A System for Making Video Movies from Results of Numerical Simulations on a Supercomputer

一般来说，物理世界中的现象是非线性的、不对称的和动态的；它们服从偏微分方程。为了求解这些方程并理解其本质，我们应该简化方程。最近计算机性能的进步使我们能够考虑复杂的问题。然而，当我们用数值方法解决动力学问题时，将会获得大量的数据。为了处理数据，用计算机图形显示或科学可视化是非常有用的。此外，需要将动态现象显示为电影，甚至制作计算机程序以及分析数值结果也是有用的。因此，我们开发了一种根据超级计算机上的计算机模拟结果制作视频电影的系统。渲染程序在图形工作站上开发，并由其控制录像机等记录设备，以便于程序移植。我们集中考虑天体物理问题的数值模拟，开发了显示三维结构以及二维横截面密度分布的程序。我们还制作了在录像带或激光视盘上逐帧记录图形图像的程序。

Phenomena in the physical world are, in general, non-linear, asymmetric and dynamical; they obey partially differential equations. In order to solve these equations and understand the nature, we should have simplfied the equations.Recently the advancement of computer performance has enabled us to consider complicated problems. However, when we solve dynamical problem numerically, a lot of data will be obtained. In order to deal with the data, display with a computer graphics, or scientific visualization, is very useful. Moreover, it is necessary to display as movies for dynamical phenomena, It is useful even to make computer programs as well as to analyze the numerical results.Thus we developed a system for making video movies from results of computer simulations on a supercomputer. Rendering programs are developed on a graphic workstation and recording equipments such as a video tape recorder are controlled by it, in order to make it easy to port the programs.We concentrated our consideration on numerical simulation for problems in astrophysics and developed programs for showing 3 dimensional structure as well as distribution of density on two dimensional crosssections. We made programs for recording the graphical images frame by frame on a video tape or a laser video disk, too.