"ClockSpeed" setting does not work with SimMode: Car

[patnolan33]

When trying to set the clock speed to anything greater than 1 in SimMode: Car, the simulation still seems to run at real time (i.e. ClockSpeed = 1). The same setup was used in Multirotor mode and the clock speed was set as expected to faster than real time. I am on master and using the Docker setup to run AirSim (binary versions of the Docker scripts).

Here is a screenshot showing the Config clock speed versus the actual clock speed:

Here is the settings.json file that was loaded by AirSim:

{
  "SimMode": "Car", 
  "ClockSpeed": 50.0, 
  "SeeDocsAt": "https://github.com/Microsoft/AirSim/blob/master/docs/settings_json.md", 
  "SettingsVersion": 1.2, 
  "LocalHostIp": "127.0.0.1",
  "Recording": {
      "RecordOnMove": false, 
      "Cameras": [
          {
              "PixelsAsFloat": false, 
              "Compress": true, 
              "ImageType": 0, 
              "CameraName": "Car1_Scene"
          }
      ], 
      "RecordInterval": 0.05
  }, 
  "CameraDefaults": {
      "Gimbal": {
          "Yaw": 0, 
          "Stabilization": 0, 
          "Roll": 0, 
          "Pitch": 0
      }, 
      "Yaw": 0, 
      "NoiseSettings": [
          {
              "HorzDistortionContrib": 1.0, 
              "HorzWaveScreenSize": 1.0, 
              "HorzDistortionStrength": 0.002, 
              "HorzWaveContrib": 0.03, 
              "RandSize": 500.0, 
              "HorzWaveStrength": 0.08, 
              "Enabled": false, 
              "RandContrib": 0.2, 
              "RandDensity": 2, 
              "HorzNoiseLinesDensityXY": 0.5, 
              "RandSpeed": 100000.0, 
              "HorzWaveVertSize": 1.0, 
              "HorzNoiseLinesContrib": 1.0, 
              "ImageType": 0, 
              "HorzNoiseLinesDensityY": 0.01
          }
      ], 
      "CaptureSettings": [
          {
              "OrthoWidth": 5.12, 
              "AutoExposureSpeed": 100, 
              "TargetGamma": 1.0, 
              "AutoExposureBias": 0, 
              "AutoExposureMinBrightness": 0.03, 
              "AutoExposureMaxBrightness": 0.64, 
              "Height": 144, 
              "ProjectionMode": "", 
              "Width": 256, 
              "FOV_Degrees": 90, 
              "MotionBlurAmount": 0, 
              "ImageType": 0
          }
      ], 
      "Pitch": 0, 
      "Y": 0, 
      "X": 0, 
      "Z": 0, 
      "Roll": 0
  },
  "Vehicles": {
      "Car1": {
          "EnableCollisions": true, 
          "VehicleType": "PhysXCar", 
          "Yaw": -180, 
          "DefaultVehicleState": "", 
          "EnableCollisionPassthrogh": false, 
          "Y": 0, 
          "Cameras": {
              "Car1_Scene": {
                  "Yaw": 0, 
                  "CaptureSettings": [
                      {
                          "Width": 256, 
                          "FOV_Degrees": 90, 
                          "ImageType": 0, 
                          "Height": 144
                      }
                  ], 
                  "Pitch": 0, 
                  "Y": 0, 
                  "X": 2.25, 
                  "Z": -0.75, 
                  "Roll": 0
              }, 
              "Car1_Depth": {
                  "Yaw": 0, 
                  "CaptureSettings": [
                      {
                          "Width": 256, 
                          "FOV_Degrees": 90, 
                          "ImageType": 3, 
                          "Height": 144
                      }
                  ], 
                  "Pitch": 0, 
                  "Y": 0, 
                  "X": 2.25, 
                  "Z": -0.75, 
                  "Roll": 0
              }
          }, 
          "AllowAPIAlways": true, 
          "X": 0, 
          "Z": -1
      }
  }
}

[GimpelZhang]

I got the same problem.

When I set the ClockSpeed to a value lower than 1.0, like 0.1, the screen output still showed:

ClockSpeed config, actual: 0.1, 1.0

Hardware, OS, etc.:

Memory: 56GB;

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz × 12

GPU: GeForce GTX 1070

OS: ubuntu 16.04

Airsim: until #2506

[GimpelZhang]

I got the same problem.

When I set the ClockSpeed to a value lower than 1.0, like 0.1, the screen output still showed:

ClockSpeed config, actual: 0.1, 1.0

Hardware, OS, etc.:

Memory: 56GB;

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz × 12

GPU: GeForce GTX 1070

OS: ubuntu 16.04

Airsim: until #2506

More tests on this issue:

I tried the following settings on one same launch of the "Block" Environment.

1. "SimMode": "Car", "VehicleType": "PhysXCar", "ClockSpeed": 1.0

The simulation performed normally.

2. Then I changed the ClockSpeed to 0.1. I got the screen output:

ClockSpeed config, actual: 0.1, 1.0

3. Next I changed the SimMode to "Multirotor" with a "SimpleFlight" VehicleType. The ClockSpeed stayed 0.1. This time I got the screen output:

ClockSpeed config, actual: 0.1, [a number near 0.1]

4. Then I changed the settings back to "Car" SimMode and "PhysXCar" VehicleType, with the same 0.1 ClockSpeed. This time the screen output showed the actual ClockSpeed dropped gradually from 0.1 down to a number near ZERO.
   An interesting thing is: I could still move the car and got moving images, but the timestamps of the image response from simGetImages stuck at the first timestamp.

I guess the simulation speed of the car SimMode somehow cannot be changed now for some reason.

[GimpelZhang]

I made a temporary fix on this issue: master branch

So now in my situation, in Car SimMode smaller than 1.0 ClockSpeed does provide "more dense" timestamps.

But I'm not sure if there is any side effects on other using conditions.

[sguttikon]

is there an official fix for this available ? The fork of @GimpelZhang is out-of-date

[jonyMarino]

This was fixed in #4305

[haotiangu]

Hello guys, I got stuck by the same problem. The set up about the clock speed in settings does not reflect on the Unreal Engine simulator. Still default clock speed. Any thoughts.

[GimpelZhang]

Hello guys, I got stuck by the same problem. The set up about the clock speed in settings does not reflect on the Unreal Engine simulator. Still default clock speed. Any thoughts.

Hi, I haven't worked on this project for a long time. If they didn't fix it in the official repo, you have to deal with the AirSim code yourself.

If you want a further discussion, welcome to contact me via vx: junchuan89