[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index]

Re: GLExplorer, MathLive, Dynamic Visualization

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg30194] Re: GLExplorer, MathLive, Dynamic Visualization
• From: Jens-Peer Kuska <kuska at informatik.uni-leipzig.de>
• Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2001 03:15:50 -0400 (EDT)
• Organization: Universitaet Leipzig
• References: <9k88m2$532$1@smc.vnet.net>
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Hi,

1) I asked 3d etc what happens with GLExplorer and never got an answer.
   But I expect that with the RealTime3D` package the most of the 
   functionality of GLExplorer is obsolente. The nice OpenGL interface
   is only used by a minor number of users.
   The good news is that MathGL3d (that is much better than GLExplorer)
   will be ported to MacOS X. 
   I will announce the beta-test for
   MathGL3d 3.1 on MacOS X as soon as I have a running system. 
   You may look at

   http://phong.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/~kuska/mathgl3dv3/index.htm

   for more information on MathGL3d.
   In contrast to the GLExplorer MathGL3d is a full featured high end
   visualization system. It is much easyer to use it's texture mapping 
   than with OpenGL direct.
3) MathLive is the older program and was distributed for
   Mathematica 2.x. Dynamic Visualizer is for Mathematica 3.0 and
   later.
4) Dynamic Visualizer  has it's own render engine, and don't use
   OpenGL especial it is *not* hardware accelerated

Regards
  Jens

Matt Reed wrote:
> 
> I use GLExplorer extensively from Mathematica 4.0 on Mac OS9 to render
> polygonal models.  GLExplorer, as the name suggests, uses
> hardware-accelerated OpenGL to get great rendering performance, with
> all of the OpenGL API available (fog, Gouraud shading, texture maps,
> etc). It's accessed easily from within Mathematica via MathLink.  I'm
> currently migrating to Mac OSX, and considering my options for 3D
> graphics rendering from Mathematica.
> 
> 1) Does anyone know what happened to GLExplorer?  The 3detc.com
> (formerly Conix3D) web site says "we no longer sell" it, and I
> couldn't find a mention of it on wri.com.
> 
> 2) Does anyone have experience with both GLExplorer and MathLive on
> the Macintosh?  Care to compare?
> 
> 3) What's the difference between the Dynamic Visualization application
> from WRI and MathLive?  They appear to be from the same developer
> (MiloHedge.com).
> 
> 4) When was Dynamic Visualization last updated?  Does it use OpenGL?
> 
> I'd appreciate any info or informed prognostications about the
> opportunities for working with 3D graphics in Mac OSX.  I'd also be
> interested in hearing about other 3D visualization solutions connected
> to Mathematica that people have had positive experiences with on other
> platforms.  What about Java3D via JLink?