Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Open 3D Scientific Visualization Toolkit

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the look-what-we-done dept.

Mark Leaman writes "The Science Museum of Minnesota has just announced an online community site for scientific visualization, including thier Open 3D Visualization Toolkit that includes Blender and the GIMP as part of the core development tools. Frustrated with a lack of consolidated resources and discussion about open-source, scientific visualization development tools, the Science Museum of Minnesota's Learning Technologies Department decided to develop their own."

7 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Never would have happened without govt help by Dancin_Santa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    These museums, with very few exceptions are almost purely supported with government funds. They just can't make back the cost of upkeep, much less salaries, on the few dollars they make through admission fees.

    There are a few that can make ends meet by appealing to private business, but for the most part these museums are supported with public money.

    Now the point of all this government talk is that sometimes it takes the government to do something good and worthwhile for the general public. If it were up to the private sector, such an undertaking would 1) not have been undertaken in the first place and 2) if it were developed, it wouldn't have been released as OSS.

    Hooray for these hackers! And thank god they've got an enlightened government supporting them.

    1. Re:Never would have happened without govt help by ManoMarks · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's because most universities in the U.S. at least have turned to public/private ventures and patents to bring in more revenues. This has many benefits, including placing students in nice jobs, but the downside is an increased focus on doing what the private sector wants.

      --

      That's gotta fit into your schema somewhere

    2. Re:Never would have happened without govt help by siskbc · · Score: 2, Insightful
      One thing that always disappoints me is the lack of involvement of Academia in helping OSS

      Don't know what you're talking about, really. Check the sciences, almost all OSS is academic. The OSS tools I use for research were all made my students or profs or multi-university collabortations. If you mean big projects that solve non-academic problems, like spreadsheets and word processors - well, why should researchers (outside of CS people perhaps) involve themselves with that?

      --

      -Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat

    3. Re:Never would have happened without govt help by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I do: CS degree is a hammer looking for a nail. Go out in the world and learn that there are problems that need to be solved, then become a programmer and solve them.

  2. Open Data by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Where is the repository for open scientific data for visualization? The NASA website of raw data decoded from the streams sent by our probes? The USGS GPS models? CAT/MRI scan files from dead people? X-ray crystallography data from public research institutions? Their CD distro is a good start, with models from their Turkish dig site. Without data, this tool is just a toy.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  3. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  4. Blender is not a Sci Viz tool, but these are... by hawkstone · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sorry, but I fail to see what Blender and the GIMP have to do with real scientific visualization. Blender is for 3D modelling, and the GIMP is for image processing.

    If you're looking for complete, open source scientific visualization and data analysis packages, try VisIt, which supports dozens of input formats and runs on Linux, Windows, and MacOSX. Pick it up at http://www.llnl.gov/visit, or get the latest binaries from FTP here.

    I have less knowledge of ParaView, but it is also free: http://www.paraview.org.

    Both of these are also developed in part by the national labs; they can run parallel to handle terabytes of data, so if you've got small dataset they should be smokin' fast, and if you've got your own cluster you should be able to visualize some huge data.

    If you're looking for just a toolkit to build your own application, try OpenDX or VTK.