Nebula 1994 June/NEBULA_SE.ISO/Documents/FAQ/Graphics-faq/resources-list/part3

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From: [e-mail] (Nick C. Fotis)
Subject: (24 Aug 93) Computer Graphics Resource Listing : BIWEEKLY [part 3/4]
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Organization: National Technical Univ. of Athens
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1993 02:38:22 GMT
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Archive-name: graphics/resources-list/part3
Last-modified: 1993/08/24


Computer Graphics Resource Listing : BIWEEKLY POSTING [ PART 3/4 ]
=====================================================
Last Change : 24 August 1993


11. Scene generators/geographical data/Maps/Data files
======================================================

DEMs (Digital Elevation Models)
-------------------------------
  DEMs (Digital Elevation Models) as well as other cartographic data
  [huge] is available from spectrum.xerox.com [192.70.225.78], /pub/map.

  Contact:
  Lee Moore -- Webster Research Center, Xerox Corp. --
  Voice: [phone]
  Arpa, Internet:  [e-mail]
[ Check also on ncgia.ucsb.edu (128.111.254.105), /pub/dems -- nfotis ]

  Many of these files are also available on CD-ROM selled by USGS:
  "1:2,000,000 scale  Digital Line Graph (DLG) Data". Contains datas
  for all 50 states. Price is about $28, call to or visit in offices
  in Menlo Park, in Reston, Virginia (800-USA-MAPS).

  The Data User Services Division of the Bureau of the Census also has
  data on CD-ROM (TSO standard format) that is derived from USGS
  1:100,000 map data. Call [phone] for more info or they have
  a BBS at [phone].

[ From Dr.Dobbs #198 March 1993: ]

      "The U.S. Defense Mapping Agency, in cooperation with their counterpart
agencies in CANADA, the U.K., and Australia, have released the Digital Chart
of the World (DCW). This chart consists of over 1.5 gigabytes of reasonable
quality vector data distributed on four CD-ROMS. .... includes coastlines,
rivers, roads, railrays, airports,cities, towns, spot elevations, and depths,
and over 100,000 place names."

It is ISO9660 compatible and only $200.00 available from:

U.S. Geological Survey
P.O. Box 25286
Denver Federal Center
Denver, CO 80225

Digital Distribution Services
Energy, Mines, and Resources Canada
615 Booth Street
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0E9 Canada

Director General of Military Survey
(Survey 3)
Elmwood Avenue
Feltham, Middlesex
TW13 7AH United Kingdom

Director of Survey, Australian Army
Department of Defense
Campbell Park Offices (CP2-4-24)
Campbell ACT 2601 Australia


Fractal Landscape Generators
----------------------------

Public Domain:

  Many people have written fractal landscape generators. for example
  for the Mac some of these generators were written by
  [e-mail] (Paul D. Bourke).
  Many of the programs are available from the FTP sites and mail
  archive servers. Check with Archie.

Commercial:

  Vista Pro 3.0 for the Amiga from Virtual Reality Labs -- list price
  is about $100. Their address is:
    VRL
    2341 Ganador court
    San Luis Obispo,
    CA 93401
    Telephone or FAX [phone]

  Scenery Animator 4 (also for the Amiga) is of the same caliber with
  Vista Pro 3, plus animation support (VistaPro needs separate programs in
  order to make animations).
  Check with:
    Natural Graphics
    P.O. Box 1963
    Raklin, CA 95677
    Phone [phone]

  Don't forget to ask about companion programs and data disks/tapes.
  Both of these programs can read USGS DEMs, etc.

  Vista Pro 3 has been ported to the PCs.


CIA World Map II
----------------
[  NOTE: this database is quite out of date, and not topologically structured.
  If you need a standard for world cartographic data, wait for the
  Digital Chart of the World. This 1:1M database has been produced from
  the Defense Mapping Agency's ONCs and will be available, together with
  searching and viewing software, on a number of CD-ROMs later this summer. ]

  Check into HANAUMA.STANFORD.EDU and UCSD.EDU (see ftp list above)
  The CIA database consists of coastlines, rivers and political boundaries
  in the form of line strokes. Also on hanauma.stanford.edu is a 720x360
  array of elevation data, containing one ieee floating point number for
  every half degree longitude and latitude.

  A program for decoding the database, mfil, can be found on the machine
  pi1.arc.umn.edu (137.66.130.11).
  There's another program, which reads a compressed CIA Data Bank file and
  builds a PHIGS hierachical structure. It uses a PHIGS extension known as
  polyline sets for performance, but you can use regular polylines. Ask
  Joe Stewart <[e-mail]>.
  The raw data at Stanford require the vplot package to be able to view it.
  (was posted in comp.sources.unix). To be more exact, you'll have to
  compile just the libvplot routines, not the whole package.

NCAR data
---------
  NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) has many types of
  terrain  data, ranging from elevation datasets at
  various resolutions, to information about soil types, vegetation, etc.
  This data is not free -- they charge from $40 to $90 or more, depending
  on the data volume and media (exabyte tape, 3480 cartridge, 9-track tape,
  IBM PC floppy, and FTP transfer are all available).  Their data archive
  is mostly research oriented, not hobbyist oriented.  For more information,
  email to [e-mail].

UNC data tapes with voxel data
--------------
  There are 2 "public domain" tapes with data for the comparison and
  testing of various volume rendering algorithms (mainly MRI and CT
  scans). These tapes are distributed by the SoftLab of UNC @ Chapel Hill.
  ([e-mail])

  The data sets (volume I and II) are also available via anonymous FTP from
  omicron.cs.unc.edu [128.109.136.159] in pub/softlab/CHVRTD

NASA
----
  Many US agencies such as NASA publish CD-ROMs with many altimetry data
  from various space missions, eg. Viking for Mars, Magellan for Venus,
  etc. Especially for NASA, I would suggest to call the following
  address for more info:

     National Space Science Date Center
     Goddard Space Flight Center
     Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
     Telephone: [phone]
     Email address:  [e-mail]

  The data catalog (*not* the data itself) is available online.
  Internet users can telnet to nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (128.183.10.4) and log
  in as 'NODIS' (no password).

