sim

Code for simulations in Blender

Setup

Install the following addon for VSCode. It supports fast script testing and debug functionality for Blender in VSCode.

Blender Development - Jacques Lucke

Follow the instructions for running a Blender instance, and launching the script.

Running from Command-line

Open the terminal at the root level of the project directory (i.e sim\)

To run the file and setup the environment, run

blender -P blender_scripts\blender_env.py

To setup the environment and create render frames, run

blender -P blender_scripts\blender_env.py -- render

Optionally, if you wish to run the entire process in the background without the UI, add the -b arg (it does not speedup runtime however)

blender -b -P blender_scripts\blender_env.py -- render

Blender CLI args Documentation

Auto complete Blender

See (rough) instructions here: Using Microsoft Visual Studio Code as external IDE for writing Blender scripts/add-ons

Core steps:

• Download repo with Blender Autocomplete:
• Search python.autoComplete.extraPaths in your settings (Workspace or user)
• Add the following:

    "python.autoComplete.extraPaths": [
    
        "/path_to/blender_autocomplete-master/2.90"    
    ],
    "python.linting.pylintArgs": [
        "--init-hook",
        "import sys; sys.path.append('/path_to/blender_autocomplete-master/2.90')"
    ],

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Alternate auto-complete solution by installing a fake bpy module

Function Documentation

Lighting

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BlenderEnv.make_lights(self, type_of_light,number_of_lights, base_power, power_variance,light_color='random',color_min=0, color_max=1)

Populates self.lights_collection with Blender light objects. Lights are generated in the vicinity of the simulated arena.

Parameters:

type_of_light (String): Determines which style of Blender light object to create.

Options: 'Point','SPOT'

number_of_lights (Int): Determines the number of Blender light objects that the function generates.

base_power (Float): Determines the minimum power (in Watts) of Blender light objects that the function generates.

base_power (Float): Determines the maximum additional power (in Watts) on top of base_power that light objects can attain. Power values of lights are in the range (base_power, base_power+power_variance).

light_color (3-Tuple of Floats between 0 and 1): Specifies the RGB values for the color of light objects. If no value is specified, colors are determined randomly.

color_min (Float between 0 and 1): For random light colors, specifies the minimum value for RGB values.

color_max (Float between 0 and 1): For random light colors, specifies the maximum value for the RGB values.

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Render functionality

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All the configurations for rendering frames, including simulation variables and render output quality are at the top of render.py in a dict called render_configs, adjust as necessary.

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