Vrui Configuration File Settings Reference

Root Section

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
enableMultipipeboolean Master toggle for cluster-based multipipe rendering. If true, Vrui will read the following multipipe... settings and configure itself to run in a distributed environment where applications are replicated across cluster nodes and synchronized by sharing input device data and application-specific data streams. This is not the appropriate rendering mode for single-system-image multipipe architectures (such as SGI Onyx/Prism).
multipipeMasterstring Internet host name or dotted-form IP address of the master node in a distributed rendering environment. The master node is the one where users log in and start Vrui applications. Some Vrui settings rely on node indices; the index of the master node is always zero.
multipipeMasterPortinteger Number of the UDP port used for cluster communication on the master node. This port needs to be accessible from the slave nodes, i.e., it must be accepted by any installed firewalls.
Note: The master port number can be identical to the multicast port number (see below), but ideally it should be different.
multipipeSlaveslist of strings List of the internet host names or dotted-form IP addresses of the slave nodes in a distributed rendering environment. A Vrui application started on the master node will replicate itself onto these slave nodes using the multipipeRemoteCommand. Some Vrui settings rely on node indices; slave nodes are numbered in the order in which they appear in the list, starting at one.
multipipeMulticastGroupstring Internet name or dotted-form IP address of the multicast or broadcast address used for communication from the master node to the slave nodes. Vrui uses a multicast protocol if the given address is a valid IETF multicast address, and uses a broadcast protocol otherwise. All nodes in the cluster must be able to receive UDP packets sent to the multicast/broadcast address.
multipipeMulticastPortinteger Number of the UDP port used for cluster communication on the slave nodes. This port needs to be accessible from the master node, i.e., it must be accepted by any installed firewalls.
Note: The multicast port number can be identical to the master port number (see above), but ideally it should be different.
multipipeRemoteCommandstring Command used to log in to slave nodes during Vrui application startup. If not specified, this defaults to ssh.
multipipeConnectionWaitTimeoutnumber Maximum time (in seconds) a slave node will try to establish a connection to the master node before giving up with a fatal error.
multipipePingTimeoutnumber Timeout value for cluster crash detection. If a slave node does not receive data from the master for the specified time (in seconds), it sends a ping request to the master. If too many ping requests time out (see next setting), the slave node exits from Vrui.
multipipePingRetriesinteger Maximum number of ping requests sent by a slave node before it exits from Vrui (see previous setting).
multipipeReceiveWaitTimeoutnumber Maximum time (in seconds) a slave node will wait for a data packet from the master node before assuming packet loss and initiating the packet loss recovery protocol.
multipipeBarrierWaitTimeoutnumber Maximum time (in seconds) a slave node will wait for a barrier completion message from the master node before assuming packet loss and resending its own barrier arrival message.
multipipeSendBufferSizeinteger Maximum number of packets that can be waiting in any multicast pipe's send buffer; analogous to the windowSize setting of TCP ports. Larger numbers might help increase multicast bandwidth, while smaller numbers generally decrease multicast latency.
inchScalenumber Defines the physical coordinate unit used to describe the Vrui environment by specifying the length of an inch in physical units. For example, if the used physical units are meters, inchScale is set to 0.0254.
meterScalenumber Defines the physical coordinate unit used to describe the Vrui environment by specifying the length of a meter in physical units. Alternative to inchScale setting, see above. For example, if the used physical units are centimeters, meterScale is set to 100.0.
displayCenterpoint Defines the center point of the Vrui display environment in physical coordinates. The center point is mostly used by applications to initialize their model coordinates. In general, the display center should be a point that is in the middle of the display space accessible by users, such as the screen center for a single-screen environment or the center point of a CAVE.
displaySizenumber Defines an approximate size for the Vrui display environment in physical coordinate units. The display size is mostly used by applications to initialize their model coordinates.
