Comparison of Visualization Packages

This appendix contains an overview of the possibilities of the four general visualization packages compared. It is not meant to be complete. For a more detailed description of the packages we refer to the documentation of the visualization packages. In the following tables a `+' indicates that a feature is available or supported and a `-' indicates that the feature is not available or supported. Data Visualizer and IRIS Explorer have been abbreviated to DV and IE respectively.

• Table 1. Minimum physical memory size needed to run the visualization packages.

   _________________________________________________________________
  |								  |
  |  Minimum physical memory size in Mbytes to run the package   	  |
  |_________________________________________________________________|
  |                     |          |          |          |          |
  |                     |  DV 3.0  |  IE 3.0  |  AVS 5.0 |  DX 2.1  |
  |_____________________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  |                     |          |          |          |          |
  | memory size         |    16    |    24    |    16    |    32    |
  |_____________________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  
  
  
  

• Table 2. Estimates of the memory consumption for the visualization of an isosurface. Included actions are: reading the 3D scalar field, coloring the field, extracting the isosurface, and displaying the result. The dimension of the data field is 30 * 50 * 50. Memory consumption on the Silicon Graphics VGX, on which we run DV, IE, and AVS, was measured using the 'gr_osview' utility. DX prints its memory use in a debug window.

   _________________________________________________________________
  |								  |
  |  Memory consumption in Mbytes for a typical visualization   	  |
  |_________________________________________________________________|
  |                     |          |          |          |          |
  |                     |  DV 3.0  |  IE 3.0  |  AVS 5.0 |  DX 2.1  |
  |_____________________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  |                     |          |          |          |          |
  | memory consumption  |   4.4    |   7.0    |   5.8    |   10.0   |
  |_____________________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  
  
  
  

• Table 3. The support for functional extension.

   ___________________________________________________________________
  |			  					    |
  |                            Support for functional extension	    |
  |___________________________________________________________________|
  |                       |          |          |          |          |
  |                       |  DV 3.0  |  IE 3.0  |  AVS 5.0 |  DX 2.1  |
  |_______________________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  |                       |          |          |          |          |
  | functional extension  |    -     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | module builder        |    -     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | Fortran support       |    -     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | C support             |    -     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | C++ support           |    -     |    +     |    -     |    -     |
  | API                   |    -     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  |_______________________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  
  
  
  

• Table 4. The support for distributive processing and computational steering.

   ______________________________________________________________________
  |								       |
  |       Support for distributive processing and computational steering |
  |______________________________________________________________________|
  |                          |          |          |          |          |
  |                          |  DV 3.0  |  IE 3.0  |  AVS 5.0 |  DX 2.1  |
  |__________________________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  |                          |          |          |          |          |
  | distributive processing  |    -     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | computational steering   |    -     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  |__________________________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  
  
  
  

• Table 5. The support for some general data file formats.

   _________________________________________________________________
  |								  |
  |  Minimum physical memory size in Mbytes to run the package   	  |
  |_________________________________________________________________|
  |                     |          |          |          |          |
  |                     |  DV 3.0  |  IE 3.0  |  AVS 5.0 |  DX 2.1  |
  |_____________________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  |                     |          |          |          |          |
  | netCDF              |    +     |    -     |    -     |    +     |
  | HDF                 |    -     |    +     |    -     |    +     |
  | PDB                 |    -     |    +     |    +     |    -     |
  | PLOT3D              |    +     |    +     |    +     |    -     |
  | AVS field           |    +     |    +     |    +     |    -     |
  | Wavefront object    |    +     |    -     |    +     |    -     |
  |_____________________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  
  
  
  

• Table 6. The support for reading custom data file formats.

   ___________________________________________________________________
  |								    |
  |                 Support for reading custom data file formats      |
  |___________________________________________________________________|
  |                       |          |          |          |          |
  |                       |  DV 3.0  |  IE 3.0  |  AVS 5.0 |  DX 2.1  |
  |_______________________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  |                       |          |          |          |          |
  | data reader software  |    +     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | general data parser   |    -     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  |_______________________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  
  
  
  

• Table 7. The standard support for some general image file formats (W=write, R=read).

