nVIZ Virtual Test Drive Server Documentation

Release 2021.2 Date: 27 September 2021

New: Added support for Autodesk VRED 2022.1 version.
New: VTD Dashboard Bridge console displays the IP addresses of the machine for ease of use.
Fix: Removed the spike in the value of steering wheel angle at the beginning of simulation.

Release 2021.1 Date: 15 June 2021

New: Supports IPG Carmaker session running on a remote host.
Change: Minor UI changes to Motion Plugin for Autodesk VRED.

Release 2021.0 Date: 09 March 2021

New: Added support for Autodesk VRED 2021.2

Release 2020.2 Date: 24 September 2020

New: Added support for IPG CarMaker 9.
New: Added support for VRED Professional 2021.1 version.
New: Added logo and title to plug-in title bar in Motion Plugin.
New: Main menu in Motion Plugin.
New: Save function in Motion Plugin.
New: Option to use custom names of the traffic elements to be subscribed from IPG CarMaker.
New: Options – function to offset the environment according to the vehicle body transformations of the first time step
New: Check box to toggle the traffic listener
New: Check box to toggle the user quantities listener
Change: Data serialization changed from marshal to pickle in Motion Plugin.
Change: Moved “File Open” and “Save As” to main menu “File” in Motion Plugin.
Change: Vehicle rig GUI changed to tree widget – node referencing on context menu (right mouse button) in Motion Plugin.
Change: Traffic rig GUI changed to tree widget – node referencing on context menu (right mouse button) in Motion Plugin.
Change: Updated default traffic rig file template.
Change: Changed name of Motion plugin’s uninstaller to avoid conflict with VTD uninstaller.
Fix: Fixed the issue of node pointer for environment offset in Motion Plugin.
Fix: Fixed the issue of vehicle and traffic rig pointers not updating once the simulation is started.

Release 2020.1 Date: 05 June 2020

New: Added support for VRED Professional 2021 version.

Release 2020.0 Date: 18 March 2020

Bug-Fix: Fixed the skipped response to the dashboard when Carmaker simulation is not running.

Release 2019.5 Date: 07 October 2019

New: Added support for IPG CarMaker 7 & CarMaker 8.
New: Added support for 10 traffic members defined in CarMaker (supported for VRED only).
New: Preferences GUI is added for less frequent settings.
New: Project file can be provided as command line argument to VTD Server.
New: Working directory is remembered to save/load project file again.
New: Dashboard bridge tested to be used with VTD Server running on external host.
Change: Pedal calibrations are moved to preferences file to avoid setting them for every project.
Change: Configuration file is replaced by preferences file which is editable from Preferences GUI (Edit->Preferences).
Change: Project file format is changed to human-readable format(XML). (Old project files will still work)
Change: Preferences file format is changed to generic human-readable format (XML).
Change: VTD Server GUI elements have fixed decimal points for better visual experience.

Release 2019.4.1 Date: 19 July 2019

Change: Hip-point position in Y-axis can also be set as negative in GUI.
Bug-Fix: Fixed the hip-point transformation for Bosch eMotion motion platform.

Release 2019.4 Date: 11 July 2019

New: Added support for Bosch eMotion motion platform.
New: Added support for VRED Professional 2020.1 version.
New: Added option to use Bosch eMotion motion platform in different modes.
New: Added “About VTD Server” under “Help” tab to show version and license information.
New: Added GUI element to change the timeout duration for carmaker simulation start.
New: Configuration file is added for less frequent settings.
New: Setting in the config file to disable log files – improves performance
New: Setting in the config file to set the seat reference point in terms of MRP (Bosch eMotion only)
New: CarMaker is not disconnected on VTD server stop.
New: Testrun is not unloaded from CarMaker on VTD server stop.
Change: CarMaker quantities subscription phenomenon changed.
Change: Finish page check buttons in the installer are checked by default.
Bug-Fix: Carmaker for simulink simulation doesn’t gets stuck in “Preparation”.
Bug-Fix: Main Log file updates properly at every timestep.
Bug-Fix: Updated Cosmate MB150 emulator.
Bug-Fix: Timer of nVIZ Motion stops on “Reset” button click.
Bug-Fix: Steering wheel angle inter-changed by gear number in REPLAY mode of nVIZ Motion Plugin is fixed.
Bug-Fix: Issues with Cosmate motion platform and Custom DLL are resolved.
Info: Project file version changed. – most of the old files will work with a warning.

Release 2019.3.1 Date: 22 March 2019

Bug-Fix: Updated the number of expected entries from the CSV data file in replay mode of Motion plugin.

Release 2019.3 Date: 19 March 2019

New: Added UserOut_xx quantities of IPG CarMaker to subscribing list.
New: Added UserOut_xx, Equilibrium Position & Hip Point Position to user-accessible data structures of
custom DLL project for motion platform.
New: Lane width is not limited to 100m for Digitized Road File and CRG Section File.
Change: Updated MB150 Emulator utility.

Release 2019.2 Date: 28 February 2019

New: Added Autodesk VRED 2019.2 as a supported render engine.
Bug-Fix: Application crash if the CarMaker takes longer to load the testrun.
Bug-Fix: Simulation start/ stop failed randomly.

