Dear CAVE Colleagues:                        January 18, 1997

Several CAVE related ASPIRE proposals were recently funded: Joan 
McLain-Kark, Richard Walker, David Tegarden and Ron Kriz. Because 
most of these proposals included the purchase of workstations to 
develop CAVE applications, as the NSF-CAVE PI and ACITC 
Visualization author, I wanted to make a recommendation for CAVE 
compatibility: hardware and software.  Related to the ASPIRES 
proposals is a recent (16-Jan) request from John Fulton (ACITC Czar) 
via Ken Reifsnider, Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Programs and 
Chairman of the CAVE Steering Committee, requesting an equipment 
list from ACITC authors. 

Although formation of an ACITC visualization workstation lab in 
support of the CAVE is about two years away (1999), it is never to 
soon to plan for what we want as a VT-CAVE community.  Since NCSA 
is our CAVE partner, some, but not all, of our systems will need to 
be NCSA CAVE compatible. We should not buy laboratory equipment now; 
rather, VT should support your remote sites first.  I believe that 
success at remote sites is the first priority and VT should wait to 
buy more current workstations when the ACITC building is finished. 
For planning purposes in 1999 we need your input ... 

     PLEASE SEND US YOUR THOUGHTS ON ACITC CAVE EQUIPMENT:
     Hardware, software, and other CAVE related purchases.

               DEADLINE:  Friday, January 31

I will post the results and final request on the CAVE homepage at

      http://www.sv.vt.edu/future/vt-cave/VT/acitc.html

____________________________________________________________________

   RECOMMENDATIONS: TRAINING & PERSONNEL and HARDWARE & SOFTWARE 
____________________________________________________________________

TRAINING & PERSONNEL:

As the NSF-CAVE PI and Visualization ACITC author, along with 
Chema de la Garza, I have studied NCSA's CAVE successes, and 
I've concluded that their success was largely based on creating 
the CAVE-simulator so that the various remote sites, both on- and 
off-campus, could develop CAVE applications on their desks and in 
their remote site laboratories.  Hence, I am pleased to see this 
same result implemented here at VT campus with ASPIRES funding.  
I believe the next step, other than getting the CAVE up and running 
by June 1, is to find CAVE personnel who will help you at your 
remote sites be successful in your particular applications.  This 
person will be an expert in CAVE programming and would also teach 
CAVE classes to get all of us started.  Because NCSA is our CAVE 
partner they have also offered to train some VT-faculty at NCSA's 
Visual Supercomputing Institute (VSI). The next VSI training will 
be in June.  The exact date will be posted at  

                http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Edu/VSI/ .

Therefore, our most immediate need is to find a person who will get
the CAVE up and running, help configure your remote workstations to
be CAVE compatible, solve your CAVE programming problems and teach
CAVE classes.  I believe one person can do all this and also provide
Immersadesk support for the existing Visualization Lab and classroom.  
The existing visualization lab and classroom can provide temporary 
support for instruction until the ACITC facility is completed (1999), 
at which time we should buy more current workstations.

     IF YOU AGREE OR DISAGREE PLEASE SEND ME YOUR COMMENTS.
     I WILL POST ALL OF YOUR COMMENTS ON THE CAVE WEB PAGE.


HARDWARE & SOFTWARE:

Yesterday I called Bill Sherman and John Shalf at NCSA and asked 
their opinion on what we should recommend to faculty at Virginia 
Tech.  Bill and John are CAVE instructors as well as CAVE system 
administrators for the last three years.  They recommend:
__________
  Hardware:  http://www.sgi.com/Products/

  Only SGI workstations will run the CAVE libraries and simulator.
  However, for example, in Joan McLain-Kark's Interior Design Lab
  it is possible to develop AutoCAD and 3D-Studio files on nonSGI
  workstations and convert these files to run in the CAVE.  I think 
  Joan also plans to have at least one SGI workstation so that she 
  can run applications in the CAVE simulator before she goes over 
  to the CAVE.  

  Low config: SGI O2, 128M RAM, R5000 CPU, 9G DISK, Stereo glasses.

  High config: SGI High Impact (or wait a couple of months for 
               SGI's "Octane"), R10000 CPU, CD-ROM, DAT-TAPE,
               512M RAM, 12G DISK, Stereo glasses.

  Contact Lee Stocks at lstocks@copland.richmond.sgi.com for quotes.
__________
  Software:  http://www.sgi.com/silicon_campus/varsity.html
             http://www.sgi.com/Products/Evaluation/evaluation.html

  Most of the software you will need, CaseVision (Developers Magic),
  COSMO-3D (Performer), OpenGL, and a C-compiler, is part of the 
  existing VT-Varsity program where information is posted at

          http://mother.cc.vt.edu/kathyw/sgi.products.html .  

  Information about third party visualization software such as Sense8,  
  AVS, WaveFront|Alias, Paradigm-Vega, Sense8, etc. is posted on the 
  CAVE web home-page at 

        http://www.sv.vt.edu/future/cave/software/software.html .
____________________________________________________________________

                       END OF RECOMMENDATION
____________________________________________________________________

Regards,
Ron Kriz
====================================================================
| Ronald D. Kriz                |  E-mail   : kriz@wave.esm.vt.edu |
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