[Feature]: Enhanced Visualization Tools

[KafuuChikai]

What feature or enhancement are you proposing?

• Virtual sensor representations (e.g., camera frustums, lidar beams)
• Virtual targets and waypoints with customizable appearance
• Trajectory visualization with history trails and predicted paths
• Virtual coordinate frames and axes for spatial reference
• Customizable visual markers for important points or regions

Motivation

Adding comprehensive visualization tools to the framework that would enable users to render various virtual elements critical for debugging and demonstration.

Potential Benefit

This enhancement would provide several key benefits:

• Improved debugging experience: Visualizing sensor coverage and agent perception aids in troubleshooting
• Enhanced training analysis: Trajectory visualization helps identify patterns in agent behavior
• Better demonstration capabilities: Visual elements make presentations and videos more informative
• Accelerated development: Spatial references and virtual guides reduce time spent analyzing logs
• Intuitive parameter tuning: Visual feedback on waypoints and targets simplifies configuration

These visualization capabilities would greatly enhance both development workflows and result presentations, making it easier to understand agent behavior and sensor interactions during simulation.

What is the expected outcome of the implementation work?

The implementation would deliver the following outcomes:

• Fully integrated visualization API: A comprehensive library of visualization functions that integrate seamlessly with the existing simulation environment
• User-friendly interface: Simple API calls to create and modify visual elements with minimal code changes to existing projects
• Customizable visual elements:
  • Color-coded trajectory visualization with adjustable history length
  • Transparent sensor coverage volumes (camera frustums, lidar range)
  • Coordinate frame axes with adjustable size and opacity
  • Target markers with customizable shapes and colors
  • Path visualizations with varying styles (solid, dashed, etc.)
• Documentation and examples: Comprehensive documentation with usage examples for common visualization scenarios

This enhancement would transform the framework into a more powerful tool for development, debugging, and presenting results, while maintaining its current performance characteristics for simulation.

Additional information

Example Visualizations

The visualization capabilities would be similar to those demonstrated in these examples:

The visualization effects in Genesis:

Simple demo for drones:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/1e0c0307-f4e2-4cb0-b6dc-8d42821d5b49

Isaac Lab Projects:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c93d754d-7571-476c-81d9-11b22351b71a

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/d4a98e04-6289-4030-aaa2-3d9227f6edfa

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/267dee3b-7cce-4f59-9008-8b58c65c802a