xperroni's profile - activity

Turns out this is a known issue in Gazebo. Apparently it is related to specific graphic card driver issues. Currently the only possible solution is to recompile Gazebo with a changed parameter; see Xander Dunn's answer for details.

I created two simple SDF models to represent a wall section and a door prop (that is, just a board with the picture of a door on it). When I place a "door" in front of a wall and get a camera (via the ROS camera plugin) to record the scene,

The door appears behind the wall in the camera image, even though it is clearly in front of it in the environment view.

However if I use the "Brick Box 3x1x3" from the model library instead of my own wall model, images are generated correctly:

What could be the problem here?

The wall SDF model and texture script are:

yumebros_room_wall_240cm2.sdf

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<sdf version="1.4">
  <model name='yumebros_room_wall_240cm2'>
    <static>true</static>
    <link name='link'>
      <pose>0 0 1.2 0 0 0</pose>
      <collision name='collision'>
        <geometry>
          <box>
            <size>0.2 2.4 2.4</size>
          </box>
        </geometry>
      </collision>
      <visual name='visual'>
        <geometry>
          <box>
            <size>0.2 2.4 2.4</size>
          </box>
        </geometry>
        <material>
          <script>
            <uri>model://yumebros_room_wall_240cm2/materials/scripts</uri>
            <uri>model://yumebros_room_wall_240cm2/materials/textures</uri>
            <name>Yumebros/RoomWallSurface</name>
          </script>
        </material>
      </visual>
    </link>
  </model>
</sdf>

white_paint.material

material Yumebros/RoomWallSurface
{
  technique
  {
    pass
    {
      texture_unit
      {
        texture white_paint.png
        scale 0.125 0.125
      }
    }
  }
}

And for the door:

yumebros_door_blue.sdf

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<sdf version="1.4">
  <model name='yumebros_door_blue'>
    <pose>0 0 1.05 0 0 0</pose>
    <static>1</static>
    <link name='link'>
      <collision name='collision'>
        <geometry>
          <box>
            <size>0.05 0.92 2.1</size>
          </box>
        </geometry>
      </collision>
      <visual name='visual'>
        <geometry>
          <box>
            <size>0.05 0.92 2.1</size>
          </box>
        </geometry>
        <material>
          <script>
            <uri>model://yumebros_door_blue/materials/scripts</uri>
            <uri>model://yumebros_door_blue/materials/textures</uri>
            <name>Yumebros/DoorBlue</name>
          </script>
        </material>
      </visual>
      <self_collide>1</self_collide>
      <gravity>1</gravity>
    </link>
  </model>
</sdf>

door_blue.material

material Yumebros/DoorBlue
{
  technique
  {
    pass
    {
      texture_unit
      {
        texture door_blue.png
      }
    }
  }
}

I created two simple SDF models to represent a wall section and a door prop (that is, just a board with the picture of a door on it). When I place a "door" in front of a wall and get a camera (via the ROS camera plugin) to record the scene,

The door appears behind the wall in the camera image, even though it is clearly in front of it in the environment view.

However if I use the "Brick Box 3x1x3" from the model library instead of my own wall model, images are generated correctly:

What could be the problem here?

The wall SDF model and texture script are:

yumebros_room_wall_240cm2.sdf

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<sdf version="1.4">
  <model name='yumebros_room_wall_240cm2'>
    <static>true</static>
    <link name='link'>
      <pose>0 0 1.2 0 0 0</pose>
      <collision name='collision'>
        <geometry>
          <box>
            <size>0.2 2.4 2.4</size>
          </box>
        </geometry>
      </collision>
      <visual name='visual'>
        <geometry>
          <box>
            <size>0.2 2.4 2.4</size>
          </box>
        </geometry>
        <material>
          <script>
            <uri>model://yumebros_room_wall_240cm2/materials/scripts</uri>
            <uri>model://yumebros_room_wall_240cm2/materials/textures</uri>
            <name>Yumebros/RoomWallSurface</name>
          </script>
        </material>
      </visual>
    </link>
  </model>
</sdf>

white_paint.material

material Yumebros/RoomWallSurface
{
  technique
  {
    pass
    {
      texture_unit
      {
        texture white_paint.png
        scale 0.125 0.125
      }
    }
  }
}

And for the door:

yumebros_door_blue.sdf

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<sdf version="1.4">
  <model name='yumebros_door_blue'>
    <pose>0 0 1.05 0 0 0</pose>
    <static>1</static>
    <link name='link'>
      <collision name='collision'>
        <geometry>
          <box>
            <size>0.05 0.92 2.1</size>
          </box>
        </geometry>
      </collision>
      <visual name='visual'>
        <geometry>
          <box>
            <size>0.05 0.92 2.1</size>
          </box>
        </geometry>
        <material>
          <script>
            <uri>model://yumebros_door_blue/materials/scripts</uri>
            <uri>model://yumebros_door_blue/materials/textures</uri>
            <name>Yumebros/DoorBlue</name>
          </script>
        </material>
      </visual>
      <self_collide>1</self_collide>
      <gravity>1</gravity>
    </link>
  </model>
</sdf>

door_blue.material

material Yumebros/DoorBlue
{
  technique
  {
    pass
    {
      texture_unit
      {
        texture door_blue.png
      }
    }
  }
}

Thank you, this is an interesting tool, but when I talked of a "world generator" I was thinking of something more high-level.

I am looking into Gazebo as a way to build simulated environments to test visual navigation algorithms. It would be particularly useful if I could generate new worlds algorithmically, so I could quickly create additional variants just by changing a set of parameters.

I see there are API's to generate SDF files programmatically, and I think I could use maze generation algorithms and other methods to automatically work out wall layouts, light sources, obstacles etc. But my question is, has something like this been done already? I'd hate to spend six months working on this to eventually find someone else already has a more advanced implementation.

Even if nothing of the sort already exists, are there any tools beyond Gazebo itself, the SDF API and ROS that I should be aware of?