partiview.sgml

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     Changelog:
     2000-09-25   created the changelog after a week of initial editing    PJT
     2000-10-10   made consistent with VERSION 0.1 release                 PJT
     2000-11-07   election night changes                                   PJT
     2000-11-20   document some CVS and new configure stuff for 0.3        PJT
 -->

<article>

<!-- Title information -->

<title> Partiview (PC-VirDir)
<author> Peter Teuben
<date> 29 November 2000
<abstract>
This document helps you installing and running the development version 
of partiview.
Quite a few things in this manual have not been fleshed
out, in particular the detailed description of all the commands.
</abstract>

<!-- Table of contents -->
<toc>

<!-- Begin the document -->

<sect> Installation
<p>

This assumes you have the October 2000 release (version 0.1 or later) of 
<bf/partiview/, not the earlier "<bf/gview/" release that was described
in earlier versions of this document. We keep copies of some support
files on our initial
<htmlurl url="http://www.astro.umd.edu/nemo/amnh"
        name="http://www.astro.umd.edu/nemo/amnh"> website. Note that
this current development release is only documented for work under Linux,
although we expect it to work for at least SGI and maybe Solaris too.

<sect1> MESA/OpenGL
<p>
    First make sure <tt/Mesa/ is installed, for <tt/redhat6.2/
       there are rpm files
       available.  Check if you have the following:

<tscreen><code>
       % rpm -qa | grep Mesa
       Mesa-3.2-2
       Mesa-devel-3.2-2
</code></tscreen>

       You should see both. Some packages will use <tt/libMesaGL/, others
       <tt/libGL/. The <tt/configure/ script should take care of this.
<p>
	Homepage: <htmlurl url="http://mesa3d.sourceforge.org"
			  name="http://mesa3d.sourceforge.org">
<p>
	Redhat packages: (part of powertools i believe)

<sect1> FLTK
<p>
    Also make sure <tt/fltk/ is installed.  If you got my version, do this (as
       root)

<tscreen><code>
       % cd <where-ever>/fltk-1.0.9
       % make install
</code></tscreen>

       (you only need it if you want to recompile the program at some point,
        not if you just want to run it)
<p>
	Homepage: <htmlurl url="http://www.fltk.org/"
			   name="http://www.fltk.org/">
<p>
	Redhat packages: <htmlurl url="http://www.cs.cornell.edu/nogin/RPM/fltk-devel.html"
			       name="http://www.cs.cornell.edu/nogin/RPM/fltk-devel.html">

<sect1> partiview
<p>
     Now compile (if you really want to) the program, normally a (linux) executable
     should be in the <tt/src/ directory already:

<tscreen><code>
       % tar zxf partiview-0.3.tar.gz

       % cd partiview-0.3/src
       % make clean                (if you really must compile a new executable)
       % ./configure               (GNU autoconf toolset to ease installation)
       % make partiview	           (might need to edit the Makefile)
</code></tscreen>

<sect1> CVS
<p>
Since version 0.3 <tt/partiview/ is under CVS control. Currently the machine is
<tt/akash.astro.umd.edu/ and you will need to setup your developers account with
Peter (<tt/teuben@astro.umd.edu/). Here's a sample session with some commonly
used CVS commands:

<tscreen><code>
 setenv CVSROOT   :ext:teuben@akash.astro.umd.edu:/data/cvsroot
 setenv CVSEDITOR emacs
 setenv CVS_RSH   ssh

 mkdir ~/cvsstuff
 cd ~/cvsstuff
 cvs checkout partiview              # get a new local sandbox to work in, or
 cvs -n -q update partiview          # check if others had made any changes
 cvs update partiview                # if so, update your sandbox
 cd partiview/src
 ./configure
 emacs partibrains.c                 # some edit some files
 make all                            # compile the program
 ./partipanel                        # test the program
 emacs partipanel.cc                 # edit another file
 make all                            # check if it still compiles
 cvs -n -q update                    # check if anybody else made changes
 cvs update                          # if so, update your sandbox again
 cvs commit                          # and commit your changes
 cd ../..
 cvs release -d partiview            # if you want to release and remove this sandbox

