What’s new in MORSE 0.5.x?¶
General¶
- MORSE 0.5 requires Blender >= 2.59 and < 2.62 (because of some changes in the matrices handling - support for Blender >= 2.62 is expected for next release)
- Lots of cleaning (middleware empties have been removed)
- The command line
morse run {scene.blend|scene.py}
now works as expected (i.e., starts the simulation as soon as Blender opens). Optional arguments can be added and are passed to the script - Unit-testing support for MORSE (cf doc: dev/testing). Added a target to the build file (‘make test’).
GUI¶
- First version of a graphical user interface to add components to a scene
- Plugin for loading DTM/IGN data has been ported to Blender 2.5/Python 3.2
Middlewares¶
- Support of ROS services. Partial support for ROS actions (cf commit 02fda)
- The long-standing issue with the socket server (bug #162) has been solved. It is now possible to listen to a socket stream without prior initialization.
Builder API¶
- New export script (available as Blender add-on) to export a MORSE Blender scene to the MORSE Builder format.
- Added support for multi-node configuration in the builder API
- Added support for static, passive objects
- Many examples and tutorials have been converted to the Builder API.
Components¶
- Static objects have a redefined set of options to make them active or not, graspable or not, etc. See Passive objects)
- New components that can be created from the Builder API, such as:
- Infrared sensor
- Battery sensor
- Light switch actuator
- Camera images can now be vertically flipped via the
vertical_flip
property
Multi-node¶
- New abstract API for multi-node implementation. The current socket-based and HLA implementation now use it
- This allows for having a single builder script to be used on all nodes. The
configuration of each node is done using the environment variable
MORSE_NODE
HRI¶
Much work has been done in this domain:
- New human avatar with a much improved behaviour/animation. It is controllable from mouse + keyboard or Kinect (experimental)
- The avatar features a ‘manipulation mode’ where objects can be picked and dropped, and special objects like drawers and cupboards can be opened.
- The human avatar can be easily added via the Builder API (instantiate the ‘Human’ class)