   _________________________________________________________
  |							  |
  |               Supported general image file formats   	  |
  |_________________________________________________________|
  |             |          |          |          |          |
  |             |  DV 3.0  |  IE 3.0  |  AVS 5.0 |  DX 2.1  |
  |_____________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  |             |          |          |          |          |
  | RGB         |    -     |   W/R    |    -     |   W/R    |
  | TIFF        |    -     |   W/R    |    -     |   W/R    |
  | GIF         |    -     |    -     |    -     |    -     |
  | CGM         |    -     |    -     |    -     |    -     |
  | PostScript  |    W     |    -     |    W     |    W     |
  |_____________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  
  
  
  

• Table 8. The standard available animation techniques.

   _________________________________________________________
  |							  |
  |                  Animation techniques   		  |
  |_________________________________________________________|
  |             |          |          |          |          |
  |             |  DV 3.0  |  IE 3.0  |  AVS 5.0 |  DX 2.1  |
  |_____________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  |             |          |          |          |          |
  | keyframe    |    +     |    -     |    -     |    -     |
  | flipbook    |    +     |    -     |    +     |    +     |
  |_____________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  
  
  
  

• Table 9. The standard available visualization techniques.

   __________________________________________________________________
  |						  	    	   |
  | 			  Visualization techniques   		   |
  |__________________________________________________________________|
  |                      |          |          |          |          |
  |                      |  DV 3.0  |  IE 3.0  |  AVS 5.0 |  DX 2.1  |
  |______________________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  |                      |          |          |          |          |
  | isosurfaces          |    +     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | cutting planes       |    +     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | scalar glyphs        |    +     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | vector glyphs        |    +     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | particle advection   |    +     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | streamlines          |    +     |    -     |    +     |    +     |
  | streaklines          |    -     |    +     |    -     |    +     |
  | textures             |    +     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | ray casting          |    +     |    -     |    +     |    +     |
  | splatting            |    -     |    +     |    -     |    -     |
  | 3D texture mapping   |    -     |    -     |    +     |    -     |
  |______________________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  
  
  
  

• Table 10. The standard available annotation techniques.

   _____________________________________________________________
  |							      |
  | 		     Annotation techniques   		      |
  |_____________________________________________________________|
  |                 |          |          |          |          |
  |                 |  DV 3.0  |  IE 3.0  |  AVS 5.0 |  DX 2.1  |
  |_________________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  |                 |          |          |          |          |
  | axis            |    +     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | boundary        |    +     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | color legend    |    +     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | text label      |    +     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | histogram       |    -     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  | plot            |    +     |    +     |    +     |    +     |
  |_________________|__________|__________|__________|__________|
  
  
  
  

• Table 11. Some links to module repositories and/or interesting sites with information. There are also newsgoups on the different software packages.

   ________________________________________________________________________
  |							     		 |
  | 		     Interesting sites   		     		 |
  |________________________________________________________________________|
  |		     |					     		 |
  | Data Visualizer    |					     		 |
  |		     |					     		 |
  | information	     | -	     					 |
  | module repository  | -	     					 |
  | newsgroup	     | news:comp.graphics.apps.wavefront 		 |
  |____________________|___________________________________________________|
  |		     |					     		 |
  | Iris Explorer      |					     		 |
  |		     |					     		 |
  | information	     | http://www.nag.co.uk:70/visual/IE/iecbb/IEC.html  |
  | module repository  | http://www.nag.co.uk/1h/visual/IE/iecbb/Upload    |
  | newsgroup	     | news:comp.graphics.apps.iris-explorer       	 |
  |____________________|___________________________________________________|
  |		     |					     		 |
  | AVS    	     |					      	  	 |
  |		     |					     		 |
  | information	     | http://www.avs.com/	     			 |
  | module repository  | http://iac.ncsc.org/IAC/ftpsite.html	     	 |
  | newsgroup	     | news:comp.graphics.apps.avs 			 |
  |____________________|___________________________________________________|
  |		     |					     		 |
  | Data eXplorer (DX) |					     		 |
  |		     |					     		 |
  | information	     | http://www-i.almaden.ibm.com/dx/	     		 |
  | module repository  | http://www.tc.cornell.edu/DX/	     		 |
  | newsgroup	     | news:comp.graphics.apps.data-explorer 		 |
  |____________________|___________________________________________________|