  You can also dial in at (301)-286-9000 (300, 1200, or 2400 baud, 8 bits,
  no parity, one stop). At the "Enter Number:" prompt, enter MD and
  carriage return. When the system responds "Call Complete," enter a few
  more carriage returns to get the "Username:" and log in as 'NODIS' (no
  password).

  NSSDCA is also an anonymous FTP site, but no comprehensive list of
  what's there is available at present.

Earth Sciences Data
-------------------

  There's a listing of anonymous FTP sites for earth science data, including
  imagery. This listing is called "Earth Sciences Resources on Internet",
  and you can get it via anonymous FTP from csn.org [128.138.213.21]
  in the directory COGS under the name "internet.resources.earth.sci"

  Some sites include:
  aurelie.soest.hawaii.edu [128.171.151.121]: pub/avhrr/images - AVHRR images
  ames.arc.nasa.gov [128.102.18.3]: pub/SPACE/CDROM  - images from
        Magellan and Viking missions etc.
        pub/SPACE/Index contains a listing of files available in the whole
        archive (the index is about 200K by itself). There's also an
        e-mail server for the people without Internet access: send a letter
        to [e-mail] (or ames!archive-server). In the
        subject of your letter (or in the body), use commands like:

        send SPACE Index
        send SPACE SHUTTLE/ss01.23.91


        (Capitalization is important! Only text files are handled by the
        email server at present)

  vab02.larc.nasa.gov [128.155.23.47]: pub/gifs/misc/landsat -
    Landsat photos in GIF and JPEG format
[ It was shut down - nfotis; anyone has a copy of this archive?? ]

Others
------
  Daily values of river discharge, streamflow, and daily weather data is
  available from EarthInfo, 5541 Central Ave., Boulder CO  80301.  These
  disks are expensive, around $500, but there are quantity discounts.
  [phone].

  Check vmd.cso.uiuc.edu [128.174.5.98], the wx directory carries
  data regarding surface analysis, weather radar, and sat view pics in
  GIF format (updated hourly)

  pioneer.unm.edu [129.24.9.217] is the Space and Planetary Image Facility
  (located on the University of New Mexico campus) FTP server. It provides
  Anonymous FTP access to >150 CD-ROMS  with data/images.

  A disk with earthquake data, topography, gravity, geopolitical info
  is available from NGDC (National Geophysical Data Center), 325 Broadway,
  Boulder, CO  80303.  [phone].

  EOSAT (at least in the US) now sells Landsat MSS data older than two years
  old for $200 per scene, and they have been talking about a similar deal
  for Landsat TM data. The MSS data are 4 bands, 80 meter resolution.

  Check out anonymous FTP to ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in
  UNIX/PolyView/alpha-shape for a tool that creates convex hulls
  alpha-shapes (a generalization of the convex hull) from 3D point sets.

  The GRIPS II (Gov. Raster Image Processing Software) CD-ROM
  is available from CD-ROM Inc. at 1-800-821-5245 for $49.
  Code for viewing ADRG (Arc Digitised Raster Graphics) files is
  available on the GRIPS II CD-ROM. The U.S. Army Engineer
  Topographic Labs (Juan Perez) code is also available via FTP
  ( adrg.zip archive in  spectrum.xerox.com )

NRCC range data
---------------
  Rioux M., Cournoyer L. "The NRCC Three-Dimensional Image Data Files",
  Tech. Report, CNRC 29077, National Research Council Canada,
  Ottawa, Canada, 1988
  [ From what I understand, these data are from a laser range finder,
   and you can a copy for research purposes ]

==========================================================================

12. 3D scanners - Digitized 3D Data
===================================

Cyberware
---------
  Cyberware Labs, Monterey, CA, manufactures a 3D color laser digitizer
  which can be used to model parts of, or a complete, human body.
  They run a service bureau also, so they can digitize models for you.

  Address:
    Cyberware Labs, Inc
    8 Harris Ct, Suite 3D
    Monterey, CA 93940
  Phone: [phone], Fax: [phone]

Polhemus
--------
  Polhemus makes a 6D input device (actually a couple of models)
  that senses position (3D) and *orientation* (+3D) based on electromagnetic
  field interference.  This equipment is also incorporated in the
  VPL Dataglove.
  This hardware is also called ISOTRACK, from Keiser Aerospace.

Ascension Technology makes a similar 3D input device.
There is a company, Applied Sciences(?), that makes a 3D input
device (position only) based on speed of sound triangulation.

Viewpoint
---------
  A company that specializes in digitizing is Viewpoint. You can ask
  for Viewpoint's _free_ 100 page catalog full of ready to
  ship datasets from categories such as cars, anatomy, aircraft,sports,
  boats, trains, animals and others. Though these objects are
  quite expensive, the cataloge is nevertheless of interest for it
  has pictures of all the available objects in wireframe , polygon mesh.

  Contact:

  Viewpoint,
  870 West Center,
  Orem, Utah 84057
  ph# 801-224-2222
  fax# [phone]
  1-800-DATASET

Perceptron
----------
  They're marketing a scanning laser radar, which raster scans an area and
  returns both intensity and range data for each point.

  Contact:

  Perceptron
  23855 Research Drive
  Farmington Hills, MI 48335
  U.S.

