For all of you visualization scientists out there, NCAR has just released version 1.5.2 of their multiresolution analysis tool VAPOR. In addition to several bug fixes, they’ve added a few new features:
Improved support for transparency
VAPOR now provides limited support for display of semi-transparent surfaces. Multiple two-dimensional semi-transparent surfaces (Probe, 2DData, and Image) will correctly display in a scene provided:
- The surfaces do not intersect each other
- All the surfaces do intersect the line from the camera to the scene rotation center
This capability enables users to apply multiple images upon a terrain surface image (e.g. political boundaries, rivers, etc.) by positioning the partially transparent surfaces slightly above the terrain image. If there are additional semi-transparent shapes in the scene (volume rendering, isosurface, flow lines) they may not render correctly. Best results are obtained by keeping semitransparent objects separated from one another and in the center of the view.
Improved diagnostics for OpenGL and for application startup. If the user sets the VAPOR_DEBUG variable, the console will report more extensive information about the graphics capabilities and the initial progress of the application. This can be useful in understanding many VAPOR failures. On Windows, these messages are reported to the log file.
Freely downloadable at their site, it’s a very powerful tool for visualizing multiresolution or structured data, used a lot in atmospheric work.
via VAPOR – Visualization and Analysis Platform for Ocean, Atmosphere, and Soloar Researchers.
