VizWorld.com

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.

Science ncar, software, vapor

The NSF has created some new visuals for the Hayden Planetarium, a fantastic 3d simulation and visualization of the sun made using VAPOR.

Toomre’s doctoral student Benjamin Brown used VAPOR (Visualization and Analysis Platform for Ocean, Atmosphere, and Solar Researchers), a tool developed by NCAR in collaboration with the University of California, Davis, and Ohio State University, to generate visualizations of the Sun and to create image sequences for the movie.

You can see “Journey to the Stars”, the 25-minute journey through the universe, on the 87-foot seven-megapixel dome of the Rose Center for Earth & Space in New York City.

via HPCwire: NSF TeraGrid Helps Hayden Planetarium Create Advanced Space Show.

Science astronomy, nsf, teragrid, vapor