Using Visualizer Tiled Cameras

Using Visualizer Tiled Cameras#

For general visualizer documentation, see Visualization.

The visualizer tiled camera view is a live monitoring and debugging tool. It opens a non-interactive panel in the Kit or Newton visualizer and displays tiled camera views across all selected environments. They can stream observation camera data or generate cameras that follow the robots.

This guide is accompanied by the run_tiled_camera_visualizer.py script in the IsaacLab/scripts/tutorials/07_visualizers directory.

Running this script demonstrates two ways to use tiled cameras:

  • configured tiled cameras pointed at and following moving AnymalD robots shown in the Kit visualizer

  • streaming from existing wrist-mounted robot cameras shown in the Newton visualizer

Note: Visualizer tiled cameras are currently supported only in the Kit and Newton visualizers. Either visualizer can be used to run either example.

Code for run_tiled_camera_visualizer.py
  1# Copyright (c) 2022-2026, The Isaac Lab Project Developers (https://github.com/isaac-sim/IsaacLab/blob/main/CONTRIBUTORS.md).
  2# All rights reserved.
  3#
  4# SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
  5
  6"""
  7This script demonstrates the visualizer tiled camera panel.
  8
  9.. code-block:: bash
 10
 11    # Kit visualizer tiled camera panel
 12    ./isaaclab.sh -p scripts/tutorials/07_visualizers/run_tiled_camera_visualizer.py \
 13        --enable_cameras --task Isaac-Velocity-Rough-AnymalD --num_envs 256 --viz kit
 14
 15    # Newton visualizer tiled camera panel
 16    ./isaaclab.sh -p scripts/tutorials/07_visualizers/run_tiled_camera_visualizer.py \
 17        --task IsaacContrib-Stack-Cube-Galbot-Left-Arm-Gripper-Visuomotor --num_envs 25 --viz newton
 18
 19"""
 20
 21from __future__ import annotations
 22
 23import argparse
 24import contextlib
 25import sys
 26
 27import gymnasium as gym
 28import torch
 29
 30import isaaclab_tasks  # noqa: F401
 31
 32with contextlib.suppress(ImportError):
 33    import isaaclab_tasks_experimental  # noqa: F401
 34from isaaclab.app import add_launcher_args, launch_simulation
 35
 36from isaaclab_tasks.utils import resolve_task_config, setup_preset_cli
 37
 38KIT_DEFAULT_TASK = "Isaac-Velocity-Rough-AnymalD"
 39NEWTON_DEFAULT_TASK = "IsaacContrib-Stack-Cube-Galbot-Left-Arm-Gripper-Visuomotor"
 40SUPPORTED_TILED_VISUALIZERS = {"kit", "newton"}
 41UNSUPPORTED_TILED_VISUALIZERS = {"rerun", "viser"}
 42
 43
 44def _resolve_env_regex_path(prim_path: str) -> str:
 45    """Resolve scene config env namespace macros to the cloned-env regex."""
 46    return prim_path.format(ENV_REGEX_NS="/World/envs/env_.*")
 47
 48
 49def _requested_visualizers(args_cli: argparse.Namespace) -> list[str]:
 50    """Return requested visualizers, defaulting to Kit for this tutorial."""
 51    visualizers = args_cli.visualizer or ["kit"]
 52    visualizers = [str(visualizer).lower() for visualizer in visualizers]
 53
 54    if "none" in visualizers:
 55        raise ValueError("This demo requires a tiled-camera visualizer. Use '--viz kit' or '--viz newton'.")
 56    unsupported = sorted(set(visualizers) & UNSUPPORTED_TILED_VISUALIZERS)
 57    if unsupported:
 58        raise ValueError(
 59            "The visualizer tiled camera panel is only implemented for Kit and Newton. "
 60            f"Unsupported selection: {unsupported}."
 61        )
 62    unknown = sorted(set(visualizers) - SUPPORTED_TILED_VISUALIZERS)
 63    if unknown:
 64        raise ValueError(f"Unknown visualizer selection for this demo: {unknown}.")
 65    return visualizers
 66
 67
 68def _make_kit_visualizer_cfg(env_cfg):
 69    """Create the Kit tiled-camera visualizer for the selected task."""
 70    from isaaclab_visualizers.kit import KitVisualizerCfg
 71
 72    visualizer_cfg = KitVisualizerCfg()
 73    visualizer_cfg.tiled_cam_view = True
 74    visualizer_cfg.tiled_cam_num = 36
 75
 76    ego_cam_cfg = getattr(env_cfg.scene, "ego_cam", None)
 77    if ego_cam_cfg is not None:
 78        visualizer_cfg.tiled_cam_prim_path = _resolve_env_regex_path(ego_cam_cfg.prim_path)
 79        visualizer_cfg.tiled_cam_target_prim_path = None
 80        return visualizer_cfg
 81
 82    visualizer_cfg.tiled_cam_prim_path = None
