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

物理世界中的现象通常是非线性、非对称和动态的;它们服从偏微分方程。为了解这些方程和理解自然，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，当我们数值求解动力学问题时，会得到大量的数据。为了处理这些数据，用计算机图形显示，或者科学可视化，是非常有用的。此外，有必要显示为动态现象的电影，这是有用的，甚至使计算机程序以及分析的数值结果。因此，我们开发了一个系统，使视频电影从计算机模拟的结果在超级计算机上。在图形工作站上开发了绘制程序，并通过图形工作站控制录像机等记录设备，以便于移植.我们着重考虑天体物理问题的数值模拟，开发了显示三维结构和二维截面密度分布的程序.我们还编写了程序，把图形图像一帧一帧地记录在录像带或激光视盘上。

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.