Planet View such that the cameras will be repositioned outside of the scaled up spacecraft mesh when the view changes from Spacecraft Local View

  • added Ground Location objects to Vizard:

    • Ground Locations can be created in the GUI under View>Add Ground Location

    • Ground Locations can be scripted as a sub message of the VizMessage protobuffer message

    • Ground locations are drawn with a small sphere on their parent body

    • Field of view of ground locations can be visualized by showing the Field of View Cone. These cones can be toggled in the Ground Location panel.

    • If a spacecraft passes within the field of view of a Ground Location, a line indicating communication will be drawn between the Ground Location and Spacecraft. If another body (planet, moon, or spacecraft) occludes the spacecraft, the line will not be drawn. These lines can be toggled on the Ground Location panel and are on by default.

    • Added labels for Ground Locations, a toggle in the Labels panel, and a protobuffer setting show/hide the labels

Version 1.6.1

  • organized the Settings panel into tabs to improve usability and future expansion

  • user can choose the chief spacecraft for the relative orbits to be other than the current main camera target under the View menu. This setting can also be scripted as a vizMessage setting

  • spacecraft shadows can be brightened using a setting in the General tab of the Settings panel. This setting can also be scripted as a vizMessage setting.

  • added the ability to save off all or a portion of the messages in the current run to a new file. This new function is available as “Save Messages to File” under the File menu. This feature works in both file playback mode and live-streaming mode. The data is safed into a sub-folder VizardData in the user’s home directory.

Version 1.6.0

  • Heads Up Displays of Coarse Sun Sensor coverage and boresight vectors

  • Panel Display of Coarse Sun Sensors measurements

  • updates to the vizMessage.proto to support Coarse Sun Sensors messages and settings

  • Standard Camera Panel settings fields can now be hidden by clicking a button on the panel providing a more compact view

  • changed the Unity player setting for the resolution quality panel to “Hidden By Default” to hopefully prevent it from popping up on every Windows app launch

  • inertial origin coordinate frame that is visible when only spacecraft messages are present (no celestial body messages) can now be hidden by toggling off the All Planet/Moon CS under the View menu

Version 1.5.1

  • spacecraft relative orbit lines can now be calculated using the chief spacecraft’s velocity frame instead of the Hill frame.

  • added Setting panel toggle and vizMessage setting field to allow user selection of relative orbit frame

  • added velocity frame coordinate system that can be toggled on under the View menu and a vizMessage setting field to show the axes

  • the settings fields on the Standard Camera panels can now be hidden by the user so that only the camera image portion of the panel remains visible

Version 1.5.0

  • Added the ability to visualize the osculating relative trajectory with respect to a target spacecraft. This works for circular, elliptical and hyperbolic trajectories!

  • Added scripting options to support the relative trajectory settings

  • Make the instrument camera show other spacecraft within the field of view

  • Enhanced the look of the default bskSat CAD model

  • Added Hill Frame Coordinate Axes display that can be toggled on under the View Menu or through scripting

Version 1.4.1

  • The vizMessage thruster default and individual color settings are supported. You can also change the default color setting in Settings panel and scale the length of the thruster plumes (make them half as long, double, etc.).

  • The thruster panel now properly labels the thruster groups

  • The size of the thrust plumes is scaled to maxThrust until the maxThrust value is equal to or less than 0.01N. All micro-thrusters below 0.01N in size are visualized as a very small thrust puff/plume.

  • This update also contains the ellipticity for all the celestial bodies we currently support.

  • Fixed a small bug in the Keep Out/In Cones. If you modified an existing cone and changed it’s type (from Out to In or In to Out) the coneViolation flag was not reset so you could end up seeing erroneous results until the state update was triggered. Now whenever an existing cone is modified that flag is reset.

Version 1.4.0

  • keyboard camera rate controls now with hot-keys for zooming in and out ([ or ]), pan left and right (← or →), tilt up and down (↑ and ↓), roll left and right (< or >). Pressing these keys multiple times increases or decreases the camera rate

  • hot-key s to stop all camera rates toggled with hot-keys

  • hot-key help panel (press h to show or use button under view menu)

  • removed time display button under Time menu because we now use hot keys

  • switched to 3 quality levels for viz app (Fast, Good, and Beautiful) and confirmed that shadows are showing up in Beautiful even on the AVS model. The Beautiful mode requires a good graphics card to yield a good frame rate.

