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NG Design Document/Use Cases/Simulation and Visualization

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Contents

Introduction

This section is for Education, Research, and Industrial users who wish to use the system as a generic simulation and visualization platform. The tools currently used in such sectors are usually very special purpose and inflexible to extend, and this platform can compete by offering an open and highly extensible platform to conduct powerful simulations.

This segment are power users who are currently poorly served, drive high-end features that simpler users will come to expect later, and are among our first adopters.

Use Case Name

Visualize Custom Data Format

Goal Visualize data from a novel source in a novel format
Summary There are many data formats, and it is unlikely realXtend can support all of them. Moreover in research and industry, special purpose or proprietary formats are not uncommon. To understand them, a custom converter must be written.
Actors User, Programmer, Converter, Agent
Preconditions
  • User is logged in to a space with permissions
Triggers Desire to visualize custom data.
Basic path
  1. User requests a custom converter module written for his data format
  2. Programmer uses agent API to convert custom data to internal representation
  3. User loads module and activates the module's import UI
  4. User opens selects the data to import
  5. Converter converts to renderable format
  6. Agent renders the data to screen
Alternative paths
  1. User may choose to enable or disable the avatar entirely
Exceptional paths
Postconditions


Use Case Name

Simulate Custom Dynamic Environment

Goal Simulate a custom environment using a dynamics engine which is customized to your application.
Summary In the past each new simulation in industry or research required a customized simulator built from the ground up. If we can provide a set of common, standard, replacable services, it becomes much easier to replace only a subset with customized versions. This will also allow sharing of simulations among partners.
Actors User, Programmer, Simulator, Dynamics Engine, Agent
Preconditions
  1. User has permission to install modules on the simulation server
Triggers Desire to create a custom simulation.
Basic path
  1. User requests a custom dynamics engine be written for his custom scenario
  2. Programmer uses agent or simulator API to receive input messages and send dynamic messages to drive a custom simulation
  3. User loads modules and initiates a simulation
  4. Simulator exchanges messages with the dynamics engine and other internal modules to generate results
  5. User logs-in to visualize the simulation
  6. User dumps output log to file for further analysis
Alternative paths
Exceptional paths
Postconditions
Use Case Name

Visualize Prototypes

Goal Visualize complex objects which only exist as abstract prototypes
Summary Humans are extremely visual creatures, and adding a visual representation to objects which have hitherto remained entirely abstract, allows the viewer to reason more concretely about the situation.
Actors User, Agent
Preconditions
  • User is logged in to a space with permissions
Triggers Desire to visualize custom data.
Basic path
  1. User imports the item from an external source
  2. User places and scales the item for ease of viewing
  3. User moves about the item in space and observes it
  4. User interacts with the object using its physical, hierarchical, or visible properties
Alternative paths
  1. User may choose to build the prototype directly within realXtend from scratch
Exceptional paths
Postconditions
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