Get an overview of all Actions available in Procedures and how they determine how the system reacts to the user proceeding through a Procedure.
Introduction
Actions can be used to ensure the Procedure reacts to the trainee progressing through the Steps. Each Operation has a list of "Actions before" that are being executed concurrently when the trainee reaches the Step, and a list of "Actions after" that are being executed concurrently as soon as the trainee has completed the Operation.
If the user wants several Actions to play one after the other, the user can make use of the "Duration" and "Delay" parameters of individual Actions. These can be found under the "Show more" button of each Action.
SynergyXR provides the following Actions:
- Change image
- Change material
- Change visibility
- Equip
- Make grabbable
- Move procedure panel
- Play animation
- Play audio
- Play video
- Toggle event
- Transform object
Change image
Used when a texture of a 3D model must be changed. Can be used to e.g., change the image of a PC screen to simulate the trainee progressing through the menus of the software running on the PC.
NB. Once this Action is used on a 3D model, the "Change Material" Action is no longer valid on that model since the underlying Material has been changed.
The following parameters can be set by the user:
- Object: Specify the object containing a Material using a texture that should be changed.
- Image: Use the drop-down menu to select between configured image content.
- Material: Specify the material using the texture that should be exchanged for the Image. The user can select from the drop-down menu of all materials contained in the Object.
Change material
Used to change material parameters of a 3D model. Can be used to alter the appearance or for animated highlight of objects. The following parameters can be set by the user:
- Object: Specify the Object containing a Material that should have one or more parameters changed.
- Material: Specify the material that should have one or more parameters changed. The user can select from the drop-down menu of all materials contained in the Object.
- Base color: Change the base color of the Material. This color will be added on top of any texture applied to the material.
- Mode: Specify how the material change should happen. Select between "Once", "Loop" and "Ping pong". If "Loop" or "Ping pong" is chosen, the material change will be animated between the existing and the new settings over the Duration specified – see below.
There are also a few noteworthy parameters hidden under the "Show more" button:
- Duration: Specify the duration of the material change. Used to animate the material changes over time.
- Emission HDR color: Sets an emissive color for a brighter result than just the base color. This can be used to dramatically highlight object.
Change visibility
Used when a 3D model should be enabled, disabled, shown or hidden. The following parameters can be set by the user:
- Object: Specifies the object that will change visibility.
- Style: Choose between:
- Enable object: Enable the Object. Child objects will resume their enable/disable state from before the parent Object was disabled.
- Disable object: Disable the Object and all child objects. All child objects will remain disabled until their parent Object is enabled again.
- Show mesh: Show the enabled Object and all children in the scene.
- Hide mesh: Hide the enabled Object and all children in the scene.
Equip
Used when the trainee must put on equipment (e.g., personal protection equipment). Often used as a reaction to the trainee completing an Operation that mimics the trainee picking up a piece of equipment and equipping it – by using a "Grab and place" Operation. The following parameters can be set by the user:
- Equipment: The equipment object in the scene that the trainee and all co-trainees should get equipped on their avatar.
- Unequip: As default, the Equip Action will ensure all trainees equip the Equipment. This parameter can be used to unequip the Equipment if that is desirable.
Make grabbable
Used to make an object grabbable by the trainee. Also ensures the object is affected by gravity when dropped. The following parameters can be set by the user:
- Object: Specify the object that the trainee should be able to grab and pick up.
Move procedure panel
Used to move the Procedure Panel – great to ensure the trainee always has the panel close at hand when progressing through the Procedure.
The following parameters can be set by the user:
- Position: Defines the new position of the Procedure Panel. Can be changed either by typing numbers directly into the input field or by dragging the 3D gizmo in the scene.
- Rotation: Defines the new rotation of the Procedure Panel. Can be changed either by typing numbers directly into the input field or by dragging the 3D gizmo in the scene.
Play animation
Used when the Procedure must play an animation embedded in a 3D model. The following parameters can be set by the user:
- Object: Defines the 3D object with the embedded animation to be played. Only objects with animations are valid for this parameter – indicated by the animation icon found in the Objects hierarchy.
- Animation name: Defines the animation to be played. The user can select between valid animations via the drop-down menu.
- Action: Defines if the animation should start playing ("Play") or if it should be stopped ("Stop").
- Mode: Defines how the animation should be played. Choose between:
- "Once" (only play the animation once from beginning to end);
- "Loop" (repeatedly play the animation from beginning to end until the "Stop" Action is chosen in a subsequent "Play" animation Action); or
- "Ping-pong" (repeatedly play the animation from beginning to end and reverse back to beginning until the "Stop" Action is chosen in a subsequent "Play" animation Action.
