rick@hanauma.Stanford.EDU (Richard Ottolini) (08/16/90)
A trend the past few months in scientific visualizations has been a proliferation of "turnkey" toolkits for data vizualization. Previous efforts had been special purpose vizualizations on particular hardware. Some that I am aware of include: NAME SOURCE SYSTEM SunVision Sun SPARC, XWindows AVS Stardent Titan, Stellar, [Convex] SpyGlass SpyGlass Mac APE Ohio SCC ??? Paragon ??? DEC, MasPar NCSA NCSA Mac, XWindows ??? Wavefront ??? VoxelView Vital Images Silicon Graphics Linkwinds JPL Silicon Graphics (There are errors and omissions on this list. Please correct after reading the following criteria. There are rumors of more under development.) Such toolkits are characterized by: (not everthing has all) (1) 2-D and 3-D vizualizations, both multidimensional raster arrays and illuminated surfaces. (2) No conventional programming necessary. One supplies data in certain formats and interactively adjusts the images. (3) Modularity. One creates a visualization by pushing data through a user-specified sequence of modules. (4) Extensible. One can add new modules for special input data types, output printers, image transformations, etc. Temporary flaws in many of the toolkits include: (1) None contains the full complement of visualization techniques. (2) Modularization sometimes leads to inefficient data movement. (3) Some specialized datasets don't fit into the standard templates. For example, geoscience datasets collected in cylindrical boreholes or planetary spheres. (4) Lack of creativity. After the initial amazement, 3-D visualizations start looking the same, irrespective of package or data input.