[:de]Es ist soweit! Der neue Release von MegaMol ist auf seiner Projekt-Webseite verfügbar:
Release 1.1
Weitere Infos zur IEEE VIS aus Chicago gibt es kommenden Sonntag.[:en]It is time! The new release of MegaMol is available on its project website:
Release 1.1
There will be more info on the IEEE VIS conference in Chicago on next Sunday.[:]
[:de]Auch dieses Sommersemester habe ich wieder meine Vorlesung „C++-Programmierung für Computergraphik“ gehalten, und auch dieses mal haben wir ein kleines Spiel in der dazugehörigen Übung geschaffen. Und, wie immer, heißt die letzte Übungsaufgabe „… und nun macht noch was Cooles dazu.“ Ich präsentiere, nicht ohne Stolz, die Arbeit Anderer:
https://youtu.be/etw_7gSU9iY
[:en]This summer term I, again, gave my lecture on „C++ Programming for Computer Graphics.“ Again, we create a small game during the practical exercises. And, again, the final task was „and now add something cool.“ Thus, I proudly present the work of others:
[:de]Ich als Visualisierer wissenschaftlicher Datensätze kriege diese häufig in Form von beliebig strukturierten Textdateien. An sich nicht schlimm. Der erste Schritt ist dann eben eine initiale Konvertierung in ein schnelles Binärformat für die visuelle Analyse. Doch damit stehe ich immer wieder vor dem Problem eine 11 Gigabyte Textdatei verstehen zu müssen (Ich übertreibe nicht!). Da die Datei ja doch recht konsistent ist, geht es im Endeffekt immer nur um die ersten paar Zeilen und die letzten paar Zeilen. Dazwischen sieht ja doch meist alles gleich aus. Was ich also brauch sind die üblichen Linux-Befehle „head“ und „tail“. Nun bin ich aber ein Windows-Benutzer. Was nun also? Die Powershell hat die Antwort:
gc log.txt | select -first 10 # head
gc log.txt | select -last 10 # tail
Gefunden hab ich das auf: http://stackoverflow.com/a/9682594 (wo auch sonst)
Zumindest diese Variante von „head“ ist ausreichend schnell für meine Dateien. Ich bin zufrieden.
[:en]Most new data sets for my scientific visualization find their way to my desk in form of arbitrarily structures text files. This is not really a problem. The first sensible step is converting them into a fast binary format for the visual analysis. With this, however, I face the problem of understanding the structure of 11 Gigabytes text files (no exaggeration here!). But, such files do have structure. So, only the few first and few last lines really matter. The bits in-between will be roughly the same way. What I need are the Linux-known commands „head“ and „tail“. However, I am a Windows guy. So? The Powershell comes to the rescue:
gc log.txt | select -first 10 # head
gc log.txt | select -last 10 # tail
I found these on: http://stackoverflow.com/a/9682594 (where else)
At least the „head“ version was fast and sufficient for me. I am happy.[:]
[:en]We updated MegaMol to use cmake to build on Linux OS. This greatly improved the build process on Linux. But this also makes some more uncommon scenarios difficult to realize. For example, cmake usually automatically detects required dependencies. But, in some scenarios you need to override this magic.
In this article I show how to compile a second MegaMol on a system on which a MegaMol already has been compiled and installed. This is useful when working with experimental versions.
First off you build the visglut the usual way. I assume here, that the installed MegaMol uses a different visglut as the one you want to build now:
mkdir megamol_x2 cd megamol_x2 svn co https://svn.vis.uni-stuttgart.de/utilities/visglut/tags/forMegaMol11 visglut cd visglut/build_linux_make make
If everything worked you can find the following files:
in megamol_x1/visglut/include:
GL/freeglut_ext.h GL/freeglut.h GL/freeglut_std.h GL/glut.h visglut.h visglutversion.h
and in megamol_x2/visglut/lib:
libvisglut64.a libvisglut64d.a
If so, let’s continue with the VISlib:
cd megamol_x2 svn co https://svn.vis.uni-stuttgart.de/utilities/vislib/tags/release_2_0 vislib cd vislib
Now, there is the first action which is different from the default build process. As usual we will use the script cmake_build.sh. This script, however, per default registers the build directories in the cmake package registry. This enables cmake to find this package in its build trees. In this scenario, however, we do not want this special build to be automatically found, because we do not want to get in the way of our system-installed MegaMol. We thus deactivate the package registry.