forwardDirectionvector Defines a direction vector in physical coordinates that corresponds to the typical direction a user would face when looking at a Vrui display environment. For single-screen environments it is typically a vector pointing into the screen; in CAVEs, it is typically a vector pointing into the back wall.
upDirectionvector Defines a direction vector in physical coordinates that corresponds to "up," i.e., the opposite direction of local gravity. It is mostly used by Vrui application to initialize their model coordinates such that models appear right side up.
floorPlaneplane Defines a plane in physical coordinates that corresponds to a Vrui display environment's floor. For walk-in environments such as CAVEs or upright display walls it is typically the true floor plane; for desktop-like environments it is typically a plane orthogonal to the "up" direction that is placed a few feet below the screen center.
glyphSizenumber Specifies the display size of glyphs such as input device pointers in physical coordinates.
glyphCursorFileNamestring Specifies the name of an X cursor file containing the image to use for texture-based "fake" mouse cursors.
glyphCursorNominalSizeinteger Specifies the nominal pixel size of the mouse cursor image to load from the cursor file.
newInputDevicePositionpoint Specifies a point in physical coordinates that is used as the initial position for newly created virtual input devices. It is typically identical to the display center, but for single-screen environments, it is typically offset a few inches to be placed in front of the screen to simplify interaction with new virtual input devices.
inputDeviceAdapterNameslist of strings List of names of the input device adapter sections that specify all sources of user input recognized by Vrui applications.
inputDeviceDataSaverstring Name of input device data saver section. If this is a valid section name, Vrui will save the state of all physical input devices to a file on every frame. These files can later be played back by creating a playback input device adapter. Saving input device data can be useful during debugging, to capture a session and play it back later from inside a debugger, or to generate 3D movies of someone using a Vrui application.
updateContinuouslyboolean Flag whether to run Vrui's inner loop continuously. If this is set to false, Vrui will only update its (and the application's state) whenever new data arrives from any input devices. This is the most appropriate mode for non-immersive display environments. If set to true, Vrui will update its internal state as fast as possible, regardless of whether new input device data arrived or not. Applications that use animation will typically override this setting to run smooth animations even if no input device events arrive, or explicitly ask for state updates whenever they change their visible state.
maximumFrameRatenumber The maximum allowed frame rate for Vrui's main loop. If this parameter is set to a value larger than zero, the Vrui main loop will pad each frame to at least the duration of 1.0/maximFrameRate seconds by blocking before advancing to the next frame. Normally Vrui applications should run as fast as they can to minimize latency; however, some special uses like generating 3D movies by saving input device data (see above) might benefit from a throttled frame rate.
viewerNameslist of strings List of names of viewer sections. Viewers define how 3D models are projected onto a Vrui display environment's screens. The first viewer in the list is considered the main viewer and is treated specially, for example, is used to determine the orientation of pop-up menus.
screenNameslist of strings List of names of screen sections. Together with viewers, screens define how 3D models are projected in a Vrui display environment.
screenProtectorslist of screen protectors A list of input devices and associated sphere centers and radii (in device coordinates) to warn users of moving too close to one or more of the environment's configured screens. Screen protection can be enabled on a per-window basis through each window's protectScreens setting.
node<index>WindowNames
windowNames
list of strings List of names of window sections. Windows are the "glue" that bind viewers to screens and implement the OpenGL-based 3D rendering used by Vrui. In cluster-based distributed display environments, there must be a node<index>WindowNames tag for each cluster node (the master node is always zero; slave nodes are numbered according to their order in the multipipeSlaves list, starting at one). Any nodes with empty window lists will not open any windows, but otherwise fully participate in the Vrui application. This is useful for cluster head nodes with low-powered graphics cards, or for dedicated audio rendering nodes.
node<index>WindowsMultithreaded
windowsMultithreaded
