Custom dynamic stimulus

Support
1

Hi Chris,

I have a short question. We want to build a dynamic stimulus, similar to the drifting grating or moving dot stimulus.
What is the latest model stimulus plugin that we should work from and modify? And is OpenGL still the approach of choice in MWorks for doing this?

thanks,
Mark

2

Hi Mark,

We want to build a dynamic stimulus, similar to the drifting grating or moving dot stimulus. What is the latest model stimulus plugin that we should work from and modify?

The current versions of the drifting grating and moving dots are both decent starting points. The drifting grating inherits from ColoredTransformStimulus (and thereby BasicTransformStimulus), so if you want to include the same basic parameters for position, size, color, etc. that those bases provide, it’s probably your best bet. However, the moving dots stimulus is a bit simpler and maybe easier to understand.

And is OpenGL still the approach of choice in MWorks for doing this?

Yes, specifically OpenGL 3.3 Core Profile (and OpenGL ES 3.0 on iOS).

However, how long this will remain the case is a bit uncertain. As of the next releases of macOS and iOS, Apple is officially deprecating OpenGL. At some point in the future, we’ll need to transition to Metal (or a portable API built on top of it). Exactly when isn’t clear.

Cheers,
Chris

3

Ok, thank you. We’re going to look at this in the next two weeks and get back to you.

Mark