steve@wheeler (08/21/90)
I am a groundwater hydrologist specializing in the development and application of scientific visualization of output from 2- and 3-D models of fluid flow and solute transport in groundwater flow systems. I have some general questions, and a couple of specific ones. 1. I have just ordered a Silicon Graphics Personal Iris 4D-25TG as a basis for my system. As a result, I am interested in establishing contact with people who are working on similar problems with SGI machines. 2. I am trying to decide on a method to store animations. The first question is: digital or analog (i.e., storing the RGB or NTSC signal). One method that I am thinking about is to store frame by frame on a Sony LVR-5000 laser videodisc recorder (WORM technology). Anybody have any opinions or further ideas? 3. One of my specific visualization problems is the simultaneous display of hydraulic parameters which affect the fluid flow, and the fluid flow data (in 3-D and time). The most important hydraulic parameter is permeability, which is a second-rank tensor. Has anybody thought about clever ways to display such data simultaneously? Or, more simply, has anybody thought about how to display just second rank tensors? Picture a 3-D volume, which represents the subsurface, and at every point, there is a second rank tensor representing the permeability. This is a symmetric tensor, so there are only three different numbers associated with it. If you send me mail, I will try to summarize and post. I monitor this newsgroup, so I should also see followups, if you decide to respond in that way. Steve Wheatcraft Internet: steve@olympus.wrc.unr.edu Desert Research Institute (134.197.1.70) University of Nevada System Bitnet : steve@unsvax.bitnet P.O. Box 60220 AT&T : (702) 673-7393 Reno, NV 89506 FAX : (702) 673-7397
wes@uh.msc.umn.edu (Wes Barris) (08/22/90)
In article <4392@tahoe.unr.edu> you write: > 2. I am trying to decide on a method to store animations. > The first question is: digital or analog (i.e., storing > the RGB or NTSC signal). One method that I am thinking > about is to store frame by frame on a Sony LVR-5000 laser > videodisc recorder (WORM technology). Anybody have any > opinions or further ideas? > My background includes using the Wavefront software to produce commercial animations. There is quite a bit of difference between storing RGB files vs. NTSC (RS-170a) on tape (or disc). RGB files may be compressed or stored using the Utah Raster Toolkit which uses run-length encoding to compress the data. If you don't mind buying tapes this method would preserve your data completely. NTSC is as bad as it gets. BetacamSP is probably the most widely accepted (best) way to store an analog component signal. 8MM or HI 8MM isn't too bad. It is still component but it smushes the signal down to Y/C (luminance and chroma). It doesn't have the ability to store time code if that is important. I believe laser discs are store composite and they can only be written once. o o o o o o o . . . ________________________________ _____=======_____ o _____ |Wes Barris | | wes@msc.edu | .][__n_n_|DD[ ====_____ |Minnesota Supercomputer Center| |(612) 626-1854 | >(________|__|_[_________]_|University of Minnesota_______|_|_FAX:_624-6550_|_ _/oo OOOOO oo` ooo ooo 'o^o^o o^o^o` 'o^o o^o` -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.