  Phone: [phone]
  FAX:   [phone]


============

  Some addresses for companies that make digitizers:

  Ascension Technology
  Bird, Flock of Birds, Big Bird: 6d trackers
  P.O. Box 527,
  Burlington, VT 05402
  Phone: [phone], Fax: [phone]

  Polhemus Incorporated
  Digitizer: 6d trackers
  P.O. Box 560, Hercules Dr.
  Colchester, Vt. 05446
  Tel: [phone]

  Logitech Inc.
  Red Baron, ultrasonic 6D mouse
  6506 Kaiser Dr.
  Freemont, CA 94555
  Tel: [phone]w

  Shooting Star Technology
  Mechanical Headtracker
  1921 Holdom Ave.
  Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5B 3W4
  Tel: [phone]
  Fax: [phone]

  Spaceball Technologies, Inc.
  Spaceball: 6d stationary input device
  600 Suffolk Street
  Lowell, MA, 01854
  Tel: [phone]
  Fax: [phone]
  Tel in Mountain View: [phone]

  Transfinite Systems
  Gold Brick: PowerGlove for Macintosh
  P.O. Box N
  MIT Branch Post Office
  Cambridge, MA 02139-0903
  Tel: [phone]
  email: [e-mail]

  VPL Research, Inc.
  EyePhone: head-mounted display
  DataGlove: glove/hand input device
  VPL Research Inc.
  950 Tower Lane
  14th Floor
  Foster City, CA 94404
  Tel: [phone]
  Fax: [phone]

  SimGraphics Engineering
  Flying Mouse: 6d input device
  1137 Huntington Rd. Suite A-1
  South Pasadena, CA 91030-4563
  [phone]

========================================================================

13. Background imagery/textures/datafiles
=========================================

 First, check in the FTP places that are mentioned in the FAQ or in the FTP
list above.

24-bit scanning:
----------------
  Get a good 24-bit scanner, like Epson's. Suggested is an SCSI port for
  speed. Eric Haines had a suggestion in RT News, Volume 4, #3 :
  scan textures for wallpapers and floor coverings, etc. from doll
  house supplies.
  So you have a rather cheap way to scan patterns that don't have
  scaling troubles associated with real materials and scanning area.

Books with textures:
--------------------
  Find some houses/books/magazines that carry photographic material.
  Educorp, 1-619-536-9999, sells CD-ROMS with various imagery - also
  a wide variety of stock art is available.
  Stock art from big-name stock art houses, such as Comstock,
  UNIPHOTO, and Metro Image Base, is available.

  In Italy, there's a company called Belvedere that makes such books
  for the purpose of clipping their pages for inclusion in your
  graphics work. Their address is:
    Edition Belvedere Co. Ltd.,
    00196 Rome Italy,
    Piazzale Flaminio, 19
    Tel. [phone], Fax (06)  360-29-60

Texture Libraries:
------------------
a. Mannikin Sceptre Graphics announced TexTiles, a set of 256x256 24-bit
   textures. Initial shipments in 24-bit IFF (for Amigas), soon in 24-bit
   TIFF format. Algorithmically built for tiled surfaces. SRP is $40 / volume
   (each volume = 40 images @ 10 disks). Demo disks for $5 are available.

   Contact:
   Mannikin Sceptre Graphics
   1600 Indiana Ave.
   Winter Park, FL 32789
   Phone: [phone]
   FAX: [phone]

b. ESSENCE is a library of 65 (sixty-five) new algoritmic textures for Imagine
   by Impulse, Inc. These textures are FULLY compatible with the floating point
   versions of Imagine 2.0, Imagine 1.1, and even Turbo Silver.
   Written by Steve Worley.

   For more info contact:
   Essence Info
   Apex Software Publishing
   405 El Camino Real Suite 121
   Menlo Park CA 94025 USA

[ What about Texture City ?? ]

==========================================================================

14. Introduction to rendering algorithms
========================================

a. Ray-Tracing:
---------------

  I assume you have a general understanding of Computer Graphics. No? Then read
  some of the books that the FAQ contains. For Ray-Tracing, I would
  suggest:
   An Introduction to Ray Tracing, Andrew Glassner (ed.), Academic Press
     1989, ISBN 0-12-286160-4
  Note that I have not read the book, but I feel that you can't be wrong
  using his book. An errata list was posted in comp.graphics by Eric Haines
  ([e-mail])

There's a more concise reference also:

  Roman Kuchkuda , UNC @ Chapel Hill: "An Introduction to Ray Tracing", in
  "Theoretical Foundations for Computer Graphics and CAD", ed. R.A.E.Earnshaw,
  NATO AS, Vol. F-40., pp. 1039-1060. Printed by Springer-Verlag, 1988.

It contains code for a small, but fundamentally complete ray-tracer.

b. Z-buffer (depth-buffer)
--------------------------

A good reference is:

        _Procedural Elements for Computer Graphics_, David F. Rogers,
        McGraw-Hill, New York, 1985, pages 265-272 and 280-284.

c. Others:
----------
???
[ More info is needed -- nfotis ]

========================================================================

15. Where can I find the geometric data for the:
================================================

a. Teapot ?
-----------

"Displays on Display" column of IEEE CG&A Jan '87 has the whole
story about origin of the Martin Newell's teapot. The article also has
the bezier patch model and a Pascal program to display the wireframe
model of the teapot.

IEEE CG&A Sep '87 in Jim Blinn's column "Jim Blinn's Corner" describes
an another way to model the teapot; Bezier curves with rotations for
example are used.

The OFF and SPD packages have these objects, so you're advised to get
them to avoid typing the data yourself.  The OFF data is triangles at
a specific resolution (around 8x8[x4 triangles] meshing per patch).
The SPD package provides the spline patch descriptions and performs a
tessellation at any specified resolution.

b. Space Shuttle ?
------------------

Tolis Lerios <[e-mail]> has built a list of Space Shuttle
datafiles. Here's a summary (From his sci.space list):

model1:
A modified version of the newsgroup model (model2)

406 vertices (296 useful, i.e. referred to in the polygon descriptions.)
389 polygons (233 3-vertex, 146 4-vertex, 7 5-vertex, 3 6-vertex).
Payload doors non-existent.
Units: unknown.

Simon Marshall ([e-mail]) has a copy. He
said there is no proprietary information associated with it.

model2:
The newsgroup model, in OFF format. You can find it in

gondwana.ecr.mu.oz.au , file pub/off/objects/shuttle.geo
hanauma.stanford.edu ,  /pub/graphics/Comp.graphics/objects/shuttle.data

model3:
The triangles' model.

This model is stored in several files, each defining portions of the model.

Greg Henderson ([e-mail]) has a copy.  He did
not mention any restriction on the model's distribution.

model4:
The NASA model.