There are also a few noteworthy parameters hidden under the "Show more" button:
- Start frame: Defines the start frame of the animation. Can be used to crop the beginning of the animation, or to split the animation track into several smaller clips used at specific steps.
- End frame: Defines the end frame of the animation. Can be used to crop the end of the animation, or to split the animation track into several smaller clips used at specific steps.
- Frame rate: Defines the rate of which frames are evaluated. Normally this should match the frame rate of the recorded animation, but this parameter can also be used to speed up the animation (setting the "Frame rate" higher than the recorded frame rate) or slow down the animation (setting the "Frame rate" lower than the recorded frame rate).
- Complete before finishing Operation: When this is set to true (default) the Operation is not marked as finished allowing the trainee to proceed to the next Step in the Procedure until the animation has played to the end. Set this parameter to false if you want to allow the trainee to proceed through the Procedure, while the animation keeps playing in the background.
Play audio
Used when the Procedure must play an audio file already configured.
The following parameters can be set by the user:
- Audio clip: Use the drop-down menu to select between configured audio files.
- Action: Choose between "Play", "Pause", "Resume" and "Stop".
- Location: Can be used to specify a position in the scene defining the source of the audio (played as a 3D spatial audio file). If not specified, the audio is played omnipresent without a specific position.
There are also a few noteworthy parameters hidden under the ‘Show more’ button:
- Volume: Change the volume of the ‘Audio clip’. This must be value between ‘0’ and ‘1’ representing 0% to 100% of the original volume.
- Loop: Specify if the "Audio clip" should continue playing continuously, until paused or stopped using another "Play audio" Action with the "Action" set to "Pause" or "Stop" respectively.
- Play count: Specify how many times the "Audio clip" must be played.
- Interrupt guidance: Specify if the "Audio clip" should interrupt any audio guidance currently playing. Especially useful for Events that could be triggered while guidance for another Step is playing, but the user wants the Event audio take precedence. If audio guidance is interrupted by this Action, it will start playing the audio guidance once this Action is done playing.
Play video
Used when the Procedure must play a video file already configured and added to the 3D scene. The following parameters can be set by the user:
- Target: Defines the video object to be played.
- Action: Choose between "Play" and "Stop".
- Mute: Option to mute the video.
There are also a few noteworthy parameters hidden under the "Show more" button:
- Start time: Defines the start time of the video defined in seconds. Can be used to crop the beginning of the video, or to split the video into several smaller clips used at specific steps.
- End time: Defines the end time of the video defined in seconds. Can be used to crop the end of the video, or to split the video into several smaller clips used at specific steps.
- Loop: Option to continuously loop the video (optionally defined be the start/end time).
- Volume: Adjust the volume of the video. This must be value between ‘0’ and ‘1’ representing 0% to 100% of the original volume.
- Complete before finishing Operation: When this is set to true (default) the Operation is not marked as finished allowing the trainee to proceed to the next Step in the Procedure until the video has played to the end. Set this parameter to false if you want to allow the trainee to proceed through the Procedure, while the video keeps playing in the background.
Toggle event
Controlling when a trainee should be able to interact with an Event (enabled) and when the trainee should no longer be able to interact with an Event (disabled).
The following parameters can be set by the user:
- Enable: List of Events to enable – select from the drop-down menu listing all defined Events.
- Disable: List of Events to disable – select from the drop-down menu listing all defined Events.
Transform object
Used when an object should be moved, rotated and/or scaled.
The following parameters can be set by the user:
- Object: Specifies the object to be moved, rotated and/or scaled.
- Position: Specifies the new position of the Object. Can be changed either by typing numbers directly into the input field or by dragging the 3D gizmo in the scene.
- Rotation: Specifies the new rotation of the Object. Can be changed either by typing numbers directly into the input field or by dragging the 3D gizmo in the scene.
- Scale: Specifies the new scale of the Object. Can be changed either by typing numbers directly into the input field or by dragging the 3D gizmo in the scene.
There are also a few noteworthy parameters hidden under the "Show more" button:
- Duration: Specify the duration (in seconds) of the transform action. Used to animate the transformation over time. Overrides the default 0.75 seconds duration.
- New parent: Defines the new parent of the Object. The Action will result in the Object becoming a child object to the "New parent" object if this parameter is set.