Creating a New Scene

You can also refer to this video for a demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XetDzyzExFc 

The template can be modified to use your own environment model and objects of interest. These models can be from many sources. See this page for supported 3D model types and where to get 3D models. One good source for getting 3D models is http://www.sketchfab.com (download as .glTF, see this tutorial for more info). There are also a few environments you can start with in the environments folder, as well as some sample objects in the “objects” folder. To access more environments, objects, avatars and media that you can use with SightLab download the full starter pack here 


This setup would be for running a participant (or group of participants) through a simple eye tracking experiment. More advanced options are detailed later. 


Note: In addition to using the built-in 3D world builder tool, Inspector, you may also set up your scene using a 3D modeling program such as Blender (export as .glTF/glb) (see this page for more details). You would then just bring the model into Inspector and add group nodes for tagging objects of interest (see below). 


Open Inspector (By double clicking the Inspector.py file or in Vizard going to Tools- Inspector) and load your environment by choosing File-Open

Drag Left Mouse Button: Orbit the viewpoint

Shift + Click Left Mouse Button: Move viewpoint to clicked on surface

Drag Right Mouse Button: Pan the view

Scroll Wheel: zoom towards/away from viewpoint

Z: zoom extents of selected node


- For more information on Inspector see this page in the Vizard documentation

To check the size of your environment, click on the root node in the top left scene graph and look on the bottom right to see the size in meters.

You can bring in a stand-in avatar (utils- resources- avatar- vcc_male.cfg) to see where someone would start in the scene and how it looks to scale. To bring down the scale or move the starting point, select the root transform node (gear icon) of the environment model and use the move, scale and rotate tools. For more information see this tutorial. (You can also adjust the starting position by adding these lines in your sightLabExperiment function:

import vizconnect

SightLab_VR.transportNode = vizconnect.getTransport('main_transport').getNode3d()

SightLab_VR.transportNode.setPosition([x,y,z]) and put in the coordinates you want to start at).


Note: If you don’t see a root transform node you may need to insert one at the top of your scene hierarchy by right clicking and choosing either “insert above” or “insert below”- Transform. You can then select that transform and scale your model

If your environment model already includes your objects of interest, then you can skip this step, otherwise, go to File- Add and add objects that you would like to measure eye tracking data on. You can then use the transform tools to position, rotate and scale the object(s)

On the left you will see your list of nodes in your scene. The red, blue and green node is a group node. IMPORTANT: This is what is needed to collect data on objects 



Usually when you add an object it will come in as a group node. If not, you will need to right click and select “insert above- group” on any node you wish to add as an object of interest.

You will also need to add a group node above any objects that are already part of your model that you wish to collect data on. For selecting areas of interest, see the section about that below.
 To move, scale or rotate the objects, click on the transform node (with the gear icon) and use the transform tools. If there is no transform node, right click and choose Insert Above- Transform. 


There is also the ability to manually add any child objects in the GUI (if they are not a group node or don't come in) by clicking on "configure" and manually entering the child object's name


Rename the objects by right clicking on the group node and selecting “rename”. (NOTE: It is important that the name of the object is not the same as a name that already exists in the model. It would be good practice to add the tag “_group” next to your objects you want to collect data on. To see if there is another node with that name you can use the “search” option in the top right). 


If you want an object to automatically not be checked for data, add the tag “_env” to its group (such as the root node of the environment model). 



You can also add things such as lights, backgrounds and more with Inspector. To add a light, go to Create- Light and choose Directional, Point or Spot Light. Clicking on the light will bring up its attributes on the right.





And that’s it! You now have your eye tracking experiment setup to run in your eye tracker of choice and collect data and visualize it. 


Save this scene to the utils- resources- environment folder and give your scene a name



For more information on Inspector see the Vizard documentation.