The file starts off with a header line containing three real numbers,
defining the offsets used by Lockheed in their simulations:

<x offset> <y offset> <z offset>

From then on, the file consists of a sequence of polygon descriptions

3473 vertices.
2748 polygons (407 3-vertex, 2268 4-vertex, 33 5-vertex, 14 6-vertex,
 10 7-vertex, 8 8-vertex, 8 12-vertex, 2 13-vertex, 2 15-vertex,
 17 16-vertex, 2 17-vertex, 2 18-vertex, 3 19-vertex, 8 24-vertex).
Payload doors closed.
Units: inches.

Jon Berndt ([e-mail]) seems to be responsible for the model
Proprietary info: unknown

model5:
The old shuttle model.

The file consists of a sequence of polygon descriptions.

104 vertices.
452 polygons (11 3-vertex, 41 4-vertex).
Payload doors open.
Units: meters.

We have been using this model at STAR Labs, Stanford University, for
some years now. Contact me ([e-mail]) or my supervisor
Scott Williams ([e-mail]) if you want a copy.

========================================================================

16. Image annotation software
=============================

[ Perhaps I should change this subject to paint programs in general?? ]

TOUCHUP
-------
  Touchup runs in Sunview and is pretty good.  It reads in
  rasterfiles, but even if your image isn't normally stored
  in rasterfile format you could use screendump to make it a
  rasterfile.

IDRAW
-----
  Idraw (part of Stanford's InterViews distribution) can handle some
  image formats in addition to being a MacDraw like tool.  I'm not
  sure exactly what they are.
  You can ftp the idraw's binary from interviews.stanford.edu.

TGIF
----
  Tgif is another MacDraw like tool that can handle X11 bitmap (xbm)
  and X11 pixmap (xpm) formats.  If the image you have is in formats
  other than xbm or xpm, you can get the pbmplus toolkit to convert
  things like gif or even some Macintosh formats to xpm.
  Tgif's sources are available in the pub directory on cs.ucla.edu
  (Version 2.12 of tgif at patchlevel 7 plus patch8 and patch9)

Editimage
---------
  Use the editimage facility of KHOROS (see under the Visualization tools).
  This is just one utility in the overall system- you can essentially do all
  your image processing and macdraw-type graphics using this package.

PBM+
----
  You might be able to get by with PBMPlus.  pbmtext gives you text output
  bitmaps which can be overlaid on top of your image.

ICE
---
  'ice' requires Sun hardware running OpenWindows 3.It's a PostScript-based
  graphical editor,and it's available for anonymous ftp from Internet host
  eo.soest.hawaii.edu (128.171.151.12). Requires Sun C++ 2.0 and
  two other locally developed packages, the LXT library (an Xlib-based
  toolkit) and a small C++ class library. All files (pub/ice.tar.Z,
  pub/lxt.tar.Z and pub/ldgoc++.tar.Z) are available in compressed
  tar format. pub/ice.tar.Z contains a README that gives installation
  instructions, as well as an extensive man page (ice.1).
  A statically-linked compressed executable pub/ice-sun4.Z for
  SPARC systems is also available for ftp.

  All software is the property of Columbia University and may not
  be redistributed without permission.

  ice means Image Composition Environment and it's an imaging tool that
  allows raster images to be combined with a wide variety of
  PostScript annotations in WYSIWYG fashion via X11 imaging
  routines and NeWS PostScript rasterizing.

ImageMagick
-----------
  Use ImageMagick to annotate an image from your X server.  Pick the
  position of your text with the cursor and choose your font and pen
  color from a pull-down menu.  ImageMagick can read and write many
  of the more popular image formats.  ImageMagick is available as
  export.lcs.mit.edu: contrib/ImageMagick.tar.Z or at your nearest
  X11 archive.

BIT
---
  bit is an interactive full color image viewer and editor based on
  Silicon Graphics GL. It's an image viewer, an image editor/processor,
  and can serve as a launch pad for other applications via key bindings.
  It has also built-in editing/annotate capabilities

========================================================================

17. Scientific visualization stuff
==================================

X Data Slice (xds)
-------------------
  Bundled with the X11 distribution from MIT,
  in the contrib directory. Available at ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu [141.142.20.50]
  (either as a source or binaries for various platforms).

National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) Tool Suite
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Platforms: Unix Workstations (DEC, IBM, SGI, Sun)
           Apple MacIntosh
           Cray supercomputers

Availability: Now available.  Source code in the public domain.
              FTP from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu.

Contact: National Center for Supercomputing Applications
         Computing Applications Building
         605 E. Springfield Ave.
         Champaign, IL 61820

Cost: Free (zero dollars).

The suite includes tools for 2D image and 3D scene analysis and visualization.
The code is actively maintained and updated.

Spyglass
--------
  They sell commercial versions of the NCSA tools. Examples are:

    Spyglass Dicer (3D volumetric data analysis package)
        Platform: Mac

    Spyglass Transform (2D data analysis package)
        Platforms: Mac, SGI, Sun, DEC, HP, IBM

  Contact:
  Spyglass, Inc.
  P.O. Box 6388
  Champaign, IL  61826
  [phone]

KHOROS 1.0 Patch 5
------------------
  Available via anonymous ftp at pprg.eece.unm.edu (129.24.24.10).
  cd to /pub/khoros to see what is available. It is HUGE (> 100 MB), but good.
  Needs Unix and X11R4. Freely copied (NOT PD), complete with sources
  and docs. Very extensive and at its heart is visual programming.
  Khoros components include a visual programming language, code
  generators for extending the visual language and adding new application
  packages to the system, an interactive user interface editor, an
  interactive image display package, an extensive library of image and
  signal processing routines, and 2D/3D plotting packages.

  See comp.soft-sys.khoros on Usenet and the relative FAQ for more info....

