2023.1.1175.2 DES Controller

1 Overview
2 Where to find
3 Feature Layout
4 How to use

Overview

The DESController is the core part of any DES application. It manages participants in the scene such as Actors, Instructors and Cues, and handles all interaction between participants chronologically. It can be used to add constraints to a DES application in the form of startup delay, timeframe limitation and time multiplication.

Where to find

Or manually add a DESController component to a GameObject in the scene.

Feature Layout

The image below shows the complete feature layout of the DESController.

Simulation Status
Current Simulation Frame	The current frame number of the simulation (only applicable during runtime)
Current Simulation Time	The current time of the simulation (only applicable during runtime)
Simulation Time per Frame	The time duration of a single simulation frame
Awake Participants	The current number of DES participants that are awake
Asleep Participants	The current number of DES participants that are asleep
Controller Settings
Auto Start Simulation in Playmode	Toggle to have the DES Simulation automatically start when entering Playmode
Pause/Resume Simulation	Click to Pause or Resume the Simulation (only visible during runtime)
Time Multiplier	Multiplication factor for the timescale of the simulation
Simulation Startup Delay	Time between entering playmode and starting the simulation, used for initializing the simulation
Limit Simulation Timeframe	Toggle to limit the time at which to start and end the simulation
Start Time	(When limiting) Set the start time of the simulation
End Time	(When limiting) Set the End time of the simulation
Max solver passes per frame	Maximum number of passes the solver can make within a frame. This is a safeguard for infinite loops, lowering this value increases performance at the cost of accuracy
Max Calculations per Solver Pass	Maximum number of calculations that may be made within a single solver pass. Lowering this value increases performance at the cost of accuracy
Use Stable State
Debugging
Verbose	Toggle to show or hide debug messages in the console
Break at critical simulation event	Toggle to make the simulation stop when a critical error occurs
Pause at specified frame	Toggle to make the simulation pause when a specific frame number is reached
Specified Frame Index	The frame at which to pause

How to use

When creating a DES application, there should always be a DESController in the scene, and only one! Furthermore, all Participants must be a child of the DESController.

Application-specific behaviour should stem from customised Actor- and Instructor scripts. The DESController automatically ensures that the behaviour is managed correctly and chronologically. Use the Controller Settings to manage when a simulation should start and end, and what the timescale should be.