[Therion] zoomify

[Julian Todd]

John Pybus wrote:
> Nice idea Julian.  What does your system need on the server?  Are you
> making the code available?
>
>   
Yes, if it can be generalized into a utility we can use for this and for 
other purposes that we could embed in our application.  Behind it 
technically is OpenMesa, Python, a little bit of C++ functioning through 
swig to render into the OpenMesa windows, and javascript.  I don't know 
of any other implementation of this idea.  It's a complex system of 
demons and call-backs on the server to keep the 3D model in memory so it 
doesn't get killed after you grab each frame. 


> I wonder if by constraining the angles of rotation/elevation to e.g.
> 10-15 deg steps you could prerender rotated and elevated views to speed
> up rotation (a la Quicktime VR).
>   
We're experimenting with some animation, but it takes lots of memory.  
As I said, the animation isn't so vital in my opinion as a system for 
changing the view to the correct place so you can inspect something 
closely.  That's what this could do very well.  It's a slight weakening 
of the standard 3D visualization concept which merits consideration. 


Julian T.