knutm@ifi.uio.no (Knut Moerken) (11/15/90)
Has anybody tried the new product from WaveFront for scientific visualization called Data Visualizer? What's it like? How does it compare with AVS and aPe? Thanks in advance Knut Morken Institutt for informatikk University of Oslo Norway Email: knutm@ifi.uio.no
knutm@ifi.uio.no (Knut M|rken) (12/12/90)
I recently sent out an equiry to this newsgroup for opinions on the Data Visualizer from WaveFront, especially comparisons with AVS and aPe. I received two replies which are included in full below. Thanks to John and Wes for the information. Knut Morken Institutt for informatikk University of Oslo Norway email: knutm@ifi.uio.no Date: Mon, 26 Nov 90 09:42:16 PST From: wes@ux5.lbl.gov (wesley bethel) To: knutm@ifi.uio.no Subject: Re: Data Visualizer Newsgroups: comp.graphics.visualization In-Reply-To: <1990Nov15.121939.1852@ifi.uio.no> Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley Cc: In article <1990Nov15.121939.1852@ifi.uio.no> you write: > >Has anybody tried the new product from WaveFront for scientific visualization >called Data Visualizer? > >What's it like? > >How does it compare with AVS and aPe? > i spent some time investigating this question while at siggraph this year. we have/use AVS a lot and were looking around at its competition. we had several criteria to evaluate options: 1. can user-written modules be inserted into Product X? for wavefront's stuff, the answer is no. this catagorically eliminated this package from further consideration. 2. does Product X support the visual programming paradigm? again, the answer is no. There were a couple of other things that wavefront's product didn't do as well, but i don't remember them. The Data Visualizer made nifty pictures, but in its present state would be unusable by scientists here. We're sticking with AVS. (By the way, I looked at ape as well, and didn't like it. Although it met nearly all of the criteria, there were other problems. I cornered a developer of ape and asked him to make some pictures for me, something which did two isosurface calculations, for example. He fiddled with ape for about 1.5 hours and was unable to get a picture. Needless to say, if the developer couldn't make it work, there was no way I was going to recommend it for use here at the lab.) wes Date: Fri, 16 Nov 90 11:35:59 CST From: presley <elvis@Athena.ERC.MsState.Edu> To: knutm@ifi.uio.no (Knut Moerken) In-Reply-To: knutm@ifi.uio.no's message of 15 Nov 90 12:19:39 GMT Subject: Data Visualizer Before you get excited about purchasing it.... When I saw it at SIGGRAPH '90, it was strictly pre-release software. It was nice, but unfinished. I can't remember enough to compare it to those general visualization packages (WaveFront had specifically asked me to compare it to certain CFD visualization packages which I use regularly). Appearing again: -John West- elvis@athena.erc.msstate.edu Engineering Research Center for Computational Field Simulation Mississippi State University ***** National Science Foundation P.O. Drawer EE {Simrall Bldg, Rm 431} (601) 325-8234 (voice) Mississippi State, MS 39762 (601) 325-2298 (fax) .........the opinions presented here are those of the King..........
drb@eecg.toronto.edu (David R. Blythe) (12/13/90)
I have a beta version of the data visualizer and a copy of apE 2.0. The part I like about the data visualizer is that it is a small and simple tool and can probably accomplish a least 80% of the 3D visualization stuff I need to do on a regular basis (isosurfaces, particle traces, cutting planes, geometry). Obviously its not a mature product so new idioms will be added, but it is unlikely that it will ever do all of the whizz-bang stuff that apE and AVS can do since it is not user extensible or programmable. david blythe ontario centre for large scale computation drb@clsc.utoronto.ca