  Contact:

  The Khoros Group
  Room 110 EECE Dept.
  University of New Mexico
  Albuquerque, NM 87131

  Email: [e-mail]


MacPhase
--------
  Analysis & Visualization Application for the Macintosh.
  Operates on 1D and 2D data arrays. Import/Export several different file
  formats.  Several different plotting options such as gray scale,
  color raster, 3D Wire frame, 3D surface, contour, vector, line, and
  combinations.  FFTs, filtering, and other math functions, color look up
  editor, array calculator, etc. Shareware, available via anonymous ftp from
  sumex-aim.stanford.edu in the info-mac/app directory.
  For other information contact Doug Norton (e-mail: 74017.461@@compuserve.com)


IRIS Explorer
-------------
  It's an application creation system developed by Silicon
  Graphics that provides visualisation and analysis functionality for
  computational scientists, engineers and other scientists. The Explorer
  GUI allows users to build custom applications without having to write
  any, or a minimal amount of, traditonal code. Also, existing code can
  be easily integrated into the Explorer environment. Explorer currently
  is available now on SGI and Cray machines, but will become available on
  other platforms in time. [ Bundled with every new SGI machine, as far as
  I know]

  See comp.graphics.explorer or comp.sys.sgi for discussion of the package.

  There are also two FTP servers for related stuff, modules etc.:

  ftp.epcc.ed.ac.uk [129.215.56.29]
  swedishchef.lerc.nasa.gov [139.88.54.33] - mirror of the UK site

apE
---
  Back in the 'old good days', you could get apE for nearly free.
  Now has gone commercial and the following vendor supplies it:

  TaraVisual Corporation
  929 Harrison Avenue
  Columbus, Ohio 43215
  Tel: [phone] and [phone]
  Fax: [phone]

        Cost:
  $895 (plus tax); runtime version with a site-license for a single user
  (at a time), no limit on the number of machines in a cluster.
  $895 includes support/maintenance and upgrades.
  Source code more.  Additional user licenses $360.

  The name of the package has become apE III (TM).
  Khoros is very similar to apE on philosophy, as are AVS and Explorer.

AVS
---
See also:
        comp.graphics.avs

Platforms: CONVEX, CRAY, DEC, Evans & Sutherland, HP, IBM, Kubota,
Set Technologies, SGI, Stardent, SUN, Wavetracer
Availability: AVS4 available on all the above:
  For all UNIX workstations.

Contact:
  Advanced Visual Systems Inc.
  300 Fifth Ave.
  Waltham, MA    02154

  (617)-890-4300   Telephone
  (617)-890-8287   Fax
  [e-mail]      Email

  Advanced Visual Systems Inc. for: CRAY, HP, IBM, SGI, Stardent, SUN
  CONVEX for CONVEX
  Advanced Visual Systems Inc. or CRAY for CRAY
  DEC for DEC
  Evans & Sutherland for Evans & Sutherland
  Advanced Visual Systems Inc. or IBM for IBM
  Kubota Pacific Inc. for Kubota
  Set Technologies for Set Technologies
  Wavetracer for Wavetracer

  FTP Site: for modules, data sets, other info:
    avs.ncsc.org (128.109.178.23)

WIT
---
  In a nutshell it's a package of the same genre as AVS,Explorer,etc.
  It seems more a image processing system than a generic SciVi system (IMHO)
  Major elements are:

  - a visual programming language, which automatically exploits the inherent
        parallelism
  - a code generator which converts the graph to a standalone program

  Iconified libraries present a rich set of point, filter, io, transform,
  morphological, segmentation, and measurement operations.
  A flow library allows graphs to employ broadcast, merge,
  synchronization, conditional, and sequencing control strategies.

  WIT delivers an object-oriented, distributed, visual programming
  environment which allows users to rapidly design solutions to their
  imaging problems. Users can consolidate both software and hardware
  developments within a complete CAD-like workspace by adding their
  own operators (C functions), objects (data structures), and servers
  (specialized hardware). WIT runs on Sun, HP9000/7xx, SGI and supports
  Datacube MV-20/200 hardware allowing you to run your graphs in real-time.
  WIT is also supported on Linux (a demo will be soon available)

  For a free WIT demo disk, call, FAX, or e-mail ([e-mail])
  us stating your complete name, address, voice, FAX, e-mail info.
  and desired platform.
  There's an FTP'able demo for SPARCs under
  sunsite.unc.edu /pub/sun-info/catalyst/logical-vision

  Pricing: WIT for Sparc, one yr. free upgrades, 30 days
  technical support....................$5000 US
  Entry level pricing now at $1000 US, with upgrade to the full system
  for $4000 US more.

  Academic institutions: discounts available

  Contact:
  Logical Vision Ltd.
  Suite 108-3700 Gilmore Way
  Burnaby, B.C., CANADA
  V5G 4M1
  Tel: [phone]
  Fax: [phone]
  e-mail: Terry Arden <[e-mail]>

VIS-5D
------
  A system for visually exploring the output of 5-D gridded data sets
  such as those made by weather models. Platforms:

    SGI IRIS with VGX, GTX, TG, or G graphics,
    SGI Crimson or Indigo (R4000, Elan graphics suggested), IRIX 4.0.x
    IBM RS/6000 with GL graphics, AIX version 3 or later;
    Stardent GS-1000 and GS-2000 (with TrueColor display)

  In any case, 32 (or more) MB of RAM are suggested.

  You can get it freely (thanks to NASA support) via anonymous ftp:

 ftp iris.ssec.wisc.edu  (or ftp 144.92.108.63), then

  ftp> cd pub/vis5d
  ftp> ascii
  ftp> get README
  ftp> bye

 NOTE: You can find the package also on wuarchive.wustl.edu in the
 graphics/graphics/packages directory.

  Read section 2 of the README file for full instructions
  on how to get and install VIS-5D.

  Contact:
  Bill Hibbard ([e-mail])
  Brian Paul ([e-mail])

DATAexplorer (IBM)
------------------
  Platforms : IBM Risc System 6000, IBM POWER Visualization Server
        (SIMD mesh 32 i860s, 40 MHz)

  Working on (announced) : SGI, HP, Sun

  Contact:
  Your local IBM Rep.  For a trial package ask your rep to contact :

  David Kilgore
  Data Explorer Product Marketing
  YKTVMH(KILCORE), [phone]

  There's an FTP repository at ftp.tc.cornell.edu : /pub/vis/Data.Explorer,
  a Gopher interface at [e-mail], and a mailing-list at
  [e-mail]

Wavefront
---------
  Data Visualizer, Personal Visualizer, Advanced Visualizer.
  Platforms: SGI, SUN, IBM RS6000, HP, DEC

  Availability:
    Available on all the above platforms from Wavefront
    Technologies.  Educational programs and site licenses are
    available.