boolean Toggles between serial and parallel rendering for multiple windows on the same computer. If any Vrui node has multiple windows and this setting is true, Vrui will use multiple threads, one per window, to render to the windows in parallel. The default mode, if this setting is false, is to render to the windows serially from a single thread. The appropriate mode for single-system-image multipipe systems such as SGI Onyx or Prism is to configure them as a non-distributed environment (enableMultipipe is false), assign one window to each graphics pipe, and render to these windows in parallel. However, if a node has multiple windows but only a single actual graphics card, it is usually better to render in serial since graphics cards are typically not optimized for rapid context switches.
listenerNameslist of strings List of names of listener sections. Listeners define how spatial 3D sound is rendered in a Vrui environment. The first listener in the list is considered the main listener.
node<index>SoundContextName
soundContextName
string Name of a sound context section. Sound contexts correspond to audio devices and define how spatial 3D sound is rendered in a Vrui environment. In cluster-based distributed display environments, there must be a node<index>SoundContextName tag for each cluster node that is supposed to render spatial 3D sound using the OpenAL library (the master node is always zero; slave nodes are numbered according to their order in the multipipeSlaves list, starting at one).
frontplaneDistnumber Defines the distance in physical units of the OpenGL front clipping plane from the eye points of Vrui viewers. This defines how closely a viewer can approach 3D objects before the objects are clipped away.
backplaneDistnumber Defines the distance in physical units of the OpenGL back clipping plane from the eye points of Vrui viewers. This defines how far a 3D object can move into the distance before it is clipped away.
backgroundColorcolor Defines the background color used for all windows in a Vrui display environment, unless overridden by Vrui applications.
ambientLightColorcolor Defines the ambient color component used in the OpenGL lighting equation. This is the light color used when no other lights are present. It should be kept at fairly low values not to wash out display contrast.
widgetMaterialmaterial Defines the material properties of 3D GUI widgets such as pop-up menus, dialog windows, etc.
drawOverlayWidgetsboolean Switches whether 3D user interface widgets are drawn in an overlay layer above all other 3D graphics. If disabled (the default), 3D widgets are integrated with other 3D graphics and drawn at the proper depth. If enabled, widgets are still drawn at proper depth, but appear to float above other graphics. This makes the user interface more desktop-like and works well in non-stereo mode, but can cause severe eye strain in stereo modes on the desktop and especially in immersive environments.
popWidgetsOnScreenboolean If set to true, widgets popped up by Vrui applications will always be aligned with the main screen's plane, unless the application specifies a full widget transformation. This helps with keeping the illusion of a 2D user interface in desktop environments. This flag should not be enabled for immersive environments.
uiSizenumber Defines a size in physical units used for general layout of 3D GUI widgets, such as border widths, text field margins, etc.
uiBgColorcolor Default background color for GLMotif UI components.
uiFgColorcolor Default foreground color for GLMotif UI components.
uiTextFieldBgColorcolor Default background color for GLMotif text fields.
uiTextFieldFgColorcolor Default foreground color for GLMotif text fields.
uiSelectionBgColorcolor Default background color for selected text in GLMotif UI components.
uiSelectionFgColorcolor Default foreground color for selected text in GLMotif UI components.
uiTitleBarBgColorcolor Default background color for title bars in GLMotif popup windows.
uiTitleBarFgColorcolor Default foreground color for title bars in GLMotif popup windows.
uiFontNamestring Name of the font used for 3D UI widgets such as labels, buttons, or text fields. Vrui uses its own texture-based fonts which are installed in the share/GLFonts directory.
uiFontTextHeightnumber Defines the height of text for 3D UI widgets in physical units.
uiFontAntialiasingboolean Toggles font smoothing for 3D UI widgets. Should be enabled if text looks "pixellated."
uiSliderWidthnumber Width of slider handles in GLMotif sliders in physical units.
uiSliderHandleColorcolor Color of slider handles in GLMotif sliders.
uiSliderShaftColorcolor Color of slider shafts in GLMotif sliders.
pointPickDistancenumber Maximum "fudge" distance for a point-based 3D pick request.
rayPickAnglenumber Maximum "fudge" angle in degrees for a ray-based 3D pick request.
toolsstring Name of tool manager section. The tool manager is responsible for translating low-level input device events such as button presses into higher-level application functions such as navigation.
visletsstring Name of vislet manager section. Vislets are additional rendering modules that can be loaded into arbitrary Vrui applications as plug-ins.

