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Frequently Asked QuestionsThis document lists frequently asked questions about the RadVis software. QuestionsGeneral
Getting Started
Problem Solving
AnswersWhat is DESIRE RadVis?DESIRE RadVis is a tool that displays predictions, created using the Geant4-based DESIRE system, for rapid assessment and visualisation of radiation flux and dose levels for space environments. RadVis was developed for the European Space Agency (ESA) by Halden Virtual Reality Centre at the Norwegian Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) building on experience developing similar visualisation software for the power industry. The software project to create RadVis 1.0 started in November 2003 and lasted six months. The project manager is Michael Louka. The lead programmer is Morten Gustavsen, who was assisted by Pål Johansen and Michael Louka. While the core project team comprised of three people, many others have contributed to the project involved in reviewing user requirements, 3D geometry modelling, radiation health expertise, testing, and so forth. More complete credits can be found in the About box of the RadVis application itself. The work was carried out as ESA ESTEC Contract 17494/03/NL/LvH/jd and was funded by the ESA General Studies Programme. The Agency's technical representative for this project is Petteri Nieminen. What is DESIRE?The European Space Agency's DESIRE (Dose Estimation by Simulation of the International space station Radiation Environment) project aims at accurate predictions of radiation fluxes inside the ESA Columbus module of the International Space Station. See http://gluon.particle.kth.se/desire/ for details. Who is RadVis intended for?It is primarily intended for use by scientists, space engineers and doctors, but others may also find it interesting or useful for real work or educational purposes. As it was created first and foremost to provide an interactive 3D interface to DESIRE, it is most useful at present for users of the DESIRE system. How much does RadVis cost?It's free. See the "read me" file that is installed when you install RadVis for details, and the information in the About box. For users at ESA (European Space Agency), RadVis is governed according to the terms in ESA ESTEC contract number 17494/03/NL/FM. For everyone else the usual terms for free software apply -- we disclaim all warranties and implied warranties regarding the fitness and use of the software and take no responsibility in the highly unlikely event that it should cause any damage, and you may not sell, rent, lease, or license RadVis to any other party. Can I use RadVis to visualise data from other sources and for other environments?Yes. The Project File format is an application of XML and is documented in the RadVis Software User Manual. It has bee implemented in such a way that it should be able to support the direction of any type of scalar and scalar+vector data. Any VRML/X3D compliant 3D models can be used (see question below). What 3D geometry formats does RadVis support?Uncompressed ISO VRML97 and X3D. Some files may need to be adjusted to work due to limitations in the Xj3D library used to load these files. As long as the archive files have the same names it should be possible to simply replace the version of Xj3D bundled with RadVis with new versions if you have problems that may have been fixed in the Xj3D library. The Xj3D libraries for RadVis are located in the "lib" directory of the RadVis directory after installation of RadVis. See http://www.xj3d.org/ for details. What are the minimum requirements for using RadVis?The (official) minimum recommended requirements for the system is:
Unofficially, it appears to be usable on anything from a 500MHz Pentium III an up, given a hardware accelerated graphics card with at least 16Mb of RAM and at least 256MB RAM. It will run on even older hardware, depending on what you consider usable performance... The software can be used on a less powerful hardware configuration with a two-button mouse, however system performance will not be optimal. Use the alt-key on your keyboard in combination with the left mouse button to simulate the middle mouse button if you do not have three mouse buttons. Note that the Direct3D version of Java 3D is not compatible with Windows NT 3.x or 4.x. Please use the OpenGL version of Java 3D if you are using Windows NT. The Direct3D version of Java 3D is available from Sun Microsystems (see web address provided above). Will RadVis run on my computer and operating system?Probably. In theory, RadVis runs on all operating systems that support the minimum Java requirements (Java 1.4.2 and Java 3D 1.3.1). Of course, the minimum hardware requirements, equivalent to those listed in the question above should be met. It was mostly developed on computers running Mac OS X 10.3.3, with some code developed under Windows 2000 and XP, and has been thoroughly tested on those platforms. It is also know to run under Linux (Mandrake). Platforms that it has not been tested under but under which it should run as-is include Sun Solaris and SGI IRIX. The Sun's Java 3D web page provides additional information about which platforms support Java 3D 1.3.1. In fact the minimum system permitted by RadVis is Java 1.4.1 and Java 3D 1.3, which allows it to be executed on a wider variety of platforms, however Java 1.4.2 and Java 3D 1.3.1 (in particular) fix a number of bugs so using the software with these earlier software versions is not recommended. Mac OS X Users: See "Does RadVis support Mac OS X?" below for additional information. Does RadVis support Windows 98?RadVis is not recommended for, or tested under, Microsoft Windows 98, however it may work. See also the question "Will RadVis run on my operating system?". Does RadVis support Linux?In theory, yes. In practice, it usually works fine, but some graphics cards have poor 3D support under Linux which may give unpredictable results on some systems. See also the question "Will RadVis run on my operating system?". Does RadVis support Mac OS X?RadVis runs on Mac OS X 10.3 ("Panther") with the Java 3D 1.3.1 update installed. The Java 3D update is available via the operating system's Software Update mechanism. However, our installers do not currently support Mac OS X. A separate Mac OS X package has been provided on the download page, which comprises of a zipped disk image with RadVis packaged as a Mac application. See also the question "Will RadVis run on my operating system?". Which version of the installer should I use? "Includes" or "without" Java VM?If you already have Java 1.4.2 installed on your computer then you can use the "without Java VM" version. Otherwise