  Contacts:
    Mike Wilson ([e-mail])

    Wavefront Technologies, Inc.
    530 East Montecito Street
    Santa Barbara, CA 93103
    805-962-8117
    FAX: [phone]

    Wavefront Europe
    Guldenspoorstraat 21-23
    B-9000 Gent, Belgium
    32-91-25-45-55
    FAX: [phone]

    Wavefront Technologies Japan
    17F Shinjuku-sumitomo Bldg
    2-6-1  Nishi-shinjuku, Shunjuku-Ku
    Tokyo 168 Japan
    81-3-3342-7330
    FAX [phone]


PLOT3D and FAST from NASA Ames
------------------------------
  These packages are distributed from COSMIC at least
  (for FAST ask Pat Elson <[e-mail]> for
  distribution information). In general, these codes are for US
  citizens only :-(
[ Call COSMIC, NASA's software ditribution center for details ]


XGRAPH
------
  On the contrib tape of X11R5. Its specialty is display of up
  to 64 data sets (2D).

NCAR
----
  National Center for Atmospheric Research. One of the original graphics
  packages. Runs on Sun, RS6000, SGI, VAX, Cray Y-MP, DecStations, and more.

  Contact:
    Graphics Information
    NCAR Scientific Computing Division
    P.O. Box 3000
    Boulder, CO   80307-3000
    (303)-497-1201
    [e-mail]

  Cost:
    .edu
    $750 Unlimited users

    .gov
    $750 1 user
    $1500 5 users
    $3000 25 users

    .com users multiply .gov * 2.0

IDL
---
  An environment for scientific computing and visualization.
  Based on an array oriented language, IDL includes 2D and 3D
  graphics, matrix manupulation, signal and image processing,
  basic statistics, gridding, mapping, and a widget based system
  for building GUI for IDL applications (Open Look, Motif, or
  MS-Windows).

  Environments:  DEC (VMS and Ultrix), HP, IBM RS6000, SGI, Sun,
          Microsoft Windows.  (Mac version in progress)
  Cost:  $1500 to $3750, Educational and quantity discounts
          available.
  See also:   comp.lang.idl-pvwave (the IDL-PVWAVE bundle)
  Contact:    Research Systems Inc.
              777 29th Street, Suite 302
              Boulder, CO  80303
              Phone:  [phone]
              FAX:    [phone]
              E-mail: [e-mail]
  Demo available via FTP.  Call or E-mail for details.

IDL/SIPS
--------
  "A lot of people are using IDL with a package called SIPS. This was
  developed at the University of Colorado (Boulder) by some people working
  for Alex Goetz.  You might try contacting them if you already have IDL
  or would be willing to buy it.  It's a few thousand dollars (American) I
  expect for IDL and the other should be free.  Those are the general
  purpose packages I've heard of, besides what TerraMar has.
  SIPS _was_ written for AVIRIS imagery.  I'm not sure how general purpose
  it is.  You would have to contact Goetz or one of his people and ask.  I
  have another piece of software (PCW) that does PC and Walsh
  transformations with pseudocoloring and clustering and limited image
  modification (you can compute an image using selected components).  I've
  used it on 70 megabyte AVIRIS images without problems, but for the best
  speed you need an external DSP card.  It will work without it, but large
  images take quite a while (50-70 times as long) to process.  That's a
  freebie if you want it"

  "My  favorite is IDL (Interactive Data Language) from Research Systems,
  Inc.  IDL is in my opinion, much better and infinitely easier. Its
  programming language is very strong and easy -- very Pascal-like. It
  handles the number-crunching very well, also. Personally, I like doing
  the number-crunching with IDL on the VAX (or Mathematica, Igor, or even
  Excel on the Mac if it's not too hairy), then bringing it over to NIH
  Image for the imaging part. I have yet to encounter any situation which
  that combination couldn't handle, and the speed and ease of use
  (compared to IRAF) was incredible. By the way, it's mostly astronomical
  image processing which I've been doing. This means image enhancement,
  cleaning up bad lines/pixels, and some other traditional image
  processing routines. Then, for example, taking a graph of intensity
  versus position along a line I choose with the mouse, then doing a curve
  fit to that line (which I might do like in KaleidaGraph.) "

[ For IDL call Research Systems , for PV-WAVE call Precision Visuals and
 for SIPS call University of Colorado @ Boulder . From what I can
 understand, you can get packaged programs from Research Systems, though
 -- nfotis ]

Visual3
-------
  contact Robert Haimes, MIT

FieldView
---------
 An interactive program designed to assist an engineer in
 investigating fluid dynamics data sets.

 Platforms:  SGI, IBM, HP, SUN, X-terminals

 Availability:  Currently available on all of the above
       platforms.  Educational programs and volume
       discounts are available.

 Contact:

 Intelligent Light
 P.O. Box 65
 Fair Lawn, NJ 07410
 [phone]

 Steve Kramer ([e-mail])


SciAn
------
  SciAn is primarily intended to do 3-D visualizations of data in an
  interactive environment with the ability to generate animations using
  frame-accurate video recording devices.  A user manual, on-line help, and
  technical notes will help you use the program.

