Omniverse Kit

kit/exts/lhzn.vantagekit brings the same navigation ideas to Omniverse Kit viewers (Kit 109 and 110, Isaac Sim 6). It is a Kit extension with a pure-Python core:

  • Modes.

    • free: Kit’s own navigation.

    • chase: behind the target along its heading, with the horizon level.

    • pov: fixed in the target’s body frame.

    • orbit: around the target, from mouse drag, the wheel, the right stick and the triggers. The stick moves the camera the way it is pushed (left takes it left around the target, up raises it); a mouse drag moves the scene.

    Chase and orbit share one vantage: leaving orbit keeps its angle, elevation and range for chase, and the point of view (a fixed seat) never changes it.

  • Any stage. The rig reads the stage up axis (Y or Z) and meters per unit. Every distance is set in meters and every time constant in seconds, and the smoothing does not depend on frame rate.

  • Handover. In the attached modes the rig locks its camera against Kit’s mouse and keyboard navigation with the camera’s omni:kit:cameraLock attribute, and turns off native gamepad navigation. It changes these only when the mode changes, and restores them on dispose.

  • Bindings as data. Bindings are records with press, hold, axis and delta kinds and exact modifiers. They sit in ordered layers, so an app layer (vessel controls, for example) can take the sticks from the camera while it is on. help_rows() lists them for a help panel.

  • Pop-ups with their own view. Input comes from carb for the whole app, so a drag in another window would also move the camera. Set controls.router.mouse_gate to a function that returns False while the pointer is over such a window; the mouse is ignored then.

Action

Keyboard / mouse

Gamepad

Attach the camera to the selected target, or free it

K

X

Next attached view: chase, point of view, orbit

T

D-pad down

Previous / next target

[ / ]

LB / RB

Home view

Home

A

Orbit (orbit view)

left drag, wheel

right stick, triggers

 
from vantagekit.core import CallbackTargets, Pose
from vantagekit.kit import ViewerControls, on_update

controls = ViewerControls(
    "/World/ViewerCam",
    CallbackTargets(ids=lambda: sorted(poses), pose=lambda i: Pose(*poses[i]) if i in poses else None),
)
sub = on_update(controls.update, "my.viewer")   # controls.update(dt) once per frame
...
sub = None
controls.dispose()                               # unsubscribes and restores navigation

Add kit/exts to the app’s extension search paths (--ext-folder, or [settings.app.exts.folders] in a .kit file) and depend on "lhzn.vantagekit" = {}. Its Python package is vantagekit.

The Python package

The Python package is also on PyPI, for code outside Kit that uses the core, such as tests and tools:

pip install vantagekit

vantagekit.core

Standard library only, so it runs anywhere Python 3.10 or later does: in tests, in tools, or in a viewer built on any renderer.

  • Stage frames for Y-up and Z-up scenes in any unit (UpFrame), with headings and yaw from orientations.

  • Camera math for orbit, chase and point-of-view cameras around a moving target (orbit_eye, look_at_matrix). Every distance is in meters and every time constant in seconds.

  • Smoothing that does not depend on frame rate (Smoothed3, SmoothedAngle, exp_alpha): the filter is solved exactly for a target moving steadily between frames, so the lag behind a moving target is its speed times the time constant at any frame time.

  • Bindings as data (Binding, DEFAULT_BINDINGS): press, hold, axis and delta kinds, exact modifiers, and ordered layers, so an app layer can take the sticks from the camera while it is on.

  • Target selection (CallbackTargets, Pose).

from vantagekit.core import SmoothedAngle, UpFrame, orbit_eye

vantagekit.kit

Adapters for Omniverse Kit 109 and 110 (Isaac Sim 6): a camera rig with free, chase, point-of-view and orbit modes, a handover to Kit’s own navigation, a keyboard, mouse and gamepad input router, and a view badge. These import carb and omni and so work only inside Kit. A Kit app usually loads them as the lhzn.vantagekit extension from the repository’s kit/exts folder, as above.

Versions

The package version follows the repository’s release tags, so vantagekit==0.8.2 matches the JavaScript modules served from @v0.8.2.

Both modules are described in the Python API.