Input Device Adapter Sections

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
inputDeviceAdapterTypeenumerant
Mouse
Adapter for the window system's mouse and keyboard devices. Rest of the section contains mouse input device adapter settings.
DeviceDaemon
Adapter to receive input from Vrui's own stand-alone device driver daemon. Rest of the section contains DeviceDaemon input device adapter settings.
VisBox
Adapter to receive input from the proprietary head tracker used in VisBox systems. Rest of the section contains VisBox input device adapter settings.
HID
Adapter to receive input from human interface devices (HIDs) provided by the operating system's input layer. Rest of the section contains HID input device adapter settings.
Playback
Adaper to read back input device data saved in a previous session, using the saveInputDeviceData and inputDeviceDataFileName root section settings (for debugging or to record screenshot movies of VR interactions after the fact). Rest of the section contains playback input device adapter settings.

Mouse Input Device Adapter Settings

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
numButtonsinteger Defines the number of buttons on the actual mouse device as reported by the windowing system. Is typically 3 in X11-based systems. The total number of buttons in each button plane (see modifierKeys setting) is the number of button keys (see the buttonKeys setting) plus the number of actual mouse buttons.
buttonKeyslist of key names Lists a subset of keyboard keys that are treated just like mouse buttons by the mouse input device adapter. The total number of buttons in each button plane (see modifierKeys setting) is the number of button keys plus the number of actual mouse buttons (see the numButtons setting).
modifierKeyslist of key names Lists the set of modifier keys recognized by the Vrui mouse input device adapter. Modifier keys (and combinations thereof) allow access to several button planes to increase the total number of available buttons. For example, if LeftCtrl and LeftAlt are listed as modifier keys, Vrui will create four button planes (no modifier, LeftCtrl only, LeftAlt only, LeftCtrl+LeftAlt). Buttons are numbered sequentially inside each plane by mouse buttons first and then button keys, and then in order of planes. Planes are ordered according to modifier button combinations in LSB-first binary code. The plane with no modifiers pressed is always zero, and in the preceding example, the (LeftCtrl only) plane is 1, and the (LeftCtrl+LeftAlt) plane is 3.
Note: Any buttons (mouse buttons and/or button keys) that are pressed while the button plane is changed stay pressed until their button plane is selected again. This can be very useful especially in desktop-like environments.
keyboardModeToggleKeykey name The name of the key used to toggle the keyboard between input device mode, where selected button keys and modifier keys control the buttons of a virtual input device, and keyboard mode, where the keyboard can be used to enter and edit text as usual. This setting defaults to F1.
fakeMouseCursorboolean Enables a texture-based mouse cursor to be rendered at the position of the mouse input device controlled by the input device adapter. This is useful in situations where the hardware mouse cursor is not available, or is inappropriate, such as in mouse-controlled cluster environments. This setting defaults to false.
mouseCursorImageFileNamestring The name of the cursor image file from which to load the fake mouse cursor, if enabled.
mouseCursorNominalSizeinteger The nominal size of the mouse cursor which is to be loaded from the cursor image file. Nominal sizes are defined in the cursor file itself, and Vrui selects the most closely matching size from the file.
mouseCursorSizesize Size of the rendered mouse cursor glyph in physical coordinates. The third component of the given value is ignored.
mouseCursorHotspotvector Offset from the bottom-left corner of the mouse cursor image to the cursor "hotspot," i.e., the position that corresponds to the mouse position. Normalized to lie within [0, 1] in both directions; the third component of the given value is ignored.

DeviceDaemon Input Device Adapter Settings

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
serverNamestring Internet host name or dotted-form IP address of the server computer running the VR device daemon (often the local host). The server computer must be reachable from the Vrui master node via TCP.
serverPortinteger Number of the TCP port used to communicate with the VR device daemon. This port must be accessible from the Vrui master node, i.e., it must be enabled in any firewalls.
inputDeviceNameslist of strings List of names of DeviceDaemon input device sections. Each section defines a single input device, i.e., a collection of an (optional) tracker and a set of buttons and valuators (analog axes).

DeviceDaemon Input Device Sections

namestring The name of the input device used by Vrui itself and visible to Vrui applications.
trackTypeenumerant
None
The input device does not have a tracker; it only contains buttons and/or valuators.
3D
The input device has a tracker that reports 3D position only, but no orientation.
Ray
The input device has a tracker that reports 3D position and a single direction vector, but no full orientation.
6D
The input device has a tracker that reports both 3D position and full 3D orientation.
numButtonsinteger Number of buttons on the input device.
numValuatorsinteger Number of valuators (analog axes) on the input device.
deviceRayDirectionvector The direction of a ray in local device coordinates that is used for ray-based interactions such as menu selection.
deviceGlyphTypeglyph type Type of glyph used to draw a 3D representation of the input device in the Vrui display environment.
deviceGlyphMaterialmaterial Material properties to render the device glyph.
trackerIndexinteger Index of the device's tracker in the flat tracker name space of the VR device daemon.
buttonIndexBaseinteger Base index of the device's buttons in the flat button name space of the VR device daemon. Provides a default index for each device button by adding the button index on the device to the base index.
buttonIndex<index>integer Index of one of the device's buttons in the flat button name space of the VR device daemon. Can be used to override default indices for individual buttons.
valuatorIndexBaseinteger Base index of the device's valuators in the flat valuator name space of the VR device daemon. Provides a default index for each device valuator by adding the valuator index on the device to the base index.
valuatorIndex<index>integer Index of one of the device's valuators in the flat valuator name space of the VR device daemon. Can be used to override default indices for individual valuators.
buttonNameslist of strings Specifies names for all buttons on the device. If no names or too few names are given, unnamed buttons are given a "Button<index>" default name.
valuatorNameslist of strings Specifies names for all valuators on the device. If no names or too few names are given, unnamed valuators are given a "Valuator<index>" default name.

VisBox Input Device Adapter Settings

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
sharedMemoryKeyinteger Shared memory key of the shared memory segment the VisBox tracker driver (VisTracker) dumps its data into. Default value is the default VisTracker memory key, 57005 (0xDEAD in hex).
namestring The name of the input device used by Vrui itself and visible to Vrui applications.
deviceRayDirectionvector The direction of a ray in local device coordinates that is used for ray-based interactions such as menu selection.
deviceGlyphTypeglyph type Type of glyph used to draw a 3D representation of the input device in the Vrui display environment.
deviceGlyphMaterialmaterial Material properties to render the device glyph.

HID Input Device Adapter Settings

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
inputDeviceNameslist of strings List of names of HID input device sections. Each section defines a single input device, i.e., a collection of a set of buttons and valuators (analog axes).

