This is the stimulus environment (nf-stim)
It is a combination of stimulus audio/visual components (from psychopy) and real-time functionality to change them in real-time (pyff). Trollius (python 2.7's asyncio) is used to run things concurrently.
| Pyff | Psychopy |
|---|---|
| start/stop experiments | visual stimuli |
| remote control from another computer | auditory stimuli |
| send data to experiment in RT | keyboard/button interface |
| logging to logfile | |
| use extra/dual screens |
A typical workflow exists of, when it comes to stimulus computer:
Enter the src directory and start FeedbackController:
conda activate st
cd nf-stim/src
python FeedbackController.py
At this stage you can either
- start up experiments from the GUI, this will just run an experiment without feedback
- or use the real-time computer to start up an experiment and send data in real-time (see the nf-rtime environment)
Pyff is a rather old package, so won't work with the most up-to-date version of pyqt. Also it is coded in Python = 2.7, and it'd take serious effort to try to convert to python 3. In addition, Psychopy is (as of yet) coded in python 2.7. The use of a conda environment guarantees that the packages will run as intended on any system. In addition, it's rather easy to make a shortcut to start things up.
The way to install this stimulus presentation is:
- Install Git
- Install Conda
- Clone the nf-stim environment
- Use Conda to set up the correct environment
conda env create -f environment.yml(there are different yml files for windows and linux!) - (optional) Make a shortcut to the desktop to easily quick-start the FeedbackController