YURT Software

During the semester, we will be testing various visualization / development software in the YURT and evaluating their performance. Below is a list  that we will test over the semester. Please add to this list if you discover any new software! 

When evaluating a piece of software provide a brief description, a rating of YURT compatibility (see examples), and a list of hardware that the software supports (e.g. VR headsets). In addition, if this software is not already in the wiki, create a page for it.

Apps

Paraview

• Description: large library plus standalone application that handles many data types and many visualization approaches.

• Overall YURT Compatibility: partially ported to YURT via custom code to manage warping/blending.  Open Source version handles several examples of Caves.

• Other Hardware Supported: desktop, cluster rendering, not sure about headsets

Unity

• Description: game engine application that handles geometric graphics and interaction.  Very broad community, some doing visualization.

• Overall YURT Compatibility: does not work with linux+stereo+multi-core.  Could probably be made to work under windows.  Could try to dual-boot cave020 and try.  Could try to windows-boot a 2-display machine in the visual-computing lab (CIT 103) to evaluate windows ability to handle this (but not clear how useful this would be).

• Other Hardware Supported: everything except Caves.

Unreal Engine

• Description: game engine application that handles geometric graphics and interaction. Less popular than Unity and more difficult to use but still has a very large community; less visualization focused, more game focused.

• Overall YURT Compatibility:  does not work as of late January 2020. However, there folks actively trying to port Unreal Engine to the YURT. 

• Other Hardware Supported: everything except Caves; however, there is some research that suggests that Unreal could be ported to caves (https://tinyurl.com/uhe5td2)

DinoYURT

• Description: scientific visualization app built on top of MinVR to visualize the dynamics of dinosaur footprints; however, DinoYURT can also be used to visualize other point-based data such as pointclouds. Also, it was written by Brown PhD student Johannes Novotny. 

• Overall YURT Compatibility: compatible with the YURT, runs atop minVR library.

• Other Hardware Supported: VR headsets, CAVEs, and the YURT.

OpenSpace

• Description: space visualization software built by NASA to visualize the cosmos.

• Overall YURT Compatibility: does not work; MinVR team and OpenSpace team attempted to get OpenSpace working in the YURT but errors persist.  Getting past those errors would be great.

• Other Hardware Supported: everything except CAVEs

Ben's Volume Renderer

• Description: volume rendering app built by Ben Knorlein; one of the few pieces of software that supports volume rendering in the YURT. 

• Overall YURT Compatibility:  compatible with the YURT.  Evaluating this software in comparison with other volume rendering software could be valuable.  Adding missing features might as well.

• Other Hardware Supported: everything (maybe?)

FluoRender

• Description: microscopy visualization app that supports both surface and volume rendering; built by the University of Utah's Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute.

• Overall YURT Compatibility: Does not work.  There has been some thought about how to port it to the Yurt, and the developers at University of Utah would be game to help with that.

• Other Hardware Supported: VR headsets; untested with CAVEs

TecPlot

• Description: computation fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation software; used for fluid simulations, aerodynamics analysis, oil and gas discovery, and other physical applications. 

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown how to port.  Paraview can read in some TecPlot files.

• Other Hardware Supported: Limited VR support; untested with CAVEs

OnSight

• Description: mixed reality software built by NASA JPL that simulates Martian environment using rover data; currently, only for federal employees.

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown, but primarily developed for HoloLens and not open source.  Discussions are happening with JPL folks, but significant evaluation would be needed.

• Overall Hardware Supported: AR and VR support; untested with CAVEs

VisIt

• Description: high performance scientific visualization app built by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; suitable for very large data (terabytes) 

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown

• Overall Hardware Supported: *** Unknown

Amira

• Description: biological imaging visualization app that supports CT, MRI, 3D microscopy, and other biological imaging modalities.

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown, not open source, may be very hard to determine a porting strategy.

• Overall Hardware Supported: website states that Amira supports VR and CAVEs; this assertion, however, is untested.

Amazon Lumberyard

• Description: game engine application that handles geometric graphics and interaction. Relatively obscure and has small community.

• Overall YURT Compatibility:  *** Unknown.  Was investigated in past years, so wiki may have ore info.

• Overall Hardware Support: VR support (untested); maybe CAVEs (???)

Slicer VR

• Description: extension of "3D Slicer," widely used software for visualizing medical imaging data, that allows users to interact with medical imaging data in VR. 

• Overally YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown

• Overall Hardware Support: VR Support (untested); maybe CAVEs (???)

ArcGIS

• Description: data analysis, mapping, and remote sensing software typically used for architecture and archaeology. 

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown

• Overall Hardware Support: VR only supported with extensions; untested with CAVEs

Virtualitics

• Description: data science, machine learning, and data visualization software built of virtual reality headsets.

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown

• Overall Hardware Support: VR

Matlab

• Description: very popular math and scientific data processing software; used by engineers / scientists and supports data visualization.  

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown

• Overall Hardware Support: *** Unknown

Freesurfer

• Description: brain MRI scan processing and visualization software.

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown

• Overall Hardware Support: Maybe VR (???)

Advanced Normalization Tools (ANTs)

• Description: medical imaging processing framework with some visualization tools; more focused on data processing than visualization. Hard to use.

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown

• Overall Hardware Support: *** Unknown

Blender

• Description: 3D graphics toolset used for art, animation, and other 3D graphics applications.

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown; CCV folks have made some parts of Blender work in the Yurt in the past, so investigating that could be interesting.

• Overall Hardware Support: *** Unknown

ImageJ

• Description: image processing library that is typically used to prepare data for vtk / paraview.  Also connects well to Slicer 3D

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown

• Overall Hardware Support: *** Unknown

Google Earth

• Description:

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown

• Overall Hardware Support: *** Unknown

Libraries

VR Juggler

• Description: virtual reality library framework and large set of applications built by Iowa State University's Virtual Reality Applications center (VRAC); relatively old and not maintained.

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown, and some evidence suggests it may have atrophied too much to be usable.

• Other Hardware Supported: VR; maybe supports CAVEs (???)

MinVR 

• Description: data visualization and virtual reality framework that supports a wide variety of hardware.

• Overall YURT Compatibility: supported -- developed specifically for the yurt.

• Other Hardware Supported: VR, CAVEs, Powerwalls, YURT

VRUI

• Description: portable virtual reality development framework built by UC Davis. 

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown; it has worked in the past in the Yurt for some things, but the developer has not been responsive in the last few months, and the configuration process for the Yurt was quite painful and buggy.

• Other Hardware Supported: VR; maybe CAVEs (???)

CalVR 

• Description: virtual reality development framework build by UCSD

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown; developers at UCSD have offered to be helpful if we want to try porting it.

• Other Hardware Supported: VR; *** rest unknown

OmegaLib

• Description: data visualization framework for desktops, large immersive displays, and the web. Built by the University of Illinois at Chicago.

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown; may be too 2D-oriented to be useful

• Overall Hardware Supported: VR, CAVEs (maybe); *** possibly more

VTK

• Description: framework for manipulating and displaying scientific data; backbone of Paraview and other scientific visualization applications.

• Overall YURT Compatibility: *** Unknown, but at least one Yurt demo application from it was created by a student in the past.

• Overall Hardware supported: VR, CAVEs (maybe); *** possible more