This command configures and builds the VISlib, both for debug and release version:
./cmake_build.sh -dcmn
As always, if you encounter build problems due to the multi-job make, reduce the number of compile jobs:
./cmake_build.she -dcmnj 1
Note that I do not specify an install directory. I do not plan to install this special MegaMol. I just want to build, for example for a bug hunt.
It’s now time for the core.
cd megamol_x2 svn co https://svn.vis.uni-stuttgart.de/projects/megamol/core/branches/v1.1rc core cd core
We first test the configuration by only configuring release and not building anything:
./cmake_build.sh -cv ../vislib -C -DCMAKE_DISABLE_FIND_PACKAGE_MPI=TRUE
Note that I also disabled MPI-Support here. The system I am building on has MPI installed, but I don’t want this MegaMol to use it.
The output should contain this line:
-- Found vislib: /home/sgrottel/megamol20150726/vislib/build.release/libvislib.a
This points to the right vislib, the one we specified. So all is well. We can build MegaMol, again without registering it’s build trees in the cmake package repository:
./cmake_build.sh -dcmnv ../vislib -C -DCMAKE_DISABLE_FIND_PACKAGE_MPI=TRUE
When all worked you got yourself the binaries:
megamol_x2/core/build.debug/libMegaMolCored.so megamol_x2/core/build.release/libMegaMolCore.so
Get yourself a working copy of the console:
cd megamol_x2 svn co https://svn.vis.uni-stuttgart.de/projects/megamol/frontends/console/branches/v1.1rc console cd console
Again, we test if everything works by only configuring release and not building:
./cmake_build.sh -c -f ../core
The Console does not register its build tree per default, since no other project depends on the console. So we are fine here.
The output should contain these lines:
-- Looking for MegaMolCore with hints: ../core;../core/build.release;../core/share/cmake/MegaMolCore -- Found MegaMolCore: /home/sgrottel/megamol20150726/core/build.release/libMegaMolCore.so -- MegaMolCore suggests vislib at: /home/sgrottel/megamol20150726/vislib/build.release -- MegaMolCore suggests install prefix: /usr/local -- Using MegaMolCore install prefix -- Found vislib: /home/sgrottel/megamol20150726/vislib/build.release/libvislib.a -- Found AntTweakBar: /home/sgrottel/AntTweakBar/lib/libAntTweakBar.so -- Found visglut: /home/sgrottel/megamol20150726/visglut/lib/libvisglut64.a
If the directories for other libraries are wrong, for example the AntTweakBar or the visglut use the cmake-typical DIR variable to give a search hint. Remember, relative paths might be confusion. Better use absolute paths. I don’t:
./cmake_build.sh -c -f ../core -C -Dvisglut_DIR=~/megamol20150709/visglut -C -DAntTweakBar_DIR=../../AntTweakBar
But in my case the cmake-magic worked fine in the first place. So, I configure both build types again:
./cmake_build.sh -dc -f ../core
Double check the output. Make sure the core, the vislib and the visglut are found in all the right places. If they are, built it:
./cmake_build.sh -dm
At this point you can quickly test your MegaMol. First open the megamol.cfg configuration file in a text editor and adjust the paths in there to yours. Then run MegaMol:
cd build.release ./MegaMolCon
If this seems ok, and if you have a local graphics card you can run the demo renderer:
./MegaMolCon -i demospheres s
Finally we need a plugin. I go for the mmstd_moldyn:
cd megamol_x2 svn co https://svn.vis.uni-stuttgart.de/projects/megamol/plugins/mmstd_moldyn/branches/v1.1rc mmstd_moldyn cd mmstd_moldyn
The process is now exactly the same as with the console:
./cmake_build.sh -dcf ../core
The double check the directories for the core and the VISlib. If they are good, build the plugin:
