Starting the designer from a console

After a few weeks playing with OpenViBE, people usually ask me if it is possible to use OpenViBE as a scenario player, automatically loading and starting a scenario. Well indeed, it is possible to do this. In order to set up the Cite des Sciences demo, we had to install a click & play demo. For this aim, Laurent added a couple of switches to the designer command. Unfortunately, on Windows, most people just want to double click on the shortcuts and do not notice them. So in order to use those switches, just edit the openvibe-designer.cmd or ov-designer.sh script to add the switches you need :

–open filename
opens an existing scenario

–play filename
opens and immediately starts an existing scenario

–play-fast filename
opens and immediately starts an existing scenario, playing it as fast as possible (useful for training scenarios)

Those flags are already included in 0.8.0.

Now let’s check what is coming for the next release. First, I added a simple but very convenient feature that automatically saves the list of opened scenarios when quitting the designer and reopens them when you start it again ! I also added a couple of other switches that you can combine at will according to your needs :

–no-gui
hides the designer GUI, just leaving visible the visualization boxes.
In case no scenario is automatically started with either –play or –play-fast, the designer automatically quits.
In case started scenarios are all terminated (e.g. using the Player Controller box), the designer automatically quits as well.

–no-session-management
does not restore nor save the opened scenarios when the designer starts and quits.

So obviously, using –no-gui, –no-session-management and –play filename, will provide a really convenient way to deploy a click & play demo using OpenViBE. Of course, the –help switch will give you an up to date list of what is available.

I hope you find this useful.

2 Comments to “Starting the designer from a console”

  1. Naëm Baron 19 January 2011 at 10:14 am #

    Nice :)
    I hope to get more *free time* to play again with OV and “deploy a click & play demo using OpenViBE”.

    • Yann Renard 19 January 2011 at 10:56 am #

      Hello Naëm, glad to see you around. I’m sure you will find some nice applications ideas. Did you finish building your OpenEEG amp & electrodes ?