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Visualization, Analysis, and Imaging Lab (VAIL) Capabilities

Robert Moorhead, Director

Mississippi State University

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Overview of Slides• Present Products (in various states of further development)

– EnVis (batch mode rendering)

– ISTV (interactive visualization)

– cthru (virtual environment for ocean models)

• Future Products (in various states of development)

– focusing on an integrated system, rather than a set of products

– DataManager (to ingest datasets)

– dmvis (small toolkit to test other parts of system)

– Triton (new virtual environment for littoral region)

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EnVis• batch model rendering system

• use EnVis to produce images

• use HUM (open source program) to interactively pan and zoom while looping through sequence of images

• 1/32 degree global Navy Layered Ocean Model (NLOM) produces 8192x4608 pixel image when mapped data point to pixel.

• unable to see that resolution on most workstations– zoom in?– examine subregion?

• takes about 15 sec/image to render 8192x4608 image

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EnVis

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ISTV• Interactive Structured Time-varying Visualizer (ISTV)

• designed specifically for large scale ocean models

• developed in collaboration with NRL/SSC

• monolithic but fast

• installed at NRL/SCC, NAVO/MSRC, and ERDC/MSRC

• been used at NRL/SSC for oceanography

• been used at NAVO for hydrographic data analysis

• been used at CEWES for WAM and CH3D studies

• runs on Irix and Solaris

• optimized for large data vis (dynamic ocean models)

• application-specific readers and calculator functions

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ISTV

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cthru• VE for studying dynamic physical oceanography data

• developed with NRL/SSC and NAVO, with much assistance from NCSA

• 4 processes:

– master process

– remotely-executing ocean model

– extraction module

– visualization module

• has been used to study Sea of Japan (NLOM), Chesapeake Bay (NCOM), and Pacific Ocean (NLOM)

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cthru

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ExecutionManager

Integrated System Diagram

Extraction Manager

Data Manager

Graphics

Server

disk disk

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Integrated System Focus• One Data Manager (DM) for all

visualization paradigms

• DM runs in close to data source

• Use DM for– batch (e.g., EnVis)– interactive (dmvis)

• vtk (for portability and functionality)

• custom vis tools (for performance)

– virtual environment (Triton)

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Remote Visualization

• Distributed Visualization Environment– model/extraction on one machine– graphics on a separate machine– integrate/use data manager– models: ADCIRC, NCOM, COAMPS, ??

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Remote Visualization

• Status– designed and implemented a DM server/client

• a prototype for the full-scale DataManager

• a foundation on which to build a distributed VE

– current implementation of DM includes• multiple socket connections to talk to vis front-end

• multi-threading

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Remote Visualization

• Status (cont)– server allows queries and requests for data from

multiple applications running concurrently– client currently includes a crude caching

scheme and non-blocking requests for data from an application

– vis (dmvis) routines currently include arbitrary cutting planes, isosurfaces, and bathymetry

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Remote Visualization

• dmvis– core functionality is the same for

• Interactive

• Virtual Environment (VE)– VR Juggler added to create VE -- Triton

– VR Juggler (work-in-progress) uses pthreads, which are more standard than CAVELib’s sprocs

– compiles and runs on Solaris (Sun) and Irix (SGI)

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Why not extend cthru?• cthru was designed to ingest output from a single ocean

model

• cthru was designed to ingest data on a static structured grid in latitude/longitude (but time-varying in z, e.g., NLOM)

• cthru was designed for concurrent visualization of running ocean models

• cthru was built using circa 1995 technology and design principles (it’s not object-oriented)

• need a VE that can ingest multiple models from same 3D space that have different spatio-temporal gridding

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Future Work

• optimized performance of distributed VE

• integration of data manager and VE

• ultimate goal is for data manager to support– visualization in batch, interactive, and virtual

environments– visualization of multiple simulation model outputs

(NCOM, ADCIRC, etc.) and associated measured/sensed data (bathymetry, wind fields, coastlines, etc.) in same view volume.