Student Abstracts: Computer Science at PPPL

Parallel MPEG Playback Using a Scalable Display Wall System. CRAIG GRUBE (Purdue University, West Lafayette, In 47906) DR. SCOTT KLASKY (Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ 08543) .
The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory High Resolution Display Wall project utilizes commodity components to create an immersive, high quality large-format display that is competitive with custom-designed, high cost graphics machines. Currently, the display is comprised of a 3 x 3 array of LCD projectors which project onto a 8' x 15' rear-projection screen. The display wall can be controlled by a cluster of nine machines running Linux, or by one machine with three quad-headed graphics cards running Windows NT 4.0. Prior to the development of a parallel MPEG player, all videos were played on the single machine. Unfortunately, due to limitations with the bandwidth on the 32-bit PCI bus, videos often cannot be played back at their full frame rates. With synchronizing playback in the nine machine cluster, videos may be played on the display at their full frame rates.

Simulating Reality Using OpenGL. MICHAEL PAGLIOROLA (Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08854) SCOTT KLASKY (Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ 08543) .
As part of the visualization department of the Computational Plasma Physics Group of Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, working under Scott Klasky, Ph. D. my task was to create a virtual walkthrough of the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) for use on the high-resolution display wall. The original idea for this was to create a walkthrough using pure OpenGL computer code and modeling each object in the room in order to make it seem like one is actually in the real test cell room. However, a better solution was found using the Unreal Tournament game engine, which utilizes OpenGL to render its objects. By using the editing software and partial source code that comes packaged with Unreal Tournament an immersive walkthrough is being constructed with greater detail, in less time, and with more elements of the real world.