MinimalScene: configurable near/far clip planes

[scpeters]

Desired behavior

Configuration of the clipping distance for the near/far clip planes was requested in gazebosim/gazebo-classic#2064. Support was added for configuring these parameters via the gzclient GUI in BitBucket pull request 2470, though support for setting the parameter via a world file was requested but not implemented.

I request that we add the near/far clipping distance as parameters for the MinimalScene camera.

Alternatives considered

The parameters could be configured interactively via a GUI widget or an ignition-transport interface, but I would prefer specifying it in XML.

Implementation suggestion

The following is an example of the current XML configuration parameters for a MinimalScene plugin instance:

    <plugin filename="MinimalScene">
      <engine>ogre</engine>
      <scene>banana</scene>
      <ambient_light>1.0 0 0</ambient_light>
      <background_color>0 1 0</background_color>
      <camera_pose>1 2 3 0 0 1.57</camera_pose>
    </plugin>

I would propose adding the following parameters to mirror the SDFormat camera clipping distance parameter structure:

      <camera_clip>
        <near>0.1</near>
        <far>5000</far>
      </camera_pose>

    <plugin filename="MinimalScene">
      <engine>ogre</engine>
      <scene>banana</scene>
      <ambient_light>1.0 0 0</ambient_light>
      <background_color>0 1 0</background_color>

      <camera_clip>
        <near>0.1</near>
        <far>5000</far>
      </camera_pose>

      <camera_pose>1 2 3 0 0 1.57</camera_pose>
    </plugin>

Additional context

Although setting these parameters from SDFormat was never implemented in gazebo, a Gazebo plugin for this purpose was created in the following public repository:

• https://github.com/nasa/irg_open/tree/ros2/irg_gazebo_plugins/src/IRGNearFarClipPlugin

[scpeters]

I've added the Fortress label since MinimalScene as added in fortress

[chapulina]

a Gazebo plugin for this purpose was created in the following public repository:

Another reference, the SimSlides plugin also has an implementation for both Gazebo classic and Ignition:

https://github.com/chapulina/simslides/blob/1dcd393fb9622043cdf90c68ade8e8af5d48195c/common/Common.cc#L24-L35

[jennuine]

PR #309 allows you to configure near/far clip distance in xml. Should I work on extending ign-gazebo's view angle plugin to configure it through the GUI?

[scpeters]

PR #309 allows you to configure near/far clip distance in xml. Should I work on extending ign-gazebo's view angle plugin to configure it through the GUI?

sounds good to me 👍

[iche033]

related issue: gazebosim/gz-sim#1154