you should use the "includes Java VM" version. If you are not sure (or don't really understand any of this) then use the "includes Java VM" version (if available for your platform). If you perform a default installation without changing any options in the installer then the "include Java VM" should install and set everything up correctly for you. If you use the "without Java VM" version of the installer to install on a system with Java 1.4.2 but without Java 3D installed, then you will need administrator privileges to install successfully as the installer will need to add Java 3D to your Java installation for you. How do I enable stereoscopic rendering?First of all, you need a graphics card that supports stereoscopic rendering, and display hardware that enables you to use it. If you have that, then see section 4.17 of the RadVis Software User Manual. How can I set up RadVis to use multiple displays?See section 4.17 of the RadVis Software User Manual. Sometimes Edges mode doesn't show anything at all! Why not?The edges (isosurfaces) visualisation mode shows boundaries between ranges of values (e.g. energy levels). If all the data falls within a single range then there are no boundaries and therefore nothing is shown. You are most likely to experience if using a test file where all the values of a certain type are the same or if you have a user-configured colour (value) range where the range is too wide compared to the values in the data set. Where should I send bug reports?Please send bug reports to vr-support@hrp.no. If possible, please include a copy of the technical details from the RadVis About box (use the Save button in the About window to save the details to a text file) when sending bug reports, and explain the actions taken that led to the discovery of the bug. Please check the answers to questions in this FAQ first as the majority of problems reported are graphics card driver issues which we have no control over and can only recommend upgrading drivers to the latest versions or installing the DirectX version of Java 3D rather than the default OpenGL version. RadVis runs too slowly on my computer. Is there anything I can do to improve performance?If the 3D view is running slowly on your computer, and it is not because the model is particularly detailed, then you could try one or more of the following:
On computers with older graphics cards (in particular those with less than 16MB RAM), the performance is likely to be poor if you run the RadVis window at full-screen size if you are using a screen resolution greater than 1024x768. The reason for this is that your graphics drivers will revert to software rendering (ie hardware acceleration will not be available) due to insufficient display memory resources. Software rendering is very demanding on the computer so not only the 3D speed but also the overall responsiveness of the computer will be affected. On some older graphics cards and even some modern graphics chipsets on laptop computers, with limited OpenGL support and/or memory, you may find that the DirectX version of Java 3D will give better performance. It can be downloaded from Sun's Java 3D web site. See the question and answer below for details. My computer crashes every time I run RadVis!If the software regularly crashes or hangs then check if there are newer drivers available for your graphics card from the card vendor. Most crashes reported to us are caused by driver problems that are, unfortunately, beyond our control. On Windows, it is sometimes helpful to switch to the Direct3D version of Java3D if there are stability issues with your graphics card's OpenGL driver. Java 3D installers are available from Sun Microsystem's Java 3D web site. If, after installing the client software on Windows, the tools refuse to start, stating that the software is incorrectly installed then your graphics card may not be OpenGL compatible. In this case you should also try installing the Direct3D version of Java 3D. When installing Java 3D using an installer from Sun, you may need to inform the Java 3D installer of the location of the bundled Java executable (if you used the "include Java VM" installer and installed the bundled Java version. In that case it is located in the DESIRE RadVis directory in your program files directory. Typically: C:\Program Files\RadVis\jre\bin If neither the OpenGL or DirectX versions of Java 3D work for you then your PC and/or graphics card are probably inadequate to run CREATE efficiently. One other possibility that will normally work in most cases is to turn off hardware acceleration in the Windows Display Properties control panel. This will force Java 3D to use a software renderer. Although this could be rather slow, it is generally a stable solution. RadVis crashes when I try to save a snapshot!Some older graphics drivers for nVIDIA graphics cards are known to cause RadVis to crash when creating snapshots with the OpenGL version of Java 3D. You should update your drivers to the latest version from your computer manufacturer or nVIDIA. The same is generally true (for any graphics card type, on any platform) if the image produced is corrupt. Again, see if there is a newer driver available for your graphics card than the one you are using. In the worst case, if no new drivers are available (and you are using Windows) then you could try turning off hardware acceleration in the Windows Display Properties control panel. This will force Java 3D to use a software renderer. Although this could be rather slow, it is generally a stable solution. The whole user interface is flickering!On computers with nVIDIA Quadro-based graphics cards, you may need to adjust the Open GL configuration of your display to prevent flickering of 2D user interface elements when the 3D view is refreshed. For Windows 2000/XP, the following procedure can be used to reconfigure the display:
The 3D scene is rendering strangely when I replace models or toggle the box representation!Some older graphics drivers for nVIDIA Quadro graphics cards exhibit problems with rendering scenes correctly in situations whenthe lighting in the 3D scene is updated. This can happen when toggling model representation or replacing a model with a project file loaded. Typical results include polygons and materials disappearing temporarily. Installing newer drivers usually fixes this problem, which appears to be most common on laptop computers with Quadro2Go chipsets. Under Mac OS X, all of the objects in the 3D scene go white when I detach the virtual dosimeter!This is the result of a bug in Java 3D on Mac OS X. Hopefully it will be fixed by Apple some time soon. |
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