  Cost : 0 (Free), source code provided via ftp.
  Platforms : SGI 4D machines and IBM RS/6000 with the GL card + Z-buffer

  Where to find it:
  ftp.scri.fsu.edu [144.174.128.34] : /pub/SciAn
    A mirror is monu1.cc.monash.edu.au [130.194.1.101] : /pub/SciAn

SCRY
----
[ From the README : ]

      Scry is a distributed image handling system  that  pro-
 vides image transport and compression on local and wide area
 networks, image viewing on workstations, recording on  video
 equipment,  and  storage on disk.  The system can be distri-
 buted among workstations, between supercomputers and  works-
 tations,  and between supercomputers, workstations and video
 animation controllers.  The system is most commonly used  to
 produce  video based movie displays of images resulting from
 visualization of time dependent data, complex 3D data  sets,
 and  image  processing  operations.   Both  the  clients and
 servers run on a variety of systems that provide UNIX-like C
 run-time environments, and 4BSD sockets.

 The source is available for anonymous ftp:

 csam.lbl.gov [128.3.254.6] : pub/scry.tar.Z

 Contact:

 Bill Johnston, ([e-mail], ...ucbvax!csam.lbl.gov!johnston)

       or

 David Robertson ([e-mail], ...ucbvax!csam.lbl.gov!davidr)

 Imaging Technologies Group
 MS 50B/2239
 Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
 1 Cyclotron Road
 Berkeley, CA  94720


SVLIB / FVS
-----------
  SVLIB is an X-Windows widget set based on the OSF (Open Software
  Foundation) Motif widget set. SVLIB widgets are macro-widgets
  comprising lower level Motif widgets such as buttons, scrollbars,
  menus, and drawing areas. It is designed to address the reusability
  of 2D visualization routines and each widget in the library is an
  encapsulation of a specific visualization technique such as colormap
  manipulation, image display, and contour plotting. It is targetted
  to run on UNIX workstations supporting OSF/Motif. Currently, only
  color monitors are supported. Since SVLIB is a collection of widgets
  developed in the same spirit as the OSF/Motif user interface widget
  set, it integrates seamlessly with the Motif widgets. Programmers
  using SVLIB widgets see the same interface and design as other
  Motif widgets.

  FVS is a visualization software for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  simulations.  FVS is designed to accept data generated from these
  simulations and apply various visualization techniques to present these
  data graphically.
  FVS accepts three-dimensional multi-block data recorded in NCSA HDF format.

 iti.gov.sg [192.122.132.130] : /pub/svlib (Scientific Visualization)
      /pu/fvs; These directories contain demo binaries for Sun4/SGI

  Cost : US$200 for academic and US$300 for non-academic institutions.
  (For each of the above items). You're getting the source for the licence.

  Contact
  -------
  Miss Quek Lee Hian
  Member of Technical Staff
  Information Technology Institute
  National Computer Board
  NCB Building
  71, Sicence Park Drive
  Singapore 0511
  Republic of Singapore
  Tel : [phone]
  Fax : [phone]
  Email : [e-mail]


---------------------------------------------------------
GVLware Distribution:
        Bob  - An interactive volume renderer for the SGI
        Raz  - A disk based movie player for the SGI
        Icol - Motif color editor
---------------------------------------------------------

The Army High Performance Computing Research Center (AHPCRC) has been
developing a set of tools to work with large time dependent 2D and 3D
data sets.  In the Graphics and Visualization Lab (GVL) we are using
these tools along side standard packages, such as SGI Explorer and the
Utah Raster Toolkit, to render 3D volumes and create digital movies.
A couple of the more general purpose programs have been bundled into a
package called "GVLware".

GVLware, currently consisting of Bob, Raz and Icol, is now available
via ftp.  The most interesting program is probably Bob, an interactive
volume renderer for the SGI.  Raz streams raster images from disk to
an SGI screen, enabling movies larger than memory to be played.  Icol
is a color map editor that works with Bob and Raz.  Source and
pre-built binaries for IRIX 4.0.5 are included.

To acquire GVLware, anonymous ftp to:
        machine - ftp.arc.umn.edu
        file    - /pub/gvl.tar.Z

To use GVLware:
        mkdir gvl ; cd gvl
        zcat gvl.tar.Z | tar xvf -
        more README

Some Bob features:
        Motif interface, SGI GL rendering
        Renders 64 cubed data set in 0.1 to 1.0 seconds on a VGX
        Alpha Compositing and Maximum Value rendering, in perspective
            (only Maximum Value rendering on Personal Iris)
        Data must be a "Brick of Bytes", on a regularly spaced grid
        Animation, subvolumes, subsampling, stereo

Some Raz features:
        Motif interface, SGI GL rendering
        Loads files to a raw disk partition, then streams to screen
            (requires an empty disk partition to be set aside)
        Script interface available for movie sequences
        Can stream from memory, like NCSA XImage

Some Icol features:
        Motif interface
        Easy to create interpolated color maps between key points
        RGB, HSV and YUV color spaces, multiple file formats
        Communicates changes automatically to Bob and Raz
        Has been tested on SGI, Sun, DEC and Cray systems

BTW:    Bob  == Brick of Bytes
        Icol == Interpolated Color
        Raz  == ? (just a name)

Please send any comments to
        [e-mail]

This software collection is supported by the Army Research Office
contract number DAALO3-89-C-0038 with the University of Minnesota Army
High Performance Computing Research Center.


IAP
---
  Imaging Applications Platform is a commercial package for medical and
  scientific visualization. It does volume rendering, binary surface
  rendering, multiplanar reformating, image manipulation, cine sequencing,
  intermixes geometry and text with images and provides measurement and
  coordinate transform abilities.

  It can provide hardcopy on most medical film printers, image database
  functionality and interconnection to most medical (CT/MRI/etc) scanners.

  It is client/server based and provides an object oriented interface. It
  runs on most high performance workstations and takes full advantage of
  parallelism where it is available. It is robust, efficient and
  will be submitted for FDA approval for use in medical applications.

  Cost: $20K for OEM developer, $10K for educational developer
  and run times starting at $8900 and going down based on quantity.

  The developer packages include two days training for two people in Toronto.

  Available from:

  ISG Technologies
  6509 Airport Road
  Mississauga, Ontario,
  Canada, L4V-1S7

  [phone]
  e-mail: Rod Gilchrist <[e-mail]>

========================================================================

18. Molecular visualization stuff
=================================

[ Based on a list from [e-mail] < Cristy > , which asked for
 systems for displaying Molecular Dynamics, MD for short ]

Flex
----
  It is a public domain package written by Michael Pique, at The Scripps
  Research Institute, La Jolla, CA. Flex is stored as a compressed,
  tar'ed archive (about 3.4MB) at ftp.scripps.edu [137.131.168.6], in
  pub/flex. It displays molecular models and MD trajectories.