HID Input Device Sections

namestring The name of the input device used by Vrui itself and visible to Vrui applications.
deviceVendorProductIdstring A colon-separated pair of hexadecimal numbers defining the vendor and product ID, respectively, of the input device to be used, as defined by the USB specification.
deviceIndexinteger Index of the device to be used among devices with the same vendor/product ID. If this value is 0 (the default), the first matching device is used.
axis<index>Settingaxis value mapper Defines the value mapping for one of the device's absolute or relative analog axes, numbered starting from 0 in the order they are enumerated by the device. Allows to fine-tune the behavior of each device axis individually.
buttonNameslist of strings Specifies names for all buttons on the device. If no names or too few names are given, unnamed buttons are given a "Button<index>" default name.
valuatorNameslist of strings Specifies names for all valuators on the device. If no names or too few names are given, unnamed valuators are given a "Valuator<index>" default name.

Playback Input Device Adapter Settings

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
inputDeviceDataFileNamestring Name of the input file from which to read input device data. The file must have been created by saving input device data from a previous run of the same Vrui application, in the exact same environment; otherwise, results are undefined.
device<index>GlyphTypeglyph type Type of glyph used to draw a 3D representation of the input device of the given zero-based index in the Vrui display environment.
device<index>GlyphMaterialmaterial Material properties to render the device glyph of the given zero-based index.
fakeMouseCursorDeviceinteger If set to a valid input device index from the loaded input device file, enables a texture-based mouse cursor to be rendered at the position of the selected input device. This is useful when playing back sessions recorded in mouse-controlled environments, since otherwise the mouse cursor would not show up.
mouseCursorImageFileNamestring The name of the cursor image file from which to load the fake mouse cursor, if enabled.
mouseCursorNominalSizeinteger The nominal size of the mouse cursor which is to be loaded from the cursor image file. Nominal sizes are defined in the cursor file itself, and Vrui selects the most closely matching size from the file.
mouseCursorSizesize Size of the rendered mouse cursor glyph in physical coordinates. The third component of the given value is ignored.
mouseCursorHotspotvector Offset from the bottom-left corner of the mouse cursor image to the cursor "hotspot," i.e., the position that corresponds to the mouse position. Normalized to lie within [0, 1] in both directions; the third component of the given value is ignored.
synchronizePlaybackbool When this flag is set to true, the playback input device adapter will synchronize the timing of Vrui application frames with the time stamps stored in its input file. As a result, the playback should run exactly at the same speed as the original recording.
quitWhenDonebool When this flag is set to true, the playback input device adapter will shut down the Vrui application after reading its entire input file.
soundFileNamestring Name of a sound file to be played in synchronization with the input device data. The sound file must have been recorded by the input device data saver in the same session as the input device data file.
saveMoviebool When this flag is set to true, the playback input device adapter will create a movie by saving a sequence of screen shots from a specified window on the master node, exactly at specified intervals.
movieFileNameTemplatestring Printf-style format string to generate image file names for the screenshots written while generating a movie. The template must contain exactly one integer conversion specifier, of the form %[0-9]*d.
movieWindowIndexinteger The index of the master node window from which to save screenshots for a movie. This integer must be a valid index in the master node's list of windows; saving movie screenshots from a window on a slave node is not yet supported.
movieFrameRatenumber Target frame rate for the exported movie. The playback input device adapter will export slices at exactly the specified times to guarantee real-time playback even if Vrui's main loop frame rate varies. Movie frames will point sample the sequence of Vrui frames: short Vrui frames might be skipped and not generate movie frames, and long Vrui frames might generate multiple identical movie frames.

Input Device Data Saver Section

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
inputDeviceDataFileNamestring Name of the file to which the data of all physical input devices is to be saved. The name of the file will be modified by inserting a unique four-digit sequence number before the file name extension.
soundFileNamestring Name of a sound file to be recorded in synchronization with the saved input device data. The sound file can later be played back synchronized to the input device data by the playback input device adapter.
sampleResolutioninteger Sampling resolution for sound recording in bits.
numChannelsinteger Number of channels for sound recording. 1 = mono, 2 = stereo, etc.
sampleRateinteger Sample rate for sound recording in Hertz.

