In addition to Chris' suggestions, make sure that you do have requested as
much memory (or memory+swap) that you can because of all of the geometry
being generated. If you don't have anything else that you need to run,
then do dx -memory 2048 (assuming you have 2 GB of swap). Also, I have
found that optimizing memory usage in the net and the net's organization
can have a big impact.
The rate control will change the play back rate but the throttling is after
other variables are considered (machine speed, organization and size of
your net for the exec to plow through, video/Xserver speed, OpenGL speed if
you are using h/w rendering, how close you are to filling the large arena
[is everything in cache], etc.)
BTW, Chris, I've used DX outside of my office for eons. But I admit that
problems like you describe occur more often with Windows. Under AIX and
Linux, the other platforms I use, this
There are some commercial tools for movie/video making on Intel/Linux
because it's becoming a popular platforms for animation applications. On
the free side, ImageMagick will do, but animate runs into memory and X
server limitations with long, large sequences, even with the newer releases
supporting disk cache. Xanim is another tool, but with less flexibility on
handling image formats, except is supports some QT formats. If you don't
mind the speed playing from disk, consider using xv.
Chris Pelkie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>@opendx.watson.ibm.com on 01/16/2003
07:35:23 AM
Please respond to [email protected]
Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [email protected]
cc:
Subject: Re: [opendx-users] 2 problems: Server crashes & throttle
settings
a. Glyphs create a bunch of new geometry, so they suck memory down
pretty quickly. You could try setting individual modules at and below
Glyph to "Cache:None", or try a simpler glyph (cube instead of sphere,
for example). I suspect most or all of your errors are the server
running into the wall on memory. DX dies rather ungracefully. Might
almost be better to get a handle on how much you can do, then do an
intentional Disconnect from Server, reconnect, about the time memory is
getting thin. This doesn't help much in the middle of a long time
series, though, so...
b. I would never ever think to use DX live except in the safety of my
own office. Course I've been a happy Mac user since 1984, so I've had
the advantage of Quicktime since about 1992. I would generate movies
frame by frame (forget the frame rate baloney in DX: you have no real
control over it), then drag and drop each folder of frames (logically
named to retain order, naturally) onto an empty QT Pro movie. This
makes a movie. As in, you're done. Save it, then when playing it, set
QT Pro to "Play All Frames". This will ensure that no frames get
skipped as the computer tries to play back; this method gives no
particular control over frame rate, but what do you care? You're seeing
all the frames which is what matters. You have the advantage of being
to use arrow keys to step forward and back, drag instantly to any place
on the timeline, etc., thus making really nice and quite interactive
demonstrations. It's trivial to add titles, superimposed subtitles, and
audio if needed. Naturally you can't foresee all possible audience
questions, but you can probably cover most of the bases this way. Then
if needed, fire up DX to answer the remaining obscure questions. QT Pro
is still only $30 from Apple, for Mac and Windows. I don't suppose
they've ever ported it to Linux, sad to say (and not sure why).
Sorry, I don't use Linux so I haven't kept up with equivalent movie
making tools, but I assume there's something similar. You should be
able to make ImageMagick movies and play them with 'animate', yes? It
didn't have all the same controls last time I tried it which was some
time ago, but better than a sharp stick in the eye.
On Wednesday, January 15, 2003, at 09:19 PM, Brent Wood wrote:
>
> I have a DX application showing 12 yrs of commercial fisheries catch
> data.
> (about 100,000 records)
>
> It shows glyphs for each catch with color/size set interactively to
> show
> catch size, vessel type, nationality, bycatch, time of day, etc.
>
>
> A single session may involve 5000 images being presented, but I can
> seldom
> get more than 100 without an error like:
>
> Exective:0: invalid data: Object deleted too often! (or not an object)
> or
> Invalid data: Deleting object of unknown class
> or
> Invalid camera angle <tho note that the camera is fixed for the
> sequence>
> or
> Bad parameter. Resolution must be a positive integer
>
>
> The fix is to stop/start the server & it runs OK until the next crash.
>
> I have 1Gb of memory installed in a P4 2400Mhz, running Mandrake Linux
> v9.0 DX is started with memory limited to 900Mb, the crashes appear
> almost
> certain when > 800Mb is used, but can happen with 600Mb used.
>
> I have used simple glyphs & turned Image caching off to reduce memory
> useage.
>
> Any suggestions as to how to make DX more robust for presentations of
> the data visualisation appreciated.
>
>
>
> The second problem pertains to the throttle settings.
>
> My system can show a year's data in about 20 seconds. I'd like to have
> it controllable to about 2-5 frames per second, but the throttle
> setting
> for the image (either by the config dialogue for the Image module or
> the
> window dialog) seems to have a mixed effect.
>
> At a value of two, it shows roughly one frame per second. At a value of
> one it shows between (estimated) 3 and 9 f/s, the speed seems to vary
> at
> different times, poss due to other processes kicking in, (but I can't
> find any such processes).
>
> Is there a way I can control the frame rate accurately & reliably
> (like I
> expected the throttle setting to do)?
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> Brent Wood
>
>
>
>
Chris Pelkie
Vice President
Conceptual Reality Presentations, Inc.
30 West Meadow Drive
Ithaca, NY 14850
