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Viz Plug-ins User Guide

Version 5.1 | Published December 12, 2023 ©

DataPool Configuration Files

This page contains information on the following topics:

Warning: If using Viz Engine 4 or newer: When editing DataPool configuration files, always modify the files located in %ProgramData%/vizrt/VizEngine! The files in \Program Files\ are just templates which are copied to %ProgramData% at installation time. The Engine reads the files from %ProgramData%.

DP Configuration Files

DataPool data fields and objects are used across scenes and engine machines to support Viz scenes and data distribution. The DataPool configuration files, used to define DataPool structures and DataPool variables, use the suffix .dp. All files with .dp suffix are loaded during Viz load and the data fields and structures are defined in the DataPool memory. The configuration files can be copied to all relevant Viz machines or saved in a common folder and defined in the DataPool.ini file.

When installing DataPool, the file datapool.dp is installed to the Viz Program Files folder and copied to %ProgramData%/vizrt/VizEngine. This file is an example and the users can modify the file to define data fields. Additional .dp files can be used to organize the DataPool variables and data structures.

Example Configuration File

Example_STOCK = {
string Example_ID;
string Example_Name;
string Example_symbol;
string Example_Open;
string Example_Close;
string Example_High;
string Example_Low;
string Example_Volume;
string Example_Price;
string Example_TimeRange;
};
Example_RESULTS = {
string Example_NAME;
string Example_SCORE;
string Example_COLOR;
};

The file shows two DataPool structures.

Note: When using multiple configuration files, make sure your data structures are unique. Multiple structures with the same name are not supported.

DataPool.ini File

The DataPool.ini file is installed to the Viz Program Files folder and copied to %ProgramData%/vizrt/VizEngine. It contains the following parameters:

  • ConfigurationFolder: Defines the location of the .dp files to be loaded. If omitted, the default path is set to .\ (Viz folder).

  • MultiDatapool: Defines if a separate Viz DataPool segment is assigned to each scene loaded to Viz.

  • ReloadConfigFiles: Defines whether to reload the configuration files (.dp files) while loading each scene.

Conversion Table

The conversion tables file is a comma separated file installed in the Viz Program Files folder and copied to %ProgramData%/vizrt/VizEngine. All the conversion tables are defined in this file name, using a fixed format. The tables are used to convert input data values to another value defined in the table. The first column in the table is the input value and the second column is the converted value (output).

Note: The file name is hard coded: DP_ConvTable.csv.

File Syntax

The file contains a few reserved tokens used for defining conversion tables and other parameters:

  • __VERSION__: This entry is used for future file support and version compatibility issues.

  • __DELIMITER__: This entry is used to define a different file delimiter (other than comma). If omitted comma is used.

  • __TABLE__: This entry defines the beginning of a conversion table. The table end is defined by another table entry or end of file.
    Table example:

    __TABLE__,colors,
    red,255 0 0
    green,0 255 0
    blue,0 0 255
    yellow,255 255 0
    cyan,0 255 255
    purple,255 0 255
    __DEFAULT__, 0 0 0
    ,

    In the example, a table called colors is defined. When the conversion table is used in a plug-in, an input string red is converted to the output string 255 0 0 and sent back to the plug-in for processing.

  • __DEFAULT__: This token is used in any of the conversion tables as a default conversion value (any value not found in the table is converted to the default value).