Viewer Sections

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
namestring Name of the viewer used by Vrui itself, and visible to Vrui applications.
headTrackedboolean Flag whether the viewer is attached to an input device or at a fixed position in physical space.
headDevicestring If the headTracked flag is true, the name of the input device the viewer is attached to.
headDeviceTransformationtracker state The transformation from local viewer space into physical space (if headTracked is false) or local input device space (if headTracked is true).
viewDirectionvector Defines a general viewing direction in local viewer coordinates.
monoEyePositionpoint Defines a point in local viewer coordinates used for monoscopic rendering.
leftEyePositionpoint Defines the position of the viewer's left eye in local viewer coordinates.
rightEyePositionpoint Defines the position of the viewer's right eye in local viewer coordinates.
headLightEnabledboolean If true, attaches a head light source to the viewer.
headLightPositionpoint Position of the head light source in lcoal viewer coordinates.
headLightDirectionvector Direction of the head light source in local viewer coordinates.
headLightColorcolor Light color of the head light source.
headLightSpotCutoffnumber Cutoff angle (in degrees) for the head light source. The light source will only affect 3D objects inside a cone around the head light direction with the given opening angle. The opening angle must be either between 0 and 90, or equal to 180 to create a point light source.
headLightSpotExponentnumber Coefficient defining the drop-off of light intensity of the head light source around the head light direction. Defines a non-directional point light source if set to zero and increasingly more focused spot lights if set to larger values.

Screen Sections

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
namestring Name of the screen used by Vrui itself, and visible to Vrui applications.
deviceMountedboolean Toggles whether the screen is attached to an input device (such as head-mounted displays) or at a fixed position/orientation in physical coordinates.
deviceNamestring If deviceMounted is true, gives the name of the input device the screen is attached to.
transformtracker state Directly specifies the screen's transformation with respect to physical space (if deviceMounted is false) or to local device space (if deviceMounted is true). If this tag does not exist, Vrui uses the origin, horizontalAxis, and verticalAxis tags instead.
originpoint Defines the origin (lower-left corner in pixel coordinates) of the screen in physical coordinates (if deviceMounted is false) or in local device coordinates (if deviceMounted is true).
horizontalAxisvector Direction of the screen's horizontal axis (left to right in pixel coordinates) in physical coordinates (if deviceMounted is false) or in local device coordinates (if deviceMounted is true).
widthnumber Width of the screen in physical units.
verticalAxisvector Direction of the screen's vertical axis (bottom to top in pixel coordinates) in physical coordinates (if deviceMounted is false) or in local device coordinates (if deviceMounted is true).
heightnumber Height of the screen in physical units.
rotateCenterpoint Defines the center point of an additional rotation that can be used to easily rotate a screen around any desired axis (such as in adjustable workbenches or flexible CAVEs).
rotateAxisvector Axis of an additional rotation around the center point defined by the rotateCenter tag.
rotateAnglenumber Angle of additional screen rotation in degrees.
preTransformtracker state An arbitrary orthonormal transformation (translation + rotation) to move the screen's position and orientation in physical space (if deviceMounted is false) or in local device space (if deviceMounted is true).
offAxisboolean Flag whether the screen is projected off-axis, i.e., requires a correction homography.
homography3x3 matrix A 3x3 matrix defining a homography in screen space, which transforms the screen's theoretical rectangle into the screen's projected quadrilateral.

