Python Reference

Last revision: ver. 4.2-alpha6 - 28 August 2013

omegalib exposes most of its API to Python, so the vast majority of omegalib applications are developed as python scripts. Using python instead of C++ to develop your omegalib application offers several advantages:

• You can port your application to different systems without recompiling. For instance you can develop a script on your laptop, then copy it to CAVE2 and just launch it. Configuration files will do the rest.
• You can modify your application at runtime using the interactive python console
• If you need integration with C++ or need access to advanced omegalib functionality, you can write C++ code as an omegalib module and import it into your python script.

omegalib uses its own python interpreter to run python scripts. The interpreter executable is called orun, and is built with omegalib when you enable python support.

Running python omegalib programs: orun

To run python omegalib programs, you need the orun application. orun is part of the standard omegalib distribution. You have two ways to start a script using orun:

• Though the command line using a command in the form: orun -s <filepath.py>
• After starting orun, typing: :r <applicationName>. This is an example of a quick command. For more information on quick commands check the QuickCommands page.

To stop an orun program, press esc, type oexit() or :q or press control-C (on linux) at the orun console, or run orun -K on another terminal.

omegalib Python Reference

module omega

[[module omega | Python-Reference#module-omega]] contains all the core functionality of omegalib like scene graph management and event handling. It also offers a few utility functions to manage verious aspects of an omegalib application. omega is always imported by default in omegalib applications, so you do not need to write any import statement to access its classes and functions.

Core	.	.
Callbacks	Application Control	Data Access
Event	Color	MissionControlClient

Core	Scene	Other
Callbacks	SceneNode	Sound Management
Application Control	Camera	Diagnostics and Configuration
Data Access	Actor	DrawInterface
Event	CameraController	Font
Color		PixelData
MissionControlClient		DisplayConfig
		DisplayTileConfig
Math
[Vector]	Quaternion	Matrix
[Point]	Plane	[Line, Ray, LineSegment]
Circle	Sphere	Misc Math Functions

---

module omegaToolkit

omegaToolkit is a utility module for omegalib. It exposes some non-core functionalities such as

• a 2D / 3D graphical user interface
• a set of object manipulator techniques based on mouse / touch, 3d wands and kinect tracking

General	GUI	Menu System
omegaToolkit Functions	Container3dSettings	MenuManager
ToolkitUtils	UiModule	Menu
PortholeService	WidgetFactory	MenuItem
	Widget
	Container
	Button
	Label
	Image
	Slider

---

module cyclops

Cyclops is a utility library that sits on top of omegalib and OpenSceneGraph. It is designed to speed-up development of simple graphical applications, without having to deal with the low-level details of osg. In a sense, cyclops is the GLUT library of omegalib. Some of cyclops features are:

• Support for loading scenes defined in a simple xml format
• Easy creation of primitive shapes, like planes, spheres, cubes and so on
• Out-of-the-box support for soft shadows
• An expandable shaders and effects library

Entities	Materials and Shading	Core
Entity	ProgramAsset	cyclops misc functions
SphereShape	Uniform	SceneManager
PlaneShape	Uniforms	ModelLoader
BoxShape	Material	ModelInfo
CylinderShape		Light
LineSet		ShadowSettings
StaticObject		SkyBox
AnimatedObject		ModelGeometry
Text3D