Based on "Project Scope and Deliverables" in the Visualization WBS

Promote and support the use of Open Inventor (OIV), available from Template Graphics System (TGS) or Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI).

We have completed the portion of this item that can be completed. Open Inventor version 2.5 has now been delivered on the RunII platforms to CDF and to D0. The Linux KCC port took a great deal of effort by us and by TGS, but it is now finished and so CDF are on the air. Both experiments have sufficient licenses to make progress on their visualization. We are discussing more purchases with the experiments and with TGS. So we are at the sustaining part of this item, and should have projections for purchase requirements reasonably soon.

Contribute to the HEPVis library, a collection of HEP specific extensions to Open Inventor. This will include contributing code to the library, maintaining the cvs repository, and porting to relevant platforms.

This too is in essence complete. Once OIV became available and stable for Linux KCC, the port of HEPVis followed in a straightforward manner. We have made v5_0_1, which works on all of the RunII OIV platforms mentioned above, available via upd. We will be basing the RunII visualization on this release for the foreseeable future. The repository and mailing list are busy, and CDF and D0 are developing event displays or similar projects using the library. CMS and Minos, at a minimum, will also be using the library.

Make use of Virtual Reality. This will include maintaining a VR center, and assisting in development of useful 3D representations for use with the VR equipment.

We did some demonstrations and videos of our work, but our room is now being used for other purposes. I am searching for another location for the equipment. So at the present time the only Stereo 3D display is on the SGI graphics workstations, including the Onyx on WH9W

Evaluate and support supplemental software. Some examples would include software needed to produce hardcopy, GUI builders, and auxiliary tools for increasing availability to the desktops (e. g. Mesa, eXceed3D).

Mesa version 3.0 is now available via upd and installed on the CDF Linux system, so users can access the various visualization programs from any X display. This is very slow compared to OpenGL though. I believe that if visualization is going to be used by large numbers of users on Linux, we will need to pick a configuration (there are many) and make a recommendation and possibly negotiate a site license. The cost of Open GL is not very large, even by the single seat/CPU, and such an upgrade makes a huge difference in display speed over Mesa.

The D0 users are buying and using Exceed3D on their NT machines to host the display of OIV programs over the net, and seem to be content with the results.

Provide infrastructure support. This will include hosting workshops and training classes in the use of OI and VR and on installing and using a system of graphics software for use on the experiments' desktops.

This is progressing well. See the above paragraphs for details. Providing recommendations of graphics "systems" (i. e. a specific video card, a specific OGL implementation) has tradeoffs; we would like to make good suggestions and have the users using uniform configurations, but we don't want to impinge on the "commodity computing" model provided by the use of PC's. So I guess this item will require some thought before proceeding.

Support the integration of the above technologies to provide a "visualization framework", whereby users will be able to make use of a variety of desktops and the RunII platforms and operating systems to view their data at various levels of display.

We are still planning to host a graphics workshop, but the time frame is unclear at this point.