ratvision 0.1.1

A simple package for rat vision rendering simulation.

ratvision

A Python library for simulating rat vision through 3D rendering.

ratvision provides a simple interface to render what a rat would see based on its position and head direction in a 3D environment. It uses Blender for the 3D rendering process, making it possible to create realistic simulations of a rat's visual perspective.

Installation

pip install ratvision

Or by cloning this repository:

git clone [e-mail]:marcoabrate/ratvision.git
cd ratvision
pip install .

Usage

renderer = Renderer(blender_exec='/path/to/blender') # blender.exe for Win

# positions is List[Tuple[float, float]]
# head_directions is List[float]
renderer.render(positions, head_directions)

See examples/render_demo.py for a thorough example. After cloning this repository or downloading the examples folder, you can run the demo with:

python examples/render_demo.py --blender_exec "/path/to/Blender"

Rendered frames and an animation animation.mp4 will be saved to a new output directory.

Requirements

• Python 3.7+
• Blender (external dependency, not included in the package)

The code was tested with Blender 3.6 on Linux and MacOS machines.

Features

• Generate rat-eye-view video animations from movement trajectories
• Easy to use Python API
• Compatible with custom 3D environments
• Built-in visualization function

Configuration Options

The renderer can be configured with the following parameters:

Parameter	Description	Default
env_file	Path to Blender environment file	Built-in box
output_dir	Directory where rendered frames are saved	./output
frame_dim	Dimensions of the rendered frames (width, height)	(120, 64)
camera_name	Name of the camera in the Blender scene	Camera_main
camera_height	Height of the camera from the ground in meters	0.035
camera_vertical_angle	Vertical inclination of the camera in radians	pi/2

You can view the configuration description by calling:

Renderer.config_description()

Customizable 3D environment

While ratvision comes with a default 3D environment, you can use your own Blender files:

renderer.update_config({'env_file': '/path/to/environment.blend'})

Note: All rendering and camera settings defined in the Blender environment will be preserved when rendering with ratvision. Only the parameters that can be set through the config will be overwritten. Be sure to change them to your preference before running ratvision. For biologically-plausible rendering and camera settings, you can check the provided environment environments/box_messy.blend.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Author

Marco P. Abrate [e-mail]