Siemens COMOS Walkinside is a 3D visualisation tool for oil and gas plant operation training.

It’s built using it’s own engine, and has it’s own method of outputting to an Igloo Structure.

Igloo Configuration

Two servers are required:  Server1 and Server2

Server1 -

This is a standard igloo media server, which runs the Igloo Warper and Igloo Unpack Capture software and drives the projection system. It has also has a DataPath Vision SC-DP2 video Capture Card which can capture up to two 4k video inputs.

Server2 - This machine is dedicated to running the Walkinside software.

Steps for setup

1. HDMI Outputs from the first Graphics Card (GPU) in both servers should be connected to the KVM switch.

2. If using a cube, all four projectors should be connected to the second GPU on Server1

3. A Display Port cable should be connected from Server 2's  GPU to input 1 on the Capture Card, the output resolution should be set to 3840x2160 in windows display settings.

4. If you are setting up for a standard Igloo, not a Cube, the second input of the capture card should also be connected to the GPU, this should be set to an output resolution of 1920x1080

Walkinside Software Setup

Licensing

Once a license has been purchased, the license file needs to be generated. The process for this is

1. Run the COMOS Hostid extractor tool found here - https://goo.gl/EdDkuX on Server2 , this will generate a hostid.txt file which should be sent to the Siemens contact for licence generation.

2. You will then be sent a license file, this should put in the following directories

C:\Program Files\COMOS\COMOS Walkinside 10.2 (64 bit)\VRLicense

Window Configuration

A settings file must be loaded which configures Walkinside to create and position multiple game viewports (windows) which combined create a 360 degree view. There are configuration files for 4 or 5 screens. Place all the configuration files found here - https://goo.gl/vKqVNQ  into the following directory

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\COMOS\COMOS Walkinside 10.2 (64 bit)\Config Files\Configuration

To load a viewport configuration.

1. Open Walkinside

2. Go to Options > Settings from the menu bar

3. Select “3D Options” from the menu

4. Select the startup configuration from the drop down menu

5. Restart walkinside

Note : you will only need to load a configuration once, after which it will be saved for the next time you start Walkinside

Cylinder

Once loaded four windows will be created and positioned on the 4k display, and one will be positioned on the addition 1080p display

Cube

Once loaded four windows will be created and positioned on the 4k display

Igloo Software Setup

Igloo Unpack Capture

Download from here - https://goo.gl/pLuDKV

Igloo Unpack Capture receives video from Server1 via the capture card device and arranges the multiple view ports into a single output which is sent to the Igloo Warper using spout.

Main Settings

The settings file Settings.xml can be found in the data folder of the Unpack Capture application.

“senderName” - is the name of the spout sender which the warper will receive to display the output of the UnpackCapture app. The name will be needed when setting up the warper so keep a note of it.  

Input Settings

There is Readme.txt file included in the download with instructions of how to configure the application, however, settings files have already been created for the Cylinder and Cube configurations and can be found here - https://goo.gl/5CgkXt

Download the correct InputSettings.xml file (Cube or Cylinder) and place it in the data folder of the UnpackCapture application.

The capture card has a Device ID which can change depending on how the hardware has been set up, this must be set in the InputSettings.xml file. To find the the device ID of the capture card.

1. Run the IglooUnpackCapture app

2. The available devices will be displayed in the console window of the application. The ID is the number next to the description. e.g

Igloo Warper

Settings

The settings file  IglooWarperMainSettings.xml can be found in the data folder of the Igloo Warper application.

“spoutSingleCanvasReceiverName” - This should be the same as the “senderName” in the settings of the Unpack Capture app

Useage

To enable Walkinside to display in the Igloo, open TouchOSC on the tablet and navigate to the “Effects” tab, the enable “spout layer” and “spout single/multi”

Connecting the controller

Recent developments have led to Walkinside being controlled by a Dualshock 4 controller rather than the previous Xbox controller. This requires a few things

1. A Sony DS4 dongle and a DS4 controller

2. A Bluetooth connection from the computer running Walkinside

3. The DS4Windows program

What the DS4Windows program does is it allows the DS4 to operate as an Xbox controller, effectively remapping the inputs. The process for the connection is as follows:

1. Set the controller to pair mode (Hold down the "share" button until the light on the back begins flashing:

2. Pair the controller with the machine through the windows settings - will appear as "Wireless controller"

Open

Controller mapping

All Walkinside settings are edited in a Dialogue box under options → settings (alternatively, F7)

The first tab is under VR Hardware → gamepad. . Selecting the Controller (XBOX 360 For Wondows) allows you to remap the inputs within Walkinside. The options include movement around the terrain, Walking/Running and how to "fly" within Walkinside. The left stick always moves the cursor, so binding another input to the left stick will result in it performing 2 functions. This should be avoided

Performance settings

If you're experiencing poor performance, Overall → performance allows you to adjust the quality of the application. Under the "advanced settings" box, you'll see three sliders: Rejection, Occlusion and Tessellation.

Tessellation adjusts how "block-like" the textures appear. The Occlusion slider should be avoided. Rejection reduces the number of polygons that are drawn on screen, and seems to target first, polygons that are further away from the avatar.

You can increase the maximum memory that Walkinside can use at Options → Settings → General. As walkinside is the only thing running on the machine there's no reason why it can't be high enough to cover the entire model

Changing colours:

Zaid expressed that the initial model for Tangguh was too bright. Taken with you should be a tool called WSMaterialeditor.exe. Using this tool, you can open the material file within the model folder. Under the white filters tab, you can adjust the saturation and darken the colours.

The material file is stored within Tangguh \Model

Open

Colour correction can be adjusted in Options → Settings → Rendering

Near Clipping Plane:

Under the "clipping" tab, you can adjust the disatnce of the near clipping plane. This removes objects that are close to the avatar, removing them from vision and from the collision plane, which may help with navigation in tight areas, This currently results in the loss of half the screens and should probably be avoided

Navigation

Allows you to adjust walking speed, and camera settings.

Gravity → Forces you to walk

Collision → Prevents you from walking into pipes and other objects. Or to also bring the camera in front of objects if the object has collision

Logo

Specify a logo to appear in the top right of the main screen. I don't currently know if it will open in the viewports

Toolbars

Allows you to select which options have quick-select toolbar icons

Skybox:

Skybox settings are visual settings that adjust what the sky looks like. Disabling would reduce computing requirement but shouldn't be an issue. The same is true for Ocean.

Additionally, you can change from Day to Night time.This adjusts where the origin of the sunlight comes from. There is a toolbar icon that will force the sun to shine from behind you. This is cool effect for the Igloo in 360

Compass

Determines whether a compass is visible in the top right of the main screen. Also applies to each viewpoint, with an inaccurate compass on 3 out of 4 displays

3D Options:

Allows you to choose the config file for startup. I'd recommend removing the .xmls that aren't for the required system

Scenario options

Some 3D objects are not tagged for use in the scenario. In this case, acknowledging the steps is achieved using the 'T' key. Furthermore, some steps do not have an interactive model associated, requiring the use of the T Key. It may be worth looking into taking a solution such as a wiireless keyboard as it's currently not possible to map this to a controller inpiut

On the main screen, you can turn on model tags in the "redlining" tab. For an individual redline you can also alter the distance at which you see the tags.

The Plus key "+" is used to climb ladders even with gravity enabled

Support

For support, email andoni.gonzalo@siemens.com, nigel.sams@siemens.com and gert.de_nul@siemens.com attaching relevant images, videos and log files. Log files can be found at C:\users\user\appdata\COMOS\COMOSWalkinside\Log

Logs