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NetView

Randall O'Reilly edited this page Aug 22, 2019 · 1 revision

The NetView 3D network viewer is one of the most important and powerful features of emergent. Here are a few tips:

Reviewing prior network states (Time / History)

Every time the simulation code drives an update of the NetView, it adds a new "record" of all the network variables per-unit, including the projection variables (weights, etc) for the currently selected unit. By default there are 100 such records retained (in an efficient circular "ring" buffer that overwrites the oldest once 100 have been stored).

  • You can use the Time controls in the bottom-right toolbar to review earlier records. This is typically the only way to see cycle-level processing, which typically does not have single-stepping and goes by too quickly. Conveniently, you can view all the different variables, change view params, etc, during this time-stepping.

  • Pressing the "Play" button restores the default "auto track latest" mode where it shows the latest recorded values. This also happens automatically any time the simulation adds a new Record (e.g., you resume running).

  • You can change the number of records from the 100 default in NetView.Data.Ring.Max in your simulation code.

  • It does NOT save all the projection-level values for all possible units you could click on, so you can only see the previously-selected unit's values. Indeed, if you click on another unit to view, that has to add a new Record to the end of the history..

Actual numerical values: Hover

Just hover the mouse over units to see a "tooltip" popup with the actual numerical value of the unit.

Filtering by projection type

(Not yet impl) Enter text in PrjnType field to only show Prjn data from projections whose type contains that text -- in more advanced algorithms, multiple different types of projections are used, often to the same layer, so without this you don't know which connections you're seeing (depends on order of projections in list).