  • added flashlight to camera, still toggled by L, useful to illuminate spacecraft when in shadow of a planet

  • fixed sun threshold bug that caused mesh not to show up from some angles

  • new timeline slider bar that live updates the rendered view

  • new File/Settings option to bring up a settings panel to change system default values

  • very cool new ray-traced shadows. You need the medium or highest graphics setting to see these. It is even possible to cast shadows onto nearby spacecraft.

Version 1.3.0

  • added option for playback of messages in real time. Real time mode references the system clock and advances messages as needed to keep pace with the current sim elapsed time of the message. Real time playback can be increased or decreased from 1x with the playback speed controls.

  • Real Time or Frame Rate playback options can be selected under the new Time menu

  • playback speed display modified to show the current playback speed relative to real time rather than the old frame rate speed

  • added a data rate display to allow user to see for how many Unity frames a vizMessage is displayed. Data rate display can be toggled under the Time menu or by pressing ‘d’ on the keyboard.

  • added epoch submessage to the vizMessage. If user omits epoch message, a default epoch of January 1, 2019 0h 0m 0s is used

  • epoch message is used to calculate Mission Time display which can be toggled on from Time menu or by pressing ’t’ on the keyboard

  • added vizMessage user setting to show mission time as 24 hr clock. This setting can also be toggled from the Time menu.

  • added vizMessage user setting to show the data rate display

  • updated the playback control sprites and slider for a clean look

  • fixed a bug in the handling of custom model user settings where the Standard shader was not applied during custom model import when specified by user

  • identified issue in custom model import: obj importer will not correctly import materials that were given a numeric name (i.e. “1”) Current workaround is to rename materials in .mtl and .obj files to use non-numeric strings.

Version 1.2.0

  • added 2D sprite representation of spacecraft and celestial bodies to support spacecraft constellation modeling and easier visualization of distant objects

  • added Sprite settings panel under view menu to allow customization of displayed sprites’ shape, size, and color

  • panel includes toggles to turn on/off sprite visualization for distant spacecraft or celestial bodies

  • added fields to protobuffer messages to allow setting of those toggles

  • added fields to protobuffer messages to allow user to specify a default spacecraft sprite as well as sprites for individual spacecraft

  • added code to disable HUD when their parent spacecraft is in sprite mode

  • other issues addressed in this release:

    • fixed bug in thruster HUD where thrusters with a minimum thrust of 0.5 N or less would not display a thruster plume by adding a floor to the particle life setting

    • changed the protobuffer message default value for boolean flags to use 0 for viz default, -1 for OFF and 1 for ON. This matches the default value of 0 sent in all protobuffer messages for int32 fields.

    • labels that belong to occluded bodies will now disappear until their body is visible again

Version 1.1.0

  • added floating labels for the following:

    • spacecraft names

    • sun, planets, moons names

    • coordinate axes

    • thruster HUD components

    • reaction wheel HUD components

    • standard and instrument camera names

  • labels can be toggled on and off from Labels Panel accessed through the View menu

  • label font size can be increased or decreased through the Labels panel

  • labels can also be toggled by type by using newly added fields in the Protobuffers vizMessage

  • revamped startup screen and file browser appearance to follow the general Vizard application design themes

Version 1.0.0 🍾🍾🍾🍾

  • Support for various screen sizes, including retina support on macOS

  • Added support to show the boresight of a camera model (both instrument and standard cameras)

  • Added support to draw a camera frustum that illustrates the camera orientation, field of view, camera pixel sensor aspect ratio. If the camera position is provided then the frustum is draw at that location as well.

  • Support for the user changing the GUI scaling on the fly from within the View menu

  • Improved 2-way camera models that interface with Basilisk v 1.7.0. The custom cameras are now called instrument cameras

  • Standard camera panels are now drawn at a more compact size by default. This makes their sizing and positioning more flexible.