Window Sections

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
viewerNamestring Name of the viewer associated with this window.
screenNamestring Name of the screen associated with this window.
leftScreenNamestring Name of the left screen if the window's left and right eye views are displayed on different screens (such as in some head-mounted displays).
rightScreenNamestring Name of the right screen if the window's left and right eye views are displayed on different screens (such as in some head-mounted displays).
protectScreensboolean Flag whether to protect the screens associated with this window from monitored input devices (to prevent users from walking into screens).
displaystring Name of the X11 display to use for this window; defaults to the local display defined by the DISPLAY environment variable.
windowPoswindow position Initial position of the window's interior on the display in pixel coordinates. The position component places the top-left corner of the window's interior, with (0, 0) corresponding to the top-left corner of the screen. This is only a request to the window manager, which might disallow certain placements.
decorateboolean Flag whether to put window manager decorations (title bar, frame, buttons) around the window. This is only a request to the window manager, but is generally granted.
windowFullscreenboolean Flag whether to initially maximize the window (removing all window decoration and screen borders).
windowTypeenumerant
Mono
Monoscopic window; uses the associated viewer's monoscopic eye position.
LeftEye
Left-eye view only; uses the associated viewer's left eye position.
RightEye
Right-eye view only; uses the associated viewer's right eye position.
AnaglyphicStereo
Stereoscopic rendering using anaglyphic (red/blue color separation) stereo.
SplitViewportStereo
Stereoscopic rendering using two separate viewports in the same window, such as side-by-side stereo. The two used viewports can be exactly specified using the leftViewportPos and rightViewportPos settings.
InterleavedViewportStereo
Stereoscopic rendering using two interleaved viewports in the same window, for example by using even pixel columns for the left eye, and odd pixel columns for the right eye. This is the stereo mode often supported by commodity stereoscopic displays like 3D DLP televisions, or polarizing flat panel monitors. The interleaving pattern can be specified via the interleavePattern tag.
QuadbufferStereo
Stereoscopic rendering using a quad-buffered visual (also known as "active" stereo). Typically only supported by professional-level graphics cards such as Nvidia Quadros.
leftViewportPoswindow position Position of the viewport used for left-eye views in SplitViewportStereo stereo mode in window coordinates.
rightViewportPoswindow position Position of the viewport used for right-eye views in SplitViewportStereo stereo mode in window coordinates.
interleavePatternstring Interleave pattern for InterleavedViewportStereo stereo mode. The string must be four characters long and consist only of the characters L and R, either uppercase or lowercase. The string defines a 2x2 pixel tile in order top to bottom and left to right, where L or R indicate that the corresponding pixels belongs to the left or right eye, respectively.
autoScreenSizeboolean If set to true, instructs the window to query the physical size of its associated X11 screen, and override the configured size of its associated VR screen with the found values. If the X11 server is configured correctly, this will result in accurate physical units in the display window for any connected monitor.
panningViewportboolean Flag determining the relationship between the display screen containing a window and the Vrui screen describing the window's position in physical space. If this flag is set to false (the default), the associated Vrui screen is always fully mapped to the window's current position and size. If the flag is true, the Vrui screen is considered to map to the display screen containing the window instead. In effect, this means that the window serves as a sliding viewport into the 3D environment as seen through the screen. Moving or resizing a window with a panning viewport will not affect the position or size of the shown model.
navigateboolean Flag defining the effect of moving or resizing a panning-viewport window on the displayed 3D scene. If this flag is true, moving the window will move the 3D scene, and resizing the window will scale the 3D scene using a "fake" navigation tool. In effect, navigation will make a Vrui window behave almost exactly like a 3D window in desktop-centric applications, but the 3D scene will still be projected from the correct viewpoint to provide, for example, correct stereoscopic rendering.
movePrimaryWidgetsboolean Flag to move popped-up primary widgets along with a panning-viewport window when it is moved or resized.
toolKillZonePoswindow point Setting to override the position of the tool kill zone when moving/resizing panning-viewport windows. By default, the position of the tool kill zone is given in physical coordinates and does not move with the window. If this tag is set, the tool kill zone will always stay at the given relative window coordinates. Relative window coordinates map (0, 0) to the lower-left window corner and (1, 1) to the top-right window corner.
saveMovieboolean Flag to enable saving the contents of this window as a movie, either as a sequence of frames or directly as an Ogg/Theora video file.
movieSaveTheoraboolean Flag to save movies in Ogg/Theora format instead of a sequence of frame images.
movieFileNamestring Name of Ogg/Theora video file to create.
movieBitRateinteger Bitrate for Ogg/Theora compressor. If set to a non-zero value, compressor will use constant bit rate encoding.
movieQualityinteger Variable bit rate encoding quality for Ogg/Theora compressor.
movieGopSizeinteger Keyframe distance for Ogg/Theora compressor.
movieFrameNameTemplatestring Printf-style name template for movie frame images when not saving to an Ogg/Theora video file. The format string must contain exactly one %u placeholder, and no other placeholders.
movieFrameRatenumber Desired movie frame rate in frames/second.
movieSoundFileNamestring Name of sound file to record while saving a movie. If not specified, no sound will be recorded.
movieSoundDeviceNamestring Name of sound device from which to record. If not specified, recorder will use system's default sound device.
movieSampleResolutioninteger Sample resolution for sound recording in bits.
movieNumChannelsinteger Number of channels for sound recording.
movieSampleRateinteger Sample rate for sound recording in Hertz.
showFpsboolean Flag to display the current (filtered) Vrui frame rate in the window.
showFpsFontNamestring Name of the font used to display the current frame rate in the window. Vrui uses its own texture-based fonts which are installed in the share/GLFonts directory.
multisamplingLevelinteger Level of OpenGL multisampling to use for the window. Support for this feature, and the available level numbers, are dependent on the model of installed graphics card.
joinSwapGroupboolean Flag whether a window should become part of a swap group (deprecated feature only available on some Nvidia graphics cards).
swapGroupNameinteger Numeric identifier of the swap group the window should join (deprecated feature only available on some Nvidia graphics cards).
swapBarrierNameinteger Numeric identifier of the swap barrier on which the window should wait before swapping buffers (deprecated feature only available on some Nvidia graphics cards).

Listener Sections

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
namestring Name of the listener used by Vrui itself, and visible to Vrui applications.
headTrackedboolean Flag whether the listener is attached to an input device or at a fixed position in physical space.
headDevicestring If the headTracked flag is true, the name of the input device to which the listener is attached.
headDeviceTransformationtracker state The transformation from local listener space into physical space (if headTracked is false) or local input device space (if headTracked is true).
headPositionvector Defines the listener's head position in the listener's local space.
listenDirectionvector Defines a forward-pointing vector in the listener's local space.
upDirectionvector Defines an up-pointing vector in the listener's local space.
gainnumber Overall gain factor for this listener in all sound contexts.

