VOX and Virvo
Contents |
Overview
"VOX" is an acronym for VOlume eXplorer, and it describes the volume rendering frameworks for the desktop (DeskVOX) and CAVE-like virtual environments (CaveVOX). VOX uses the volume rendering library Virvo. "Virvo" is an acronym for VIrtual Reality VOlume Rendering.
The goal of the VOX and Virvo projects is to provide interactive direct volume rendering on desktop computers and in virtual environments. VOX and Virvo have been developed in the Cave at Brown University, and in the CUBE in the Virtual Environments Lab at the High Performance Computing Center of the University of Stuttgart.
You can view a screen shot of DeskVOX or read a more [description.htm detailed description], or you can download an MPEG movie (28 MB) of the Virvo virtual reality viewer as it is used in the CUBE. There is also a video of the VR transfer function editor, which is related to the IPTW/EGVE publication. The following movie formats are available for download: 22MB MPEG-1, 15MB AVI, 6 MB MPEG-4.
A video from the Brown Cave can be found here (MPEG4 w/audio, 20MB).
How to Download
DeskVOX is open source software available for Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems. The source code can be downloaded from the Deskvox page at Sourceforge. Its GUI uses the FOX Toolkit API. The Windows version auto-installs thanks to NSIS.
In order to download the source code from the version control system (SVN) you need to do the following from a Cygwin or Unix command line:
svn co https://deskvox.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/deskvox/trunk deskvox
CaveVOX is based on Brown's in-house Cave framework and cannot be downloaded here. Permission to use CaveVOX may be granted on a case-by-case basis; please contact the author.
Here you can download the latest releases of DeskVOX:
| Version | Windows | Linux | Apple | Info | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 |
2012-02-21 | ||||
| 2.01b |
2006-04-22 | ||||
| 2.01b | 2005-05-13 | ||||
| 2.00b | 2005-01-05 |
Here's a tip for the Windows version of DeskVOX: Volume files can be passed to the program by drag-and-drop on the program icon. Or, for even greater convenience, you can create an entry in the Explorer's View/Options/FileType list, so that you can display volume files with a double-click on the file.
Sample Volume Files
Here are a few example volume files (1.4 MB) to start with.
You will find more on the Tübingen Volume Visualization page: either rename the files from '.raw' to '.dat' and use VConv to convert them to Virvo files, or you can dowload them in Virvo format here:
aneurism.zip (309 KB), bonsai.zip (3296 KB), engine.zip (3138 KB), foot.zip (4413 KB), fuel.zip (6 KB), hydrogen-atom.zip (98 KB), lobster.zip (1923 KB), marschnerlobb.zip (36 KB), neghip.zip (78 KB), nucleon.zip (18 KB), shockwave.zip (70 KB), silicium.zip (35 KB), skull.zip (9917 KB), statue-leg.zip (1750 KB).
Movie Scripts
To write a script and create images which can later be merged to a movie clip, here are [moviescripts.zip two example Virvo movie script files (.vms) (1 KB)]:
- fullrot180.vms rotates the data set by 360 degrees in 180 time steps.
- timesteps.vms switches through 8 time steps of a volume animation.
License
This software is Copyright 2011-2012 The Regents of the University of California. All Rights Reserved.
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for educational, research and non-profit purposes, without fee, and without a written agreement is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice, this paragraph and the following three paragraphs appear in all copies.
This software program and documentation are copyrighted by The Regents of the University of California. The software program and documentation are supplied "as is", without any accompanying services from The Regents. The Regents does not warrant that the operation of the program will be uninterrupted or error-free. The end-user understands that the program was developed for research purposes and is advised not to rely exclusively on the program for any reason.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND ITS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE SOFTWARE PROVIDED HEREUNDER IS ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, AND THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS NO OBLIGATIONS TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS.