</code></tscreen>

<sect> Directory structure
<p>

Here is the proposed directory structure, as per version 0.1:

<p>
<tscreen><verb>
     partiview/             root directory
     partiview/src          source code
     partiview/data         sample datafiles (e.g. hipparcos Bright Star Catalogue)
     partiview/doc          manual (sgml, and derived  html, txt, ps/dvi)
     partiview/nemo         NEMO specific converters/code
     partiview/starlab      STARLAB specific converters/code
     partiview/tutor        examples of tutorial type code (added in 0.2)
     partiview/windows      windows executables/support (old)
     
</verb></tscreen>

<sect> Running the program
<p>
First we describe a simple example how to run <tt/partiview/ with a supplied sample
dataset. Then we describe the different windows that <tt/partiview/ is made up of, and
the different commands and keystrokes it listens to.

<sect1> Simple example: Hipparcos Bright Star Catalogue
<p>

Now start the program using one of the sample  "speck" files in the
<tt/data/ directory:

<tscreen><code>
       % cd partiview-0.3/src        
       % ./hipbright
</code></tscreen>

and this will come up with a display. You should probably enlarge the
window a bit. Mine comes up in roughly a 300 by 300 display window,
which may be a bit small (certainly on my screen :-)


hit the TAB key to bring focus to the one line command window inbetween
the log screen (top) and viewing screen (bottom). Type the commands

<tscreen><code>
	fov 50				(field of view 50 degrees)
	jump 0 0 0 80 70 60		(put yourself in the origin
					and look at to euler angles
					RxRyRz (80,70,60)

</code></tscreen>

and it should give a nice comfy view :-)  

<figure loc="tbp">
<img src="pv1.gif">
<caption>partiview view</caption>
</figure>

<p>
[spatial units are parsecs, angle units are degrees]
<p>
Now play with the display, use the 't', 'r', 'f' and 'o' keys in the viewing
window and use the
left and mouse buttons down to (carefully) move around a bit, and make
yourself comfortable with moving around. Using the 't' button you get
some idea of the distance of the stars by moving back and forth a little
(the parallax trick). In fact, if you 't' around a little bit, you may
see a green line flashing through the display. That is on of the  RGB
(xyz) axes attached to the (0,0,0) [our sun] position.  You should see
Procyon and Sirius exhibit pretty large parallaxes, but Orion is pretty
steady since it is several hundred parsecs away.
If you move the right mouse button you will zoom in/out and 
should see our Sun flash by with the red-green-blue axes.
<p>
Try and use the middle mouse button (or the 'p' key)  to click on Sirius
or Procyon, and see if you can get it to view its properties.  Now use
the 'P' key to switch center to rotation to that star. Sirius is
probably a good choice. Move around a bit, and try and get the sun and orion
in the same view :-)
<p>
[NOTE: these Hipparcos data do not have reliably distance above
100-200 pc, so Orion's distances are probably uncertain to 30%]
<p>

A little bit on the types of motion, and what the mouse buttons do

<tscreen><code>

              |     left            middle          right
              |     button-1        button-2        button-3
--------------------------------------------------------------------
f (fly)       |     fly             'pick'          zoom
o (orbit)     |     orbit           'pick'          zoom
r (rotate)    |     rotate X/Y      'pick'          rotate Z (+bug?)
t (translate) |     translate       'pick'          zoom

</code></tscreen>

The point of origin for rotations can be changed with the 'P' button.
First you can try and pick ('p' or button-2) a point, and if found,
hit 'P' to make this point the new rotation center default.



<tscreen><code>
red   = X axis
green = Y axis
blue  = Z axis
</code></tscreen>

<sect1> Top Row
<p>
The top row, from left to right, shows the following buttons:
<p>
<descrip>

<tag> More </tag>
item

<tag> [g1] </tag>
g1 (or whichever group) is the currently selected group. See command <tt/object/ ?