./cmake_build.sh -dm
To test this plugin we go back to the console, and adjust the config file to load the plugin:
cd megamol_x2/console/build.release
Include the following lines in the config file. Obviously adjust the paths to what you need:
<plugin path="/home/dude/megamol_x2/mmstd_moldyn/build.release" name="mmstd_moldyn.mmplg" action="include" /> <shaderdir path="/home/dude/megamol_x2/mmstd_moldyn/Shaders" />
If you now run MegaMol it will try to load your plugin and will report it. The output console should contain something like:
200|Plugin mmstd_moldyn loaded: 11 Modules, 0 Calls 200|Plugin "mmstd_moldyn" (/home/sgrottel/megamol20150726/mmstd_moldyn/build.release/mmstd_moldyn.mmplg) loaded: 11 Modules, 0 Calls registered
And that’s it.[:]
[:de]Kommenden Montag und Dienstag ist die VII. Jahrestagung der Boltzmann-Zuse-Gesellschaft für Computational Molecular Engineering, dieses Jahr turnusgemäß mal wieder in Kaiserslautern, organisiert bei Martin Horsch. Im Großen Treffen Sich die Gruppen aus Stuttgart (VISUS, HLRS), Paderborn, Kaiserslautern und Dresden um über Simulation, Analyse und Visualisierung von Molekulardynamik-Daten zu sprechen und die gemeinsamen Forschungs- und Entwicklungsprojekte zu diskutieren. Natürlich werden Joachim und ich über die aktuellen Arbeiten mit und an MegaMol berichten. Übrigens: http://megamol.org[:en]This Monday and Thursday the VII. Annual Meeting of the Boltzmann-Zuse-Society for Computational Molecular Engineering takes place in Kaiserslautern, organized by Martin Horsch. Basically it is a meeting for the groups from Stuttgart (VISUS, HLRS), Paderborn, Kaiserslautern and Dresden, to talk about simulation, analysis and visualization of molecular dynamics data. And to discuss our joint research and development projects. Of course, Joachim and I will be talking about current works with and on MegaMol. By the way: http://megamol.org[:]
![[:de]C++-Programmierung für Computergraphik[:en]C++ Programming for Computer Graphics[:]](https://www.sgrottel.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/TU_Logo_WW_notext.png){kind=logo}
[:de]
Auch dieses Semester frisst die Vorbereitung und Betreuung meiner Vorlesung Unmengen an Zeit. Und dabei gibt es so viel anderes, um das man sich auch kümmern muss. Ein Glück, dass ich durch Kollegen und SHKs gut unterstützt werde. Außerdem, wenn es mir ja trotz allem keinen Spaß machen würde, dann hätte ich mir schon längst einen neuen Job gesucht.
In meiner Vorlesung geht es übrigens um Programmierung mit der Sprache C++. Der Fokus liegt hierbei auf der Sprache selbst und dem geschickten Umgehen. Das Szenario ist die interaktive Computergraphik, und in den Übungen schreiben meine Studenten ein kleines Computerspiel. Ich bin sehr zufrieden mit dem Grundskelett, das wir dieses Jahr vorgeben. Und ich bin sehr gespannt darauf, was meine Student in der letzten Übungsaufgabe daraus machen werden.[:en]
This semester the preparation and holding of my lecture eats away a lot of time. And, there is so much else I need to do, too. Luckily, I get help from my co-workers and student assistants. And, if I would not have my fun doing all this, I would have changed jobs a long time ago.
In my lecture, by the way, I teach programming in the language C++. The focus is on the language itself and on using it correctly. I use interactive computer graphics as scenario. And in the practical part of the lecture, my students can write a small computer game. I am very satisfied with the base code skeleton we prepared this year. And I am curious what the students will make of it in the last exercise.[:]