  • Various under the hood improvements to support a BSK simulation with a simulated camera

  • Improved full screen support

  • Added support for all the new Vizard features to be scriptable from a python BSK simulation

Version 0.9.0

  • added an option to Standard Camera GUI panel and vizMessage to supply a custom camera position

  • eliminated camera jitter in body view when pointing at a nearby spacecraft

  • improved reaction wheel panels and HUD to better support multiple spacecraft by tracking the max speed and torque for each spacecraft’s reaction wheels

  • added fields to the vizMessage reaction wheel sub message to allow user to set the max torque and max speed

  • fixed broken link between Main scene manager and direct comm controller to restore direct comm liveStream as illustrated in scenarioBasicOrbitStream

  • improved support for Unity’s physical camera properties, focal length and sensor size, when setting up Custom Cameras

Version 0.8.1

  • trigger colliders now resize to fit the spacecraft mesh being used (improves the user experience when double-clicking to change camera targets)

  • fixed a bug that prevented multiple custom models being loaded back-to-back

  • rebased on Unity2019.2.16f1

Version 0.8.0

  • The camera view panel screen shot button now stores the PNG image in the user’s home folder

  • Changed how standard cameras work. The user can invoke readily 2 standard cameras and specify for which spacecraft these are attached. This scales much better with lots of spacecraft where before we attached 3 standard cameras to each spacecraft by default

  • made it possible to launch vizard in Black Lion live streaming mode from command line

  • Added option under File menu to compress simulation data

  • usability improvements to custom CAD model inventory and tuning GUI panels

Version 0.7.0

  • added ability to load in a custom CAD obj file to replace the default spacecraft model

  • added the ability to replace any simulation object with a custom object or a default shape like sphere, cone, cylinder, etc.

  • added vizMessage user settings support for custom models to allow automatic import at runtime

Version 0.6.0

  • scriptable vizMessage user settings allow users to customize the start-up configuration of vizard. Users can now toggle spacecraft and planet coordinate systems, orbit lines, actuator Heads Up Displays, actuator panels.

  • users can specify a custom skybox by providing a file path to the desired texture, one of the default skybox textures, or a plain black background with the skybox user setting

  • Spacecraft camera vizMessages can be configured to user specified headings or targets and panels can be automatically visible on start-up.

  • configuration messages specifying multiple pointing vectors and/or Keep Out or Keep In cones can be added to generate these items automatically during Vizard initialization

Version 0.5.0

  • added a lightweight opNav mode that can livestream camera images to the Basilisk simulation over the Direct Comm connection on demand

  • improved main camera panning

  • added support for reaction wheel spin sub message

  • scriptable user setting message for Ambient Brightness

Version 0.4.0

  • New option to set the ambient brightness

  • New Camera menu option to select the target object

  • General code fixes and improvements

  • Added option to toggle off/on orbit illustration

  • Added keyboard support to quit the application

Version 0.3.0

  • Initial public release of the new Unity based Basilisk visualization tool.

  • This tool is able to illustrate spacecraft translational position, trajectory, orientation and primary celestial bodies.

  • Currently this public Vizard copy support saving Basilisk simulation data to file to be then viewed in Vizard.

  • In development feature is being able to live stream Basilisk simulation data to Vizard directly

  • The Visualization can show a spacecraft centric view (default), a planet centric view (enabled by double clicking on planet or zooming out even further), and a heliocentric view (by zoom out even further)

  • Spacecraft and planet axes can be toggled on or off

  • Screen size can by dynamically changed

  • The menu bar at the top is dynamic in that it only shows device options if such devices are actually modeled and sent as messages to Vizard.

  • Heads-up visualization of the thrusters is possible

  • Device state panels can be enables for Reaction Wheels or Thrusters

  • Separate camera views can be invoked to get perspectives from the spacecraft along particular body-fixed directions

  • Direction vectors can be added from the spacecraft to other object to always illustrate the heading to the sun, the Earth, etc.

  • Keep-out and keep-in zones can be set within Vizard to visualize if a celestial object is visible within a body-fixed cone. This enables checking if a solar panel axis is within some degrees of the sun, or checking that a sensor axis is outside a cone relative to the sun.