Related Sites

Links to Related Sites

The ImageMagick routines. Using these routines you can do conversions between graphics formats, display "still" images, and animate a sequence of images. (It's really quite a neat set of routines.)

The mpeg_encode utility. This utility allows you to convert from a sequence of frame files to an MPEG file.

The mpeg_play utility. This utility allows you to view an MPEG file. Both source code and executables are available by following this link. Note that I had a few problems compiling the 2.3 version of the program on my Hewlett-Packard 9000/735 workstation (under version 9.05 of the HP-UX operating system). The compiler options that were given as in the prototype Makefile as
CFLAGS = -Ac +O3 -DSH_MEM -DNDEBUG $(INCLUDEDIR)
I had to change to
CFLAGS = -Ae +O3 -D__HPUX__ -DSH_MEM -DNDEBUG $(INCLUDEDIR)
This change got things to compile and run just great. (Also, I used the HP compiler cc, not gcc.)

Additional MPEG information can be obtained from
http://www.arc.umn.edu/GVL/Software/mpeg.html and
http://www.eit.com/techinfo/mpeg/mpeg.html.

The commercial packages MATLAB and Mathematica, though not strictly graphics packages, provide a broad range of plotting tools. More information can be obtained from: http://www.mathworks.com/ and http://www.wri.com/.

The commercial packages IDL and PV-WAVE share a common ancestry but have, for some time now, been developed independently. More information about these graphics packages can be obtained from http://www.rsinc.com/idl/ and
http://doc.boulder.vni.com/pvwave.dir/wavehome.html. AVS produces another powerful commercial package that can be found described at http://www.avs.com/. Additionally, NAG produces the Explorer graphics package that is described at
http://www.nag.co.uk:70/1h/Welcome_IEC.

VTK and Khoros are also powerful graphics packages. But, unlike the previously mentioned packages, these can be obtained for free by individuals (although some restriction may apply---please see the appropriate licensing agreements). The relevant URL's are http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~martink/ and
http://www.khoral.com/Technology/home.html.

An interesting commercial package which we just discovered (that is not mentioned in the paper) is called Megahedron. Find out more by following this link http://www.threedee.com.

A public-domain package that we just came across is the General Mesh Viewer (GMV). Find out more by following this link http://www-xdiv.lanl.gov/XCM/gmv/GMVHome.html.

The pbmplus suite of routines can be obtained by following this link (look for either pbmplus10dec91.tar or pbmplus10dec91.tar.Z). Alternatively, netpbm is a suite of routines that purports to be a superset of the pbmplus routines (look for netpbm-1mar1994.tar.gz).

Though not discussed in the paper, there is an alternative graphics format that will probably supersede GIF in the not-too-distant future. This format is known as PNG and you can find out more by following this link.

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John B. Schneider, schneidj@eecs.wsu.edu
Patrick J. Flynn, flynn@ee.eng.ohio-state.edu
Kurt Shlager, kurt.shlager@lmco.com