<tag> [f]ly </tag>
Shortcut to select fly/orbit/rot/tran, which can also be activate
by pressing the f/o/r/t keys inside the viewing window.

<tag> point </tag>
Toggle to turn the points on/off 

<tag> poly </tag>
Toggle to turn polygons on/off 

<tag> lbl </tag>
Toggle to turn labels on/off 

<tag> tex </tag>
Toggle to turn textures on/off 

<tag> box </tag>
Toggle to turn boxes on/off 

<tag> logslum lum </tag>
Slider controlling a <bf/datavar/ variable (which?)

</descrip>


<sect1> Second Row
<p>
The second row from the top
controls loading and playing sequences of moving through space
<p>
<descrip>

<tag> Load... </tag>
Brings up a filebrowser to load a <bf/.wf/ path file. This is a file with on each
line 7 numbers: xyz location, RxRyRz viewing direction, and FOV (field of view).

<tag> Play </tag>
Play the currently loaded path

<tag> << < [###] >>> </tag>
Control individual path frames

<tag> slider </tag>
Slider

</descrip>

<sect1> Logfile window
<p>
The third window from the top contains a logfile of commands gives, and can be resized 
by dragging the bar between command window and viewing window. The Logfile windows also
has a scroll bar on the left.
<p>

<sect1> Command window
<p>
The Command window is a single line entry window, in which VIRDIR commands can be given.
Some commands show their result in the Logfile window, others on the originating console.
<p>

<sect1> Viewing window
<p>
The Viewing window is where all the action occurs. Typically this is where you give
single keystroke commands and/or move the mouse for an interactive view of the data.
It can be resized two ways: either by resizing the master window, or by picking up
the separator between Viewing window and Command window above.


<sect> VIRDIR commands
<p>

(see also partibrains.c::specks_parse_args); these are commands typically
called as "<tt/eval/ <it/commands..../"


<descrip>

<tag>
read		
</tag>
read a specks file

<tag>
include		
</tag>
NOTYET, does the same as the <bf/read/ command.

<tag>
on
</tag>

<tag>
off
</tag>

<tag>
enable
</tag>

<tag>
disable
</tag>

<tag>
eval
</tag>

<tag>
add
</tag>

<tag>
async		
</tag>
specks_add_async

<tag>
update		
</tag>
parti_update

<tag>
hist
</tag>

<tag>
bound
</tag>

<tag>
fspeed
</tag>

<tag>
speed
</tag>

<tag>
run
</tag>

<tag>
fade
</tag>

<tag>
clipbox [cb]
</tag>

<tag>
object
</tag>

<tag>
tfm
</tag>

<tag>
bgcolor
</tag>

<p>
	BEGIN	!CAVEMENU	(virdir emulation)

<tag>
stereo
</tag>

<tag>
snapset
</tag>

<tag>
snapshot
</tag>

<tag>
move on|off
</tag>

<tag>
move-objects on|off
</tag>

<tag>
clip
</tag>

<tag>
ortho
</tag>
NOTYET

<tag>
fov <it/float/
</tag>
Get or set field of view (in degrees)

<tag>
fovy <it/float/
</tag>
Get or set field of view (in degrees)

<tag>
focal <it/float/
</tag>
Get or set the focal length

<tag>
jump
</tag>
Get or set the current position (XYZ) and viewing (RxRyRz) angle

<tag>
rdata
</tag>
Read a (<tt/.wf/) file describing a path through space.

<tag>
readpath
</tag>
Read a (<tt/.wf/) file describing a path through space.

