README.md

Stimpack

Precise and flexible generation of stimuli for neuroscience experiments.

Installation

1. Clone this repository and ensure you are on the beyond_xorg branch via:

git clone https://github.com/clandininlab/stimpack
cd stimpack
git checkout beyond_xorg

2. Make a new virtualenvironment and enable it with

python3 -m venv ~/.stimpack_env # or desired environment directory
source ~/.stimpack_env/bin/activate

On Windows

python -m venv .stimpack_env # or desired directory

.stimpack_env\Scripts\activate

3. Install the stimpack branch with pip install -e .

Key Concepts

1. Client-Server Framework: stimpack uses a client-server framework with the client asynchronously requesting stimuli from the server. The server is responsible for generating the stimuli and displaying them on the specified monitors / devices.

2. The most common point of customization will be in stimuli.py. To create your own stimulus classes, you must make a directory with a file called stimuli.py and use the syntax found in the examples #4 to add the directory to stimpack's path. An example such directory can be found in examples.

3. Perspective-corrected rendering: Stimpack uses a perspective-corrected rendering pipeline to ensure that stimuli are displayed accurately on the screen. This is particularly important for stimuli that are displayed at an angle or at a distance from the screen. When defining each screen, use the pa, pb, pc arguments to define the lower left, lower right, and upper left corners of the screen, respectively.