Release 2019.1 Date: 28 January 2019

Imp.: License Verification changed from this release onwards. Please contact nVIZ GmbH to get new license files.
New: Online documentation is available under https://nvizde.com/nviz-online-help/nviz-virtual-test-drive-server/
New: Autopilot Setting: ‘Default’ or ‘Constrained User Selection’ (further details in online documentation).
Bug-Fix: Fixed the issue of “Pause” state of CarMaker being detected as “Stop”.
Change: The name of the executable of VTD server is changed to “VirtualTestDrive.exe”.
Change: The name of the license file is changed to “nVIZvtd.lic”.
Change: The name of the .py & .ui file for VRED plugin is changed from “nVIZMotion” to “nVIZ Motion”.
Change: Help link in the GUI is changed according to new website of nVIZ GmbH.
Change: Sample projects are not included in the installer, but available as a separate download.
Change: Node.js installer is not included in the VTD installer, but available as a separate download.

Release 2018.6.1 Date: 18 December 2018

Bug-Fix: Fixed the issue of jump start/stop of Motion Platform from Dashboard.

Release 2018.6 Date: 01 December 2018

New: Integration of VTD server with “Concurrent iHawk” Real Time Operating System.
New: VTD server retries to connect with Motion Platform multiple times.
New: Dashboard, Render Engine & RTOS can be connected from remote machine’s UDP port.
Bug-Fix: Fixed the issue of repeatedly printing of messages from custom DLL for motion platform.
Change: Now, motion platform thread reacts similar to other threads in case of system pause.
Change: Stop of simulation is detected from simulation time of CarMaker instead of “SC_State”.
Info.: Start of Simulation is still detected from change of “SC_State” quantity.

Release 2018.5_beta2 Date: 30 August 2018

New: Transformer class in unity plugin DLL takes care of everything for real-time drive with VTD server.
Improved: Simplified the usage of unity plugin DLL.
Improved: New documentation for the unity plugin DLL with some detail of every function.
Info: The example project of Unity3D is updated according to the changes in DLL.

Release 2018.5_beta Date: 10 August 2018

New: Unity3D added as a new render engine option.
New: Added some new quantities to be subscribed from IPG CarMaker. These quantities are passed to Unity3D only.
Info: A dll is provided that can be included in any Unity3D project to communicate with VTD Server in real-time.
Info: Path of the dll is as follows: “C:\Program Files\nVIZ\VirtualTestDrive\renderengines\unity\unityVtdPlugin.dll”
Info: Further details can be found in a text file under “%Public%\Documents\nVIZ\VirtualTestDrive\UserData\UnityExample”.
Info: An example project of Unity3D is also included under “%Public%\Documents\nVIZ\VirtualTestDrive\UserData\UnityExample”

Release 2018.4 Date: 29 June 2018

New: Added some new quantities to be subscribed from IPG CarMaker during test-run.
New: More quantities are made available in the user-programmable dll project for Motion Platform.
Info.: User-programmed Dll for Motion Platform needs to be copied to “C:\Program Files\nVIZ\VirtualTestDrive”.

Release 2018.3.1 Date: 22 June 2018

Imp.: From this release onwards, administrator rights will be required on the PC to install/uninstall.
New: Bake timeline/ Replay animation feature in VRED plugin.
New: Brake lights & Gear shift variant sets handling in VRED plugin.
New: Short-cut for Dashboard and VirtualTestDrive in Start Menu.
New: Optional desktop short-cut in the installer.
New: License agreement in the installer.
Bug-Fix: CRG file generation for the Positive-X Co-ordinate System.
Bug Fix: VRED plugin can now create the fbx file even if there are spaces in the path.
Changes: Install directory is changed to “C:\Program Files\nVIZ\VirtualTestDrive”
Info.: “User Data” and “Utilities” are still under “C:\Users\Public\Documents\nVIZ\VirtualTestDrive”
Info.: “OutputQuantities” file is added to the templates directory which needs to be replaced in CarMaker project by the user.

Release 2018.3 Date: 29 May 2018

New: Added position control for the SensoWheel to reproduce steering in autopilot mode.
New: Autopilot can be switched on/off while the test-run is running.
New: Added autopilot accessible from Dashboard (command:21,). (‘1’ for ON, & ‘0’ for OFF)
New: Autopilot can be turned off by pushing throttle/brake or clutch pedal.
New: Autopilot can be turned off if the user over-rides the steering-wheel.
New: VRED scene is also switchable with load testrun command from Dashboard.
Bug-Fix: Improved the stability of Dashboard.
Changes: The Dashboard directory is changed to “%Public%\Documents\nVIZ\VirtualTestDrive\dashboard\SourceFiles”.
Changes: Nodejs server to bridge the requests from Dashboard is renamed to be “nVIZ_Bridge”.

Release 2018.2 Date: 27 April 2018

New: Added HTML Dashboard.
New: Added separate log files for all devices/ softwares.
New: Added gear selection (P/R/N/D) from VTD GUI & Dashboard (Command:20,).
New: Reset SensoWheel and Cosmate Motion-Platform to initial position when start/stop from CarMaker GUI.
Bug-Fix: Clutch pedal calibrations are updated from the loaded project file.
Changes: All log files are generated in the directory: %Public%\Documents\nVIZ\VirtualTestDrive\UserData\Logs
Changes: VRED Scenes and CarMaker projects directories are moved to: %Public%\Documents\nVIZ\VirtualTestDrive\UserData
Changes: Default Vehicle Rig textfile is moved to: %Public%\Documents\nVIZ\VirtualTestDrive\UserData\Templates

Release 2018.1 Date: 29 March 2018

Bug-Fix: Close VTD GUI signal is catched and server is stopped to release all devices properly.
Bug-Fix: VTD Server GUI freeze problem is solved now.
Bug-Fix: VTD Server crash problem when Simulation Solver is not connected is solved now.