User Interface

User Interface

Initial window

After running VacuumWorld you will be presented with the initial window, as shown in the figure below.

• Press Start to deploy the simulation window where you can drag and drop the entities of the VWEnvironment, or load a previously saved configuration. The simulation interface is described in detail in the subsequent sections.

• Press Guide to open a link to the project's GitHub page in a new browser window.

• Press Exit to close VacuumWorld.

Simulation window

After pressing the Start button, you will be presented with the simulation window, as shown in the figure below.

Actors, Dirts, and Locations

• VWActor and VWDirt icons can be dragged with the mouse onto a VWLocation area.

  • A VWLocation area can contain both a VWActor (VWCleaningAgent or VWUser) icon, and a VWDirt icon, in which case the VWDirt icon will be placed behind the VWActor icon.

  • Dragging a VWActor icon onto a VWLocation area that already contains a VWActor icon will cause the latter icon to replace the former one, and the latter VWActor to replace the former one.

  • Similarly, if a VWDirt icon is dragged onto a VWLocation area that already contains a VWDirt icon, then the latter icon will replace the former one, and the latter VWDirt will replace the former one.

• VWActor icons, and VWDirt icons (and, therefore, the corresponding VWActors, and VWDirts) can be removed by double clicking on the VWLocation areas where they are placed.

• Clicking on a VWLocation area will select it.

• A VWActor icon (and, therefore, the corresponding VWActor) can be rotated by selecting its VWLocation area, and pressing Left, or A to rotate counterclockwise, and Right, or D to rotate clockwise.

Buttons

Save, Load

To save a specific configuration, write the file name in the text box above the save and load buttons and press save . To load a previously saved configuration, write the file name in the text box and and press load. It is possible to perform a quick load on boot. Click here to learn more about that.

Save		Saves the current configuration. If no filename is specified, a random one will be chosen.
Load		Loads a previously saved configuration.

Simulation Control

The details of each in-simulation control button can be found below.

Play		Starts the simulation.
Pause		Pauses the simulation.
Stop		Stops the simulation. Stopping the simulation will reset each VWMind (including the internal state of all the surrogates).
Speed		Increases the simulation speed (will be reset when the simulation stops).
Reset		Clears the grid (and the corresponding VWEnvironment) by removing everything.
Difficulty		Switches the cognitive capacity of any VWUser from basic to advanced, or vice versa.
Guide		Opens a link to the project's GitHub page in a new browser window.

Additional Options and Information

• The size slider can be used to change the size of the grid, 3 ≤ n ≤ 13.

• Hovering over a location will display its coordinate in the bottom right. Remember: the origin (0,0) is at the top-left location. The coordinate x increases eastwards, while the coordinate y increases southwards.