 83    # Here is an alternative eye position for a top down view
 84    # visualizer_cfg.tiled_cam_eye = (0.0, 0.0, 5.0)
 85    return visualizer_cfg
 86
 87
 88def _make_newton_visualizer_cfg(env_cfg):
 89    """Create the Newton tiled-camera visualizer for the selected task."""
 90    from isaaclab_visualizers.newton import NewtonVisualizerCfg
 91
 92    visualizer_cfg = NewtonVisualizerCfg()
 93    visualizer_cfg.tiled_cam_view = True
 94    visualizer_cfg.tiled_cam_num = 12
 95
 96    ego_cam_cfg = getattr(env_cfg.scene, "ego_cam", None)
 97    if ego_cam_cfg is not None:
 98        visualizer_cfg.tiled_cam_prim_path = _resolve_env_regex_path(ego_cam_cfg.prim_path)
 99        visualizer_cfg.tiled_cam_eye = None
100        visualizer_cfg.tiled_cam_target_prim_path = None
101        return visualizer_cfg
102
103    # Here are other robot mounted camera options for this environment
104    # visualizer_cfg.tiled_cam_prim_path = "/World/envs/env_.*/Robot/left_arm_camera_sim_view_frame/left_camera"
105    # visualizer_cfg.tiled_cam_prim_path = "/World/envs/env_.*/Robot/right_arm_camera_sim_view_frame/right_camera"
106    visualizer_cfg.tiled_cam_prim_path = None
107    visualizer_cfg.tiled_cam_eye = (3.0, 3.0, 3.0)
108    visualizer_cfg.tiled_cam_target_prim_path = "/World/envs/*/Robot/base"
109    return visualizer_cfg
110
111
112def _configure_visualizers(env_cfg, args_cli: argparse.Namespace) -> None:
113    """Attach tiled camera visualizer configs to the environment simulation config."""
114    visualizers = _requested_visualizers(args_cli)
115    args_cli.visualizer = visualizers
116    env_cfg.sim.visualizer_cfgs = [
117        _make_kit_visualizer_cfg(env_cfg) if visualizer == "kit" else _make_newton_visualizer_cfg(env_cfg)
118        for visualizer in visualizers
119    ]
120
121
122def _resolve_task(args_cli: argparse.Namespace) -> str:
123    """Resolve the task for the selected visualizer."""
124    if args_cli.task is not None:
125        return args_cli.task
126    if "newton" in _requested_visualizers(args_cli):
127        return NEWTON_DEFAULT_TASK
128    return KIT_DEFAULT_TASK
129
130
131# add argparse arguments
132parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Showcase the Kit/Newton visualizer tiled camera panel.")
133parser.add_argument("--num_envs", type=int, default=None, help="Number of environments to simulate.")
134parser.add_argument("--task", type=str, default=None, help="Name of the task.")
135# append AppLauncher cli args
136add_launcher_args(parser)
137args_cli, hydra_args = setup_preset_cli(parser)
138args_cli.task = _resolve_task(args_cli)
139sys.argv = [sys.argv[0]] + hydra_args
140
141
142def main():
143    """Run a random-action environment with a tiled camera visualizer."""
144    # parse configuration via Hydra (supports preset selection, e.g. presets=newton_mjwarp)
145    env_cfg, _ = resolve_task_config(args_cli.task, "")
146    _configure_visualizers(env_cfg, args_cli)
147
148    with launch_simulation(env_cfg, args_cli):
149        # override with CLI arguments
150        env_cfg.scene.num_envs = args_cli.num_envs if args_cli.num_envs is not None else env_cfg.scene.num_envs
151        env_cfg.sim.device = args_cli.device if args_cli.device is not None else env_cfg.sim.device
152
153        # create environment
154        env = gym.make(args_cli.task, cfg=env_cfg)
155
156        # print info (this is vectorized environment)
157        print(f"[INFO]: Gym observation space: {env.observation_space}")
158        print(f"[INFO]: Gym action space: {env.action_space}")
159        env.reset()
160
161        # keep stepping until all visualizer windows have been closed
162        sim = env.unwrapped.sim
163        if not sim.visualizers:
164            print("[WARN]: No visualizers found. Exiting.")
165            env.close()
166            return
167
168        while True:
169            if sim.visualizers and not any(v.is_running() and not v.is_closed for v in sim.visualizers):
170                break
171            with torch.inference_mode():
172                actions = 2 * torch.rand(env.action_space.shape, device=env.unwrapped.device) - 1
173                env.step(actions)
174
175        env.close()
176
177
178if __name__ == "__main__":
179    main()

