Boston University Modeling System (MS) Basics
Description
The Boston University Modeling System (MS) is a library of routines callable
from C programs. Calling programs describe and manipulate 3D objects, cameras
and input devices. Images can be rendered into virtual frame buffers or to
displays (including X Windows and SGI). MS provides a general modeling and
transformation capability, as well as a set of pre-defined primitives
including polygons, patches, spheres, cones, cylinders and parabaloids.
Objects and scenes are built heirarchically; the programmer has access to the
database describing them. Objects may be rendered in software as hulls,
wireframes, scan converted or ray traced, or they can be rendered using
the workstation hardware. MS was written within
Boston University by members of the
Scientific Computing and Visualization Group. For those who don't wish to write C code, a command line
interface to MS is available: MSTTY.
Highlights: MS is simpler to use than most commercial packages.
Additionally, since it was written here at BU, there is in-house expertise and
local support. MS is not generally available outside of BU.
Availability and Setup
The Boston University Modeling System (MS) and all the applications which
utilize it are available on most Boston University systems
but are not generally available outside of the Boston University community.
C programs that use the MS library must be compiled using the
script ccms and should include the header file
<ms/mstype.h>.
Using the Boston University Modeling System (MS)
Some examples of C programs utilizing the MS 3D modeling package are
provided in the directory /usr/local/examples/ms on SCV machines
Read the README file in that directory for compilation instructions and
a brief statement of what each example program does.
Additional Help/Documentation
All of our hardcopy documentation is available in the Computer Graphics Lab
(Room 203, 111 Cummington Street, lab hours).
This includes the complