Paraview Yurt Instructions

Setting Up VNC (can skip this step if you log in to Oscar directly)

• Download and install the CCV VNC client from this link.

• Make sure that you are logging into the server desktop.ccv.brown.edu.

• Log in with your CCV credentials.

  • You may get a screen saying something like "Starting up CCV VNC session" -- this is normal. Just wait for the popup option to appear.

  • Once it does, it's important that you get a machine with a GPU so make sure to select the option that says "( 3 Cores - 15 GB Memory 2 GPU) ."

  • You may need to cancel and retry this a few times -- often times, a node might not be available to connect to right away. This is normal.

• Once this is finished, you should get a window that looks like the one below.

Initializing Remote UI

• Open a terminal window (Terminal, Konsole, etc. should all work.)

• In order to load Paraview, you will need certain modules loaded. If you have not changed any of the default behavior, it may work automatically, but I personally needed to load various modules by troubleshooting. I will try to compile a list of the required dependencies soon.

• At a minimum, you'll need to run the terminal command module load paraview/5.6.0_yurt. It seems like this is the only working version in Yurt right now.

  • A message should pop up in the terminal, reading "run module load mpi/cave_mvapich2_2.3rc2_gcc before launching Paraview." 

• As you might expect, run this terminal command: module load mpi/cave_mvapich2_2.3rc2_gcc.

• Now that you have have all the dependencies, run the command paraview_yurt_ui.

  • There may be some issues at this step. Most of the compiler warnings should not matter (from my experience). However, any errors, especially those that indicate invalid versions of dependencies, will cause problems.  If so, the required modules may or may not be available. I will add and update a list here of what to do.

  • This process may take a few minutes -- be patient.

• If successful, you should see a window pop up that looks like the one below.

Connecting to the Yurt and Running Visualizations

• At this point, you should have an instance of the Paraview Yurt UI open on your machine.

• Note: Do not attempt to open anything at this stage. 

  • When you connect to the Yurt server, the Paraview scene will reset, and you will lose any processing you have done to your data.

• In the UI, go to the top left menu bar and click File → Connect.

• If there is already a connection named cave001, click on that. Otherwise, click on 'Add Server.'

  • Name the connection 'cave001.'

  • Select the server type to be 'Client/Server.'

  • Add the port number as '11112'

  • Put the host as 'cave001'.

• Click enter. Go to the next screen, and select the startup type to be 'Command.' Paste the following command into the resulting text field:  /gpfs/runtime/opt/paraview/5.6.0_yurt/bin/run_pserver .

• Click 'Save,' and then click on your new connection and click 'Connect.'

• The Yurt should project a white background or something similar, indicating that it is projecting the Paraview scene.

• You can now load, manage, and visualize data like in the normal desktop version of Paraview. 

Head Tracking

• Much of the data viewable in Paraview VR is made that much more exciting by enabling Head Tracking.

• In order to use head tracking, the Yurt VRPN server must be running and connected to the head tracked stereo glasses. 

• To enable head tracking in the Yurt:

  • Click on the Restore VR State button in the bottom left corner of the Paraview UI.

  • Navigate to /gpfs/runtime/opt/paraview/5.6.0_yurt/bin. Select yurt_vrplugin.pvvr.

  • Click the Start button in the botton left corner.

    • You should get terminal messages relating to the output of the VRPN server. Within a few seconds, head tracking should be enabled!

PAGE TODO: Add more pictures. Document in more depth issues that come up.