Example One: Following AnymalD Robots#

The Kit Visualizer shows the tiled camera view in a separate tab inside the main Viewport window. The highlighted tab area in the figures below shows where to toggle between the interactive viewport and the visualizer tiled camera view.

Kit visualizer interactive viewport for AnymalD robots

Kit visualizer showing the default interactive viewport.#

Kit visualizer tiled camera view for AnymalD robots

Kit visualizer showing the tiled camera view generated for selected AnymalD robots.#

Note, you can also display the main visualizer camera and the tiled camera view side by side for dual monitoring.

To run the tutorial with the args for this example, use:

python scripts/tutorials/07_visualizers/run_tiled_camera_visualizer.py --enable_cameras --task Isaac-Velocity-Rough-AnymalD --num_envs 256 --viz kit

Within the script, you’ll find the KitVisualizerCfg configuration used to generate this example. You can use this config as a template for your own use cases.

In this example, a set of cameras is created to point toward each robot’s base prim and follow its motion. The camera’s position, relative to the prim, is set by the tiled_cam_eye field of KitVisualizerCfg. For this demo, the camera is offset by (3.0, 3.0, 3.0) from each robot base. If you change tiled_cam_eye (for example, to (0, 0, 5)), the panel will show a top-down view instead.

In this example, there are 256 total environments, and we randomly sample 36 to stream to the tiled camera view.

Also note that the Kit visualizer tiled camera view requires passing the --enable_cameras CLI arg.

Example Two: Streaming from Robot-Mounted Cameras#

The Newton visualizer provides a tiled camera view in a lightweight OpenGL window. Use the highlighted Tiled Camera View dropdown in the left-hand sidebar to show or hide the tiled camera panel.

Newton visualizer interactive view for the Galbot cube stacking environment

Newton visualizer showing the default interactive viewport.#

Newton visualizer tiled camera view for Galbot wrist cameras

Newton visualizer showing the selected Galbot head-camera feeds in the tiled camera panel.#

In this example, we use the Galbot cube stacking environment, which comes with built-in wrist-mounted cameras. This setup provides an egocentric view of the gripper, table, and cubes in each selected environment.

To launch this example, run:

python scripts/tutorials/07_visualizers/run_tiled_camera_visualizer.py --task IsaacContrib-Stack-Cube-Galbot-Left-Arm-Gripper-Visuomotor --num_envs 25 --viz newton

Within the script, the NewtonVisualizerCfg is configured to stream images from the existing camera sensor located at /World/envs/env_.*/Robot/head_camera_sim_view_frame/head_camera. This path points to the head camera, but you can edit the tiled_cam_prim_path field of NewtonVisualizerCfg in the script to show a different existing camera if needed.

In this demo, 25 environments are simulated, and 12 camera feeds are shown in the tiled panel by default.

Configuration notes#

To customize tiled camera behavior, edit the highlighted VisualizerCfg fields in run_tiled_camera_visualizer.py:

  • For generated cameras, tiled_cam_target_prim_path chooses the followed prim and tiled_cam_eye sets the camera offset from that prim.

  • For existing scene cameras, tiled_cam_prim_path must match an Isaac Lab Camera sensor in the selected task.

  • tiled_cam_num controls how many environment tiles are shown.

Troubleshooting#

  • If a generated view fails with a missing prim error, check that tiled_cam_target_prim_path resolves in each selected environment. Common template forms include /World/envs/*/... and /World/envs/env_.*/....

  • If an existing-camera view reports that no Isaac Lab camera owns the prim, check that tiled_cam_prim_path matches a Camera sensor in the task.

  • If rerun or viser is selected, use --viz kit or --viz newton instead. The tiled camera panel is currently implemented for Kit and Newton.

  • If the view is too expensive, reduce tiled_cam_num, --num_envs, or the camera resolution. The visualizer caps the tiled panel at 100 tiles.

See also#