hexi

Hexi is a generic motion simulator. Developed as my graduation project (thesis PDF in Chinese).

Video demo on Youtube

Features

• Generic: can meet demands by developing plugins.
• Supports Microsoft Flight Simulator X as an input signal source.
• Implements the classical washout algorithm.
• Supports visualizing simulation performance via a 3D Stewart GUI.

Screenshot: Realtime Signal Debugging	Screenshot: Realtime Stewart Visualiation

!! Notice !!

There are no hardware supports due to my limited money & time during the research. However a real-time 3D visualization is available as described above.

Feel free to write output plugins to support a specific hardware and send me PRs!

Alternatives & Comparison

Similar softwares are X-Sim and XSimulator. However this project has the following advantages:

• Open-source & free of charge.
• Cross platform: Windows, Linux, MacOS.
• A greater plug-in system (more extensible).
• Using modern technologies.
• Possible better motion cueing performance (?).

Possible Use of This Project

• Refer to the software implemention the classical washout algorithm, especially the HP/LP filters (in Python).
• Refer to the approach to connect to FSX (in .NET).
• Refer to the design and implementation of a extensible system (via plug-in mechanism).
• Refer to the implementation of rendering a 3D Stewart platform (via WebGL).
• Refer to the implementation of a TCP + UDP high performance async data channel (in Python).
• See how motion simulation really works!
• Design and test new motion cueing algorithms.
• Real-life motion simulation (if you can develop a hardware output plugin).

Prerequisites

• Python 3.6 or above
• Nodejs 6.0 or above

Getting Started from Source

This repository does not contain 3rd-party dependencies and prebuilt files. In order to start the platform from this repository, you need to build the project as described below.

Note: These steps are written for Linux/MacOS users. For Windows users, you may need to adjust commands a little, mainly the formats of directories.

First, you need to install dependencies:

# in the project's root directory:
python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt
npm install   # or: cnpm install

You may need to use cnpm instead of npm if you are in China. To avoid compatibility issues, be sure to use cnpm by creating alias as described in its homepage instead of the default way.

Next, you need to compile the user interface for core modules and plugins:

# in the project's root directory:
npm run build:coreDll
npm run build:core
npm run build:plugin -- --env.pluginName input_flight_attitude
npm run build:plugin -- --env.pluginName input_fsx
npm run build:plugin -- --env.pluginName mca_classical_washout
npm run build:plugin -- --env.pluginName output_stewart_visualize

In addition, the OutputStewartVisualize plugin needs extra build steps:

# in the project's root directory:
cd hexi/plugins/output_stewart_visualize
npm start

Finally, you can start the Hexi server now:

# in the project's root directory:
python3 -m hexi.server

For Developers

This section is for developers who wish to modify the source code or write new plugins for Hexi.

Core User Interface

If you have modified the core user interface, you need to re-compile them to take effect:

# in the project's root directory:
npm run build:coreDll
npm run build:core

Alternatively, you may want to enable the watch mode so that they are recompiled automatically once you have made changes:

# in the project's root directory:
npm run build:core -- --watch

Plugin User Interface

After modifying the plugin user interface, re-compile is required as well:

# in the project's root directory:
npm run build:plugin -- --env.pluginName PLUGIN_NAME

Alternatively, you can also enable watch mode here:

# in the project's root directory:
npm run build:plugin -- --env.pluginName PLUGIN_NAME --watch