MacMolecule
-----------
  (for Macintosh). I searched with Archie, and the most
  promising place is sumex-aim.stanford.edu (info-mac/app, and
  info-mac/art/qt for a demo)

MD-DISPLAY
----------
  Runs on SGI machines. Call Terry Lybrand <[e-mail]>

XtalView
--------
  It is a crystallography package that does visualize molecules and much more.
  It uses the XView toolkit.
  Call Duncan McRee <[e-mail]>

[e-mail]:
-----------------------------
  I am writing my own visualization code right now.  I look at MD output
  (a specific format, easy to alter for the subroutine) on PC's.  My
  program has hooks into GKS.  If your friend has access to Phigs for X
  (PEX) and fortran bindings, I would be happy to share my evolving code
  (free of charge).  Right now it can display supercells of up to 65
  atoms (easy to change), and up to 100 time steps, drawing nearest
  neighbor bonds between 2 defining nn radii.  It works acceptably fast
  on a 10Mhz 286.

[e-mail]:
------------------------------
  I did a project on Molecular Visualization for my Master's Thesis, using
  UNIX/X11/Motif which generates a simple point and space-filling model.

KGNGRAF
-------

KGNGRAF is part of MOTECC-91. Look on malena.crs4.it (156.148.7.12),
in pub/motecc.

motecc.info.txt          Information about MOTECC-91 in plain ascii format.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
motecc.info.troff        Information about MOTECC-91 in troff format.
motecc.form.troff        MOTECC-91 order form in troff format.
motecc.license.troff     MOTECC-91 license agreement in troff format.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
motecc.info.ps           Information about MOTECC-91 in PostScript format.
motecc.form.ps           MOTECC-91 order form in PostScript format.
motecc.license.ps        MOTECC-91 license agreement in PostScript format.


[e-mail]:
------------------------
  I'm working on molecular dynamic too.  A friend of mine and I have
  developed a program to display an MD run dynamically on Silicon
  Graphics.  We are working to improve it, but it doesn't work under X,
  we are using the graphi. lib. of the Silicon Gr. because they are much
  faster then X.  When we'll end it we'll post on the news info about
  where to get it with ftp. (Will be free software).

XBall V3.0
----------
  Written by David Nedde. Call [e-mail].
  This program simulates bouncing balls in a window.  You create the
  balls in a variety of ways, and can set the gravity, elasticity,
  whether balls collide or not, etc.
  Includes Motif support, 3-d shaded balls, and a demo running facility.
  [ It's more a demo than a production program - another like it is xgas from
    the X11 distribution. Someone could make something more elaborate with
    polyatomics, etc. ]

XMol
----
  An X Window System program that uses OSF/Motif  for  the
  display and  analysis  of  molecular  model data.  Data from several
  common file formats can be read and written; current formats include:
  Alchemy, CHEMLAB-II, Gaussian, MOLSIM, MOPAC, PDB, and MSCI's XYZ
  format (which has been designed  for  simplicity  in  translating to
  and from other formats). XMol also allows for conversion between
  several of these formats.
  Xmol is available at ftp.msc.edu. Read pub/xmol/README for
  further details.
  MSCI has changed its distribution policy, the current version is
  now available to users outside the USA and it no longer contains a
  built-in expiration date. However, only binary versions for Decstation,
  SGI Iris-4D, SPARCstation and Sun-3 are available. They are "currently
  assessing the prospect of an RS/6000 version".


INSIGHT II
----------
  from BIOSYM Technologies Inc.

SCARECROW
---------
  The program has been published in J. Molecular Graphics 10
  (1992) 33. The program can analyze and display CHARMM, DISCOVER, YASP
  and MUMOD trajectories. The program package contains also software for
  the generation of probe surfaces, proton affinity
  surfaces and molecular orbitals from an extended Huckel program.
  It works on Silicon Graphics machines.
  Contact Leif Laaksonen <[e-mail] or [e-mail]>

MULTI
-----
  ns.niehs.nih.gov [157.98.8.8] : /pub - MULTI 3.0 (Multi-Process
  Molecular Modeling Suite). Runs on Silicon Graphics Workstations only.

MindTool
--------
  It runs under SunView, and requires a fortran compiler and Sun's CGI
  libraries. MindTool is a tool  provided  for  the  interactive  graphic
  manipulation  of  molecules  and  atoms. Currently, up to 10,000
  atoms may be input.
  Available via anonymous FTP, at rani.chem.yale.edu, directory
  /pub/MindTool ( Check with Archie for other  sites if that's too far )

RasMol/RasWin
-------------
  RasMol is a public domain molecular visualisation package written by
  Roger Sayle, at The Biocomputing Research Unit, University of Edinburgh,
  UK ([e-mail]). RasMol is the version for UNIX workstations under
  the X Window System and RasWin is the version for MS Windows version 3.1.
  It can display Protein Databank Files, as wireframe, backbone, space filling
  spheres, ball and stick and combinations of the above. It interactively
  displays shadowed spacefilling proteins of over 10k atoms. The program
  requires either an 8 or 24bit colour display (includes dials box support).

  RasMol2 is stored as a compressed tar'ed archive (about 500k) in /pub/rasmol
  on ftp.dcs.ed.ac.uk [129.215.160.5]. A compressed version of the PostScript
  user reference manual is available in the same directory.

[ I would also suggest looking at least in SGI's Applications Directory.
 It contains many more packages - nfotis ]

===========================================================================

End of Part 3 of the Resource Listing
--
Nick (Nikolaos) Fotis         National Technical Univ. of Athens, Greece
HOME: 16 Esperidon St.,       InterNet : [e-mail]
      Halandri, GR - 152 32   UUCP:    mcsun!pythia!theseas!nfotis
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