Get Started Creating Virtual World with Actors

The Simulink^® 3D Animation™ provides an interface to a simulation environment that is visualized using the Unreal Engine^® from Epic Games^®. Within this environment, you can create virtual world containing custom actors. An actor is any object placed in the virtual world that can move and rotate to support 3D transformations in the virtual world. You can create a virtual world, build actors and view the virtual world in Simulation 3D Viewer through MATLAB^® and Simulink interfaces of the Simulink 3D Animation toolbox.

Create World and Build Actor

You can create virtual world and build actors using MATLAB or Simulink. In MATLAB, use sim3d.World, sim3d.Actor objects and functions to create a virtual world, build actor objects and view the world. In Simulink, use Simulation 3D Scene Configuration block and Simulation 3D Actor block to create virtual world, build actors and view the virtual world.

Action	Example
Create a world object.	Create World and Actor
Create an actor object.
Build an actor from a predefined list of primitive shapes using createShape.	Build Actor from 3D Graphic Primitives
Build an actor from a supported 3D file format.	Build Actor from Imported 3D File
Build an actor from reference points in the X, Y, and Z axes to construct the build of a 3D model, called a mesh using createMesh.	Build Actor from Mesh Data and Apply Texture

Animate Actors

Set Properties of sim3d.Actor object to animate the actor in virtual world.

Action	Example
Animate actors using Physical Attributes including Gravity.	Animate Actor with Gravity Property
Animate actors using Physical Attributes including LinearVelocity and AngularVelocity.	Animate Actor Using Kinematics Properties
Animate actors using Physical Attributes including Force and Torque.	Animate Actors Using Kinetics Properties
Animate actors using Physical Attributes including Friction and Restitution.	Animate Actors with Dissipative Properties
Animate actor in different coordinate systems using CoordinateSystem property.	View Actor Orientation in MATLAB Coordinate System

Note

Enabling the physics attribute will invoke use of the PhysX^® engine to control actor motion.

Communicate with Actors

Set up a co-simulation framework to communicate with Unreal Engine and interact with actors during run-time. You can also set Properties of sim3d.Actor object to simulate actors and report events like actor collision.

Action	Example
Control actor motion using the Simulink blocks and MATLAB Programmatic Interface.	Animate Actor Using Simulink and MATLAB Inputs
Remove an actor during run-time.	Delete Actor During Simulation
Report actor events and access the actor properties during run-time.	Report Events Using Actor Callbacks