Sound Context Section

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
listenerNamestring Name of the listener associated with this sound context.
deviceNamestring Name of the OpenAL sound device used by this sound context.
speedOfSoundnumber Speed of sound in physical coordinate units/s. Used to compute Doppler shift.
dopplerFactornumber Exaggeration factor for Doppler shift.
distanceAttenuationModelenumerant Distance model for source gain attenuation.
Constant
Source gain is unaffected by distance (default setting).
Inverse
Source gain is inversely proportional to distance from listener.
InverseClamped
Ditto, with minimum and maximum gain clamping.
Linear
Source gain drops linearly with distance from listener.
LinearClamped
Ditto, with minimum and maximum gain clamping.
Exponential
Source gain drops exponentially with distance from listener.
ExponentialClamped
Ditto, with minimum and maximum gain clamping.

Tool Manager Section

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
toolDsoNameTemplatestring Defines a template to generate tool dynamic shared object (DSO) file names from tool class names. The template is a printf-style format string with a single %s placeholder that is replaced with the tool class name by the tool manager. The setting defaults to the appropriate template to use the installed Vrui tools. The tool manager splits the given template name into base directory and pattern parts, and initializes its DSO file locator using the base directory.
toolSearchPathslist of strings List of additional directories to search for tool plug-in DSOs. The directory extracted from the tool DSO name template is searched first, then all directories from the list in order until a matching DSO file is found.
toolClassNameslist of strings List of names of tool classes recognized by the tool manager (and offered to users via the Tools menu). Tool classes are instantiated in order of appearance in the list; tool classes that depend on other tool classes must be listed after their dependencies.

Each tool class can read configuration settings from its own subsection inside the tool manager section, named by the tool class' internal class name. For a list of all core Vrui tool classes, their internal class names, and their configuration file settings, see the Vrui Tool Class Configuration File Settings Reference.

toolSelectionMenuToolClassstring Specifies which subclass of the MenuTool class to use to display Vrui's tool selection menu. A class of the given name must exist, and it must be derived from MenuTool.
killZoneBaseDevicestring Name of the input device the tool kill zone is attached to. By default, the tool kill zone is not attached to any input device and positioned in physical coordinates.
killZoneTypeenumerant
Box
3D rectangular kill zone. Rest of section contains box tool kill zone settings.
Frustum
3D frustum kill zone, defined by a viewer, a screen, and a box in screen coordinates. Covers all input devices that are projected into the screen space box from the viewer's head position. Rest of section contains frustum tool kill zone settings.
killZoneRenderboolean Flag whether to render the tool kill zone in the Vrui display environment.
killZoneMaterialmaterial Defines the material properties to render the tool kill zone.
toolNameslist of strings List of names of tool assignment sections. Tool assignments in this list will be processed by the tool manager during Vrui initialization; in other words, these are the default associations for the Vrui environment.

Box Tool Kill Zone Settings

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
killZoneCenterpoint Center point of the kill zone in physical coordinates (if no killZoneBaseDevice is specified) or in local device coordinates.
killZoneSizevector Size of the kill zone box along the three primary coordinate axes in physical units.

Frustum Tool Kill Zone Settings

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
killZoneViewerNamestring Name of the viewer the kill zone is associated with. The kill zone is defined as a pyramid extending from the viewer's eye position through the rectangle defined by the kill zone center and size in screen coordinates.
killZoneScreenNamestring Name of the screen the kill zone is associated with.
killZoneCenterpoint Center point of the kill zone in local screen coordinates of the screen the kill zone is associated with.
killZoneSizevector Size of the kill zone along the three primary axes of screen coordinates of the screen the kill zone is associated with. The third size component corresponds to a direction normal to the screen plane and is ignored.

Tool Assignment Sections

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
toolClassstring The name of the tool's class.
buttonslist of feature assignments A list of button features to assign to the tool's button slots.
valuatorslist of feature assignments A list of valuator features to assign to the tool's valuator slots.

Vislet Manager Section

Setting TagSetting Value TypeSetting Description
visletDsoNameTemplatestring Defines a template to generate vislet DSO file names from vislet class names. The template is a printf-style format string with a single %s placeholder that is replaced with the vislet class name by the vislet manager. The setting defaults to the appropriate template to use the installed Vrui vislets.
visletSearchPathslist of strings List of additional directories to search for vislet plug-in DSOs. The directory extracted from the vislet DSO name template is searched first, then all directories from the list in order until a matching DSO file is found.