aviator@CSDFX8A.ARLUT.UTEXAS.EDU (David Boles) (09/08/90)
Hello ! I am currently looking into buying a computer or computers for work. Since I am extremely new to this, I was wondering if I could get some feedback from "the guys in the trenches" on my computational needs. Basically, I need scientific visualization and image processing capabilities. Some of the things being tossed around are: (1) Suppose I have data that will be viewed as a 3d sur- face; I would like to map other 2d data onto this surface. Is it possible to animate a series of images in which the 3d surface stayed the same but the 2d data changed? Is there any fundamental change in considering this for a 40x40 grid, 100x100 grid, 200x200 grid? (2) Suppose that I bought a machine that could not smoothly animate the images that I have created. Could I then render them in advance, store them, and somehow replay them? Would this then be trans- ferable to videotape? (3) If I started on a small SGI machine initially and later upgraded to a larger, faster unit, how hard would the transition be in terms of software? Any response on these questions as well as general comments will be greatly appreciated. Please send these to (me) : aviator@csdfx8a.arlut.utexas.edu