<tag>
play
</tag>

<tag>
frame
</tag>
Get or set current frame

<tag>
int[erest] [X Y Z Radius]
</tag>
Get or set region of interest

<tag>
cen[ter] [X Y Z Radius]
</tag>
Get or set region of interest

<tag>
censize
</tag>
interest-marker size
<p>
	END	!CAVEMENU	(virdir emulation)

<tag>
step
</tag>

<tag>
fwd
</tag>

<tag>
gscale
</tag>
scaling particles

<tag>
clearobj
</tag>

<tag>
every   N
</tag>
Get or set the value to display every N-th particle

<tag>
color
</tag>

<tag>
datavar [dv]
</tag>

<tag>
datawait   on|off
</tag>

<tag>
lum
</tag>

<tag>
cmap    <it/filename/
</tag>
Load (ascii) filename with RGB values 

<tag>
boxcmap
</tag>

<tag>
cment
</tag>

<tag>
boxcment
</tag>

<tag>
only
</tag>

<tag>
thresh
</tag>

<tag>
rawdump
</tag>

<tag>
slum
</tag>

<tag>
scale-lum
</tag>

<tag>
see
</tag>

<tag>
show
</tag>

<tag>
showbox
</tag>

<tag>
hide
</tag>

<tag>
hidebox
</tag>

<tag>
box
</tag>

<tag>
boxes
</tag>

<tag>
boxlabel
</tag>

<tag>
boxaxes
</tag>

<tag>
boxscale
</tag>

<tag>
go
</tag>

<tag>
gobox
</tag>

<tag>
goboxscale
</tag>

<tag>
psize
</tag>

<tag>
pointsize
</tag>

<tag>
polysize
</tag>

<tag>
polylum
</tag>

<tag>
polyminpixels
</tag>

<tag>
labelminpixels
</tag>

<tag>
labelsize
</tag>

<tag>
lsize
</tag>

<tag>
point
</tag>

<tag>
points
</tag>

<tag>
poly
</tag>

<tag>
polygon
</tag>

<tag>
texture [tx]
</tag>

<tag>
txscale		BUG in 'tx' name?
</tag>

<tag>
polyorivar
</tag>

<tag>
texturevar
</tag>

<tag>
label labels
</tag>

<tag>
laxes
</tag>

<tag>
polyside
</tag>

<tag>
gamma
</tag>

<tag>
alpha
</tag>

<tag>
fast
</tag>

<tag>
fog
</tag>

<tag>
menu fmenu
</tag>

<p>

			BEGIN CAVEMENU
	pos P1 P2
	wall P1
	hid [P1]
	show [P1]
	h  [P1]
	demandfps [P1]
	font
	help
	?
			END CAVEMENU	
<p>

<tag>
datascale
</tag>

<tag>
where  [w]
</tag>

</descrip>


<sect> Data commands
<p>

(see also partibrains.c::specks_read)
<p>
lines starting with <tt/#/ will be skipped. The following commands can be placed in
a data file, as opposed to a VIRDIR command;


<descrip>

<tag> 
read <it/file/ 
</tag> 
read a <tt/speck/ formatted file. Recursive, commands can nest. (strtok ok??)

<tag> 
include  <it/file/
</tag>
read a <tt/speck/ formatted file.


<tag>
ieee [-t time] <it/file/
</tag>
read a IEEEIO formatted file, with optional timestep number (0 based).
Support for this must be explicitly compiled into the program.

<tag>
object <it/ObjectName/
</tag>
parti_object()

<tag>
sdb [-t time] <it/file/
</tag>
read an SDB (binary) formatted file, with optional timestep number (0 based).

<tag>
sdbvars <it/var/
</tag>
Select <it/var/ (any of: <tt/mMcrogtxyzSn/)

<tag>
box[es] <it/..../
</tag>
Select a box, using 
<p>
    <descrip>
    <tag> <tt/xmin ymin zmin  xmax ymax zmax/ </tag> <p>
    <tag> <tt/xmin,xmax ymin,ymax zmin,zmax/   </tag><p>
    <tag> <tt/xcen,ycen,zcen xrad,yrad,zrad/  </tag><p>
    <tag> <tt/[-t time] [-n boxno] [-l level] xcen,ycen,zcen  xrad,yrad,zrad /  </tag><p>
    </descrip>

<tag>
annot <it/[-t timestep] string .../
</tag>

<tag>
size <it/float/
</tag>

<tag>
scale <it/float/
</tag>

<tag>
tfm 
</tag>
<it/something> must contain <tt/* / h p r/

<tag>
eval <it/command/
</tag>
execute a VIRDIR command

<tag>
feed  <it/command/
</tag>
execute a VIRDIR command

<tag>
VIRDIR  <it/command/
</tag>
execute a VIRDIR command

<tag>
ignorefirst, ignorepgc
</tag>

<tag>
filepath <it/path/
</tag>
A colon separate list of directories in which datafiles
will be searched for. If preceded with the <tt/+/ symbol,
this list will be appended to the current <it/filepath/.

<tag>
texture [-lmnMDB] <it/txno file.sgi/ 
</tag>
    <descrip>
    <tag> -l(inear)  </tag> <p>
    <tag> -m(ipmap) </tag>  <p>
    <tag> -n(earest) </tag>  <p>
    <tag> -M(odulate) </tag>  <p>
    <tag> -D(ecal) </tag>  <p>
    <tag> -B(lend) </tag>  <p>
    </descrip>
<tag>
polyorivar
</tag>

<tag>
texturevar
</tag>

<tag>
texturevarord
</tag>

<tag>
coord <it/name ... 16 world-to-coord tfm floats (GL order)/
</tag>

<tag>
dataset <it/indexno datasetname/
</tag>
<it/indexno/ is an integer, 0 being the first one.

<tag>
datavar <it/indexno string float float/
</tag>

<tag>
datatime <it/indexno/
</tag>

<tag>
<it/Xpos Ypos Zpos Var1 .... /
</tag>
These lines, with XYZ positions in the first 3 columns, will make up the bulk
of the dataset. The 4th and subsequent columns contain the values of the
datavariables as named with the <bf/datavar/ commands.

</descrip>

<sect> Viewing Window Commands 
<p>

Commands that you can give from within the viewing window are all single
keystroke commands, often combined with moving the mouse.


<tscreen><verb>

TAB		set focus to command window, so you can give commands
S		toggle STEREO mode (need blue/red glasses :-)
		modes:	mono redcyan crosseyed glasses
>               single forward stepping, in animation
<               single backward stepping, in animation mode

playmodes:
	s	playnow
	l	loop (rock)
	f,e	playevery=1
	r,t	playevery=0

Gview.cpp : Fl_Gview::handle()
	w	reset?
	r	ROTATE mode
	p
	P	pick
	f	FLY mode
	t	TRANSLATE mode
	o	ORBIT mode
	O	toggle perspective mode
	v	make field of view larger
	V	make field of view smaller
	^v	toggle debug output
	@	dname [g1]  
	=	show debug matrix output
	ESC	exit


</verb></tscreen>

<sect> Partiview and NEMO
<p>
The program <tt/snapspecks/  converts a NEMO snapshot to specks format
that can be read in directly by partiview. The default viewing variables
are <tt/x,y,z,m/, but those can be changed by using the <bf/options=/
keyword. In fact, arbitrary <it/bodytrans/ expressions can be used
to output.


<sect> Bugs, Features and Limitations
<p>

Here is a list of known peculiarities, some of them bugs, others just
features and others limitations, and there is always that class of
things I simply have not understood how it works.
<enum>
<item> in rotate mode, if you change the center of rotation with 'P',
button-1 works fine, but button-3 does not rotate around the
new point correctly. It seems to remember the old (or 0,0,0)
origin.

</enum>

<sect1> Limitations w.r.t. VirDir:
<p>

<enum>
<item>
cannot set an auto-motion, as we can in the dome, although one could
of course load a path and move through the dataset :-)
I was able to make a path (*.wf) file and load that though.

</enum>


</article>