[Paraview] stereo menu was ignored?

[Evan Bollig]

I dont agree. Opening in Stereo mode is safe even if it is not used
(it consumes a small amount of memory, but so what). Everything is 2D
if no GL commands render to back left/right buffers (i.e., the GL_BACK
buffer is always available). If you need to verify that the hardware
supports GL_STEREO, use glGetBoolean*() (or glGetInteger*() with
GL_AUX_BUFFERS to know if quad buffers are available) and initialize
GL_STEREO only on machines that can support it.

Why would you want the user to restart paraview if maybe they dont
know their hardware and they arent sure which stereo mode to use?  No!
Give them a menu option and keep them inside your software. Keep in
mind that if I and many others like me have to stop a program, modify
command line options and restart the application to get the right
environment, the whole process should take less than 10 seconds and it
must be FULLY documented or I give up and find an application that
does it better (more intuitive) with less pain.

More reason for a stereo menu: how do you propose control of
properties like Eye Separation?  Clearly the users wont know what
parameter to use until the software is running. Dont make them restart
50 times until they get the parameter just right. Thats absurd!

Another problem: say Im in CrystalEyes mode and I want to export a
movie. There are plenty of stereoscopic display solutions available
today. 3D computer screens, 3D movies, 3D TVs, 3D television channels.
Why cant ParaView export to stereoscopic movie formats (JPS/MPO AVI
format perhaps)? On top of that, if Im in CrystalEyes and I know the
stereo looks good, why cant I export a Stereoscopic movie AND an
anaglyph movie AND a 2D movie so my results can be viewed by audiences
with any capability?

I just started playing with ParaViewGeo's SlideShow capabilities. Did
you know the slides also show in stereo? We're talking full 3D
stereoscopic presentations of scientific results *without* swapping
applications. Why havent you guys looked into integrating all of this?

-Evan



On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 2:53 PM, Utkarsh Ayachit
<utkarsh.ayachit at kitware.com> wrote:
> ParaView CVS (and 3.8 onwards ) has a command line option
> --stereo-type which allows you to choose the stereo type. It's not
> really safe to change the stereo type after ParaView has been started
> (rather views have been created) since for things like Crystal Eyes,
> the option must be enabled before the rendering context is created.
> Hence, we've made it a command line option.
>
> Utkarsh
>
> On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 2:50 PM, Evan Bollig <bollig at gmail.com> wrote:
>> What does that mean regarding the plugin. Does a plugin exist already
>> or will it need to be written?
>>
>> -Evan
>>
>> On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 2:07 PM, Robert Maynard <RobertJMaynard at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I meant to say 3.4 and 3.6 instead of 2.4 and 2.6.
>>>
>>> On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 2:02 PM, Robert Maynard <RobertJMaynard at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> The patch that I have submitted was for 2.4 code base, with 2.6 all that
>>>> is needed is a custom toolbar plugin that calls setStereoType on the
>>>> currently active view.
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 1:45 PM, Evan Bollig <bollig at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I see that ParaViewGeo has a stereo menu to allow users to select
>>>>> CrystalEyes / Anaglyph stereo modes while paraview is running (NOTE:
>>>>> without requiring a --stereo flag on the command line). It seems that
>>>>> one developer: Robert Maynard created the stereo menu and sent the
>>>>> source code (Stereo.zip) to the ITK mailing list on 9/29/2008. From
>>>>> what I can tell this message was ignored and no one attempted to
>>>>> integrate the menu into any other applications related to
>>>>> Paraview/ITK.
>>>>>
>>>>> Why?
>>>>>
>>>>> It seems obvious that this is something users need and want. We will
>>>>> be using ParaViewGeo instead of ParaView until something like this is
>>>>> added.
>>>>>
>>>>> -Evan Bollig
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> -Evan Bollig
>>>>> bollig at gmail.com
>>>>> bollig at scs.fsu.edu
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Powered by www.kitware.com
>>>>>
>>>>> Visit other Kitware open-source projects at
>>>>> http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html
>>>>>
>>>>> Please keep messages on-topic and check the ParaView Wiki at:
>>>>> http://paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView
>>>>>
>>>>> Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe:
>>>>> http://www.paraview.org/mailman/listinfo/paraview
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> -Evan Bollig
>> bollig at gmail.com
>> bollig at scs.fsu.edu
>> _______________________________________________
>> Powered by www.kitware.com
>>
>> Visit other Kitware open-source projects at http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html
>>
>> Please keep messages on-topic and check the ParaView Wiki at: http://paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView
>>
>> Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe:
>> http://www.paraview.org/mailman/listinfo/paraview
>>
>



-- 
-Evan Bollig
bollig at gmail.com
bollig at scs.fsu.edu