[CIG-ALL] 3DVisualizer: New Software Available

[Magali Billen]

Hello CIG Users,

This e-mail announces the release of new, free, software for  
visualizing and interactively exploring large 3D gridded data sets.  
This software is developed and maintained by KeckCAVES (at UC Davis)  
as the result of collaboration between geoscientists and computer  
scientists interested in 3D visualization and virtual reality. This  
software runs on Linux, Unix and MAC-OSX systems. For various reasons,  
it does not yet run on Windows systems.

3DVisualizer is software designed for interactive exploration of any  
type of 3D gridded data sets including, but not limited to,  
geodynamics simulation results, seismic tomography, 3D serial- 
sectioning, and fluid dynamics simulations. 3DVisualizer is a proof-of- 
concept research application. While it isn't as polished as a  
commercial package, we have found it quite useful and hope you will too.

The software, system requirements, and more information are available  
from: 	
	
	http://www.keckcaves.org/software/VISUALIZERCG/index.html

The development of this software and its advantages for geoscientists  
are discussed in:

	Billen, M. I., O. Kreylos, B. Hamann, M. Jadamec, L. H. Kellogg, O.  
Staadt, D. Y. Sumner,
	A Geoscience Perspective on Immersive 3D Visualization, Computers &  
Geoscience, v. 34, p. 1056-1072,
	doi:10.1016/j.cageo.2007.11.009, 2008.

The main advantages/differences of 3DVisualizer compared to other 3D  
visualization software are:

	1) Designed for efficient, fully-interactive exploration of 3D  
gridded data sets, rather than making final "pretty pictures".

	2) Handles very large data sets well (maintains real-time interaction  
without "hiding data" or "artificial refreshing scenes" 	during  
manipulation of viewpoints.

	3) It has several predefined input formats for cartesian or spherical  
geometry (including CitcomS, CitcomT, a modified 	
	version of CitcomCU, VTK (structured grid), structured-grid ascii  
column)  and can be modified to read other formats by 	
	anyone versed in C++ programming (help for this can be provided).

	4) An extra benefit of this software is that it provides similar  
functionality in any "virtual reality environment" including on
	a normal desktop/laptop, GeoWall, or in a CAVE (4-wall virtual  
reality environment).

When trying this out for the first time, once installed, read the  
introduction section of the manual and then go straight to the tutorial.

If any questions or problems come up at any stage of the installation,  
importing your data, or exploring your data, please
e-mail  visualizer-software at keckcaves.org. We'd also very much  
appreciate any feedback you have (what data sets you've looked at, did  
you find it useful, what could be improved).

Sincerely,
Magali Billen

---------------------------------------------
Associate Professor
U.C. Davis, Geology Department
KeckCAVES
(530) 754-5696
billen at geology.ucdavis.edu
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