Legacy SOS Explorer® 1.4.1 Set Up Guide

This guide will takeyou step-by-step through the process of setting up your Science On a Sphere® Explorer® (SOSx).

Before running SOS Explorer®, the computer should be configured with the proper display configuration. The application expects two monitors to be attached. The main or primary screen should be the touch screen and the secondary screen should be the larger TV. To access the display settings right click on the desktop and choose Display settings.

This will open the settings dialog window where you should try to match the settings outlined below.

In two monitor mode both monitors should be displayed with the main (primary) touchscreen appears below the larger secondary TV. Further all displays should be set to 100% sizing and the extended desktop mode enabled. Multiple displays should be set to Extend these displays. In single monitor mode there will be only one display shown. If using a set of virtual reality glasses they will not appear in this dialog.

Ensure the Aspect Ratios Match

Permalink to Ensure the Aspect Ratios Match

Access Advanced display settings found at the bottom of the dialog window check to make sure that all the attached displays are running at the same aspect ratio. Typical resolutions include 1920x1080 (1080P) or 3840x2160 (4K or 2160P).

Check the Refresh Rate for the TV

Permalink to Check the Refresh Rate for the TV

Finally, it may be necessary to change the refresh rate on the TV. To do this right click on the desktop and select NVIDIA Control Panel.

Select Change resolution from the left panel in the dialog window and then verify that the Refresh rate is set at 60Hz for all the available displays. If you made any changes in this dialog, press Apply.

Set UI Scale Factor

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For Dual Display (2K / 4K Monitors) setups: you will want to run the SOSx Config utility and edit the UI Scale Factor for displays 1 and 2. The recommended settings are 1.65 for dual 2K monitors and 1.65 and 3.0 for 2K / 4K setups.

Before installing the software, the computer needs to be configured with all the hardware attached and the correct screen configuration. For example, if you’re using a touch screen and a 4k television, make sure the proper resolutions are set for each display. See the Setup Guide for instructions on this. You will also need to be connected to the internet for the final steps of the installation

Plug the hard disk into one of the USB3 ports (they’re blue), if you’re installing multiple copies of SOSx, you can use the same hard disk. If it doesn’t automatically pop up (this behavior depends on configuration settings of your computer), open your file browser and look for the drive named SOSx_Install

Double-click the SOSx-setup.exe file to launch the installation.

A license agreement will pop up. Read through and click I accept the agreement and then press Next.

Then you will be asked to select the destination location. Typically, just accept the default location (C:\Program Files\SOS Explorer) by pressing Next.

Next it will give you a prompt asking where to install the Dataset Directory. If you have just one drive, accept the default C:\local-datasets directory. If you have a secondary drive for storage, switch to that location using the Browse… button. Then press Next.

In the Select Start Menu Folder prompt that comes up next, accept the suggested Shortcut by pressing Next.

After selecting the above options press Next and a prompt will appear where you can start the installation.

Click Install to begin the installation. At this point, the install software will download all the SOSx content onto your system. This step will take several hours the first time.

If there are missing software packages, you will be prompted to download these. Agree to all of them in order for the software to run properly. These are video codecs and Windows drivers.

Once all of the requisite files have been installed on your computer, you’ll see a prompt about completing the setup. You are given the options to view this instruction manual or check for new data. Once you have selected what you want, click Finish.

• If you selected to view the documentation or check for new data, you will see windows for those pop up
• If you selected modify or review configuration the SOSx Configurator will appear

Double click on the SOS Explorer® icon on the Desktop (if you kept that default) or in the Start menu folder that was created. This will initiate the registration process.

The first time SOS Explorer® is launched it will need to be registered in order to receive a license. If you have purchased multiple copies, it’s not a problem to use the same information for each.

Name

The name of the person who is responsible for administering the installation

Email

The email address for the person who is responsible for administering the installation

Organization

The name of the organization in charge of the SOS Explorer® installation

Phone

A contact phone number

City

The city where the SOS Explorer® installation is located

State

The state where the SOS Explorer® installation is located

Country

The country where the SOS Explorer® installation is located

After filling in the information click on Send Profile. You will need to be connected to the Internet for this step.

You will receive an email at the address provided from sos.explorer@noaa.gov saying the license request is being reviewed. Please allow up to 48 hours for activation. You will receive another email when the license request has been approved.

If you accept all the default names and file locations during the installation process, there will be a SOS Explorer® icon on your Desktop that you can use to launch the application. In the Start menu, there will be a SOS Explorer folder that contains:

• Launcher for SOS Explorer®
• Launcher for the Tour Builder
• Launcher for the SOS Configurator
• Sync Datasets which updates all datasets
• Shortcut to the local datasets folder
• License file
• Setup guide (this document)
• Uninstall application

Click the icon to start SOSx. You will find the icon in the SOS Explorer® folder in the start menu and on the Desktop.

SOS Explorer® is difficult to quit when it’s set up as an exhibit because it is designed to operate in an unattended exhibit environment where you would not what visitors gaining access to the desktop or operating system. In a classroom setting, the software can be modified through the config file (see Modifying the Configuration) to include an exit button if you prefer. In the exhibit setting, you should leave the keyboard and mouse hidden during normal operation. If you need access to the Desktop or Windows environment you should retrieve the keyboard and mouse and press Alt + F4.

There are over 140 datasets loaded onto your exhibit, including real-time datasets that will automatically update every hour. However, if you would prefer to restrict to a particular theme, for example, if your museum is an aquarium and you want only Water and People datasets to appear in the SOSx Search Window, you can do so. You will still be able to access all the datasets from TourBuilder but they will not show up in the SOSx Search Window.

Open local-datasets directory to find a number of small text files including tag_selection_bak.json. Open it.

This is the text you will find:

{
    "inclusive": true,
    "tags": {
        "Movies": {}
    }
}

inclusive can either be set to true or false depending on whether you would like to include or exclude categories (tags), respectively.

{
    "inclusive": false,
    "tags": {
        "Movies": {},
        "Space": {}
    }
}

When you’re finished editing the file, save it and rename it to: tag_selection.json and relaunch SOSx.

Air, Extras, Land, Movies, People, Real-time, Snow and Ice, Space, Tour, Water.

Datasets may be in multiple categories.

SOS Explorer® has many options for customizing your exhibit, from the number of displays, to the timing of data syncs, to whether or not you want to show an exit button (for use in classrooms, for example). In order to change the configuration of your exhibit, we have created a “Configurator” program, which edits a file called config.json for SOS Explorer®.

When you first launch SOSx, the Configurator will automatically open. Any other time, open the SOSx Configurator program (Configurator.exe), located in the same folder as SOSx, to change the primary settings for SOSx.

With Configurator, you can choose which “Hot Buttons” appear on the lower left corner of SOSx, choose basemap / clouds options, link a kiosk tour (a tour that automatically plays after no one has touched the screen for a specified time: Kiosk Timeout Sec), various UI Features (for example, 2D/3D Button on the lower right of the screen can be hidden), and various display options (for example, enabling a second display monitor or an optional VR Oculus Rift).

If you choose all the default options during the installation, you will find the configuration file at: C:\Program Files\SOS Explorer\SOSx_Data\config\config.json

Allows users to switch between 2D map and 3D globe mode.

Allows users to probe and analyze datasets, and display graphs.

Displays camera controls which allow the user to tilt and rotate the camera (pitch and roll).

Allows users to open a window to draw lines and place icons on the globe.

Allows users to measure distances on the globe.

Allows users to display overlays on the globe such as country borders, cities, and grid lines.

Allows users to exit the application by pressing a quit button on the lower-right. Not recommended for exhibits.

Shows a menu with a variety of resources. Normally hidden.

When checked, displays country borders when the application is started, when unchecked shows the globe without borders. Default is unchecked.

The directory where the chosen Earth basemap is installed. This is typically either an 8K or 80K version of NASA’s Blue Marble.

The number of seconds before the automatic kiosk tour will run when there is no activity. Default is 420.

The dataset ID of the tour to run when there is no activity.

The language that should be used for display. Typically this should remain the default unless you want to override the system settings.

The location where the datasets are installed.

The directory where the chosen Earth night time lights dataset is installed. This is typically either an 8K or 80K version of NASA’s Black Marble.

The URL where the most recent version of clouds are located. This is typically either a 4K or 8K black and white equidistant projected cloud image.

How close to allow the view point to get to the Earth.

The amount of time to wait between checks for new realtime data on the SOS FTP.

The number of displays to show SOS Explorer® on. Checking the box means there are two displays, otherwise there is one.

A percentage to scale the UI elements on the main display. A value of 1 is the original size, but touch-screen users may prefer larger values such as 1.75. Default is 1.75.

A percentage to scale the UI elements on the secondary display. A value of 1 is the original size. Default is 1.75.

Check the box in most circumstances unless told otherwise.

Enable support for virtual reality using the Oculus Rift and Leap Motion. See Virtual Reality Support for additional details.

true to launch a full data synchronization process every time SOSx is started. This may impact system performance. The default is false.

true to synchronize the latest real-time datasets when there is no activity. The default is true. When set to false, the real-time datasets do not sync.

A string array of country names that should not appear in the corresponding overlay.

The number of seconds to wait between real-time datasets syncing when the machine is idle. The default is 1800.

New datasets are continually being added to SOSx and real-time datasets are being updated regularly. Defaults have been set for automatic data downloads, but you have the ability to change them to meet your site’s needs. All dataset downloads require the computer to have an internet connection.

If you want to manually update the datasets, you can do this by selecting Sync Datasets in the SOS Explorer folder found in the Windows Start menu under All Programs.

Most real-time datasets show new imagery either hourly or daily so that you can display current events. They are synced every time the software is idle. The time it takes for the software to be considered idle is defined by kioskTimeoutSec in the config file, which by default is set to 7 minutes. Once idle, the real-time datasets are synced by default every 30 minutes, as defined by the refreshLocalDatasetsSec option in the config file. Other real-time datasets (such as real-time earthquakes) attempt to download the latest data each time the dataset is loaded and require an Internet connection.

If the Schedule syncing of datasets Tuesday at 9:00AM checkbox was left checked during the setup process all other datasets are updated every Tuesday at 9:00am through the Windows task scheduler. When the data download is happening, it’s possible that you will see a decline in performance for the SOSx software. If you plan on leaving the computer on all the time, you can set this download to occur in the middle of the night to avoid potential performance issues.

If your computer happens to be off at 9:00am on Tuesday, you can use the manual sync described above to get any new datasets that you are missing.

The scheduled task can be modified by starting the Task Scheduler found in the Start menu.

Double-clicking on the SOSx Full Dataset Sync task pulls up the properties.

Click on Properties in the Actions bar on the right to edit the task.

The Triggers tab will let you change the time and frequency of the scheduled full dataset sync.

Starting in version 1.4 SOS Explorer® (SOSx) offers full support for virtual reality (VR). This feature requires the following additional hardware:

• Oculus Rift
• Leap Motion with VR Mount

Follow the setup instructions included in both products and ensure the hardware is operational. Next run the Configurator program, check the Use VR box to enable VR, and click the Save button to save configuration options. At this time HTC Vive is not supported.

When you run SOSx with VR enabled on a system where Rift has been installed, you have the option of putting on the Rift headset to experience SOSx. With the Rift on, you will see the Earth in the distance and you will also see a virtual version of your hand. If you extend your index finger, you can touch buttons to activate them. When first starting SOSx, you will see two buttons in the main panel floating in front of the Earth: a Search button and a Navigate button.

If you press the Search button, the Search Window appears with categories of datasets for you to choose among.

If you touch the Air button, for example, you’ll see datasets in that category.

You can touch a dataset button to open that dataset. Note that you will see the dataset in your Rift and any user at the touch screen will also see the dataset load. If you load a dataset that can be animated (e.g., a dataset with multiple images, one for each time) then you’ll see a legend on the left, and below the main panel you’ll see the Animation window. Press the buttons to pause, rewind, advance frames, etc.

If you press the Navigation button with your finger, the Navigation window appears. Use this window to rotate the globe and zoom in/out.

If you load a tour with 360 degree content (bubbles) like the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Tour, you’ll see a VR window that enables you to choose which 360 degree “bubble” to fly into.

If you press the Christ of the Abyss button with your finger, for example, you will fly into that 360 degree bubble and can look around. Once inside the bubble, you can exit back out by touching the Exit 360 Bubble button.

On occasion the SOS team will release updates to SOS Explorer®. If you are connected to the Internet SOS Explorer® will check to see if there are updates available and automatically patch the application. You can observe the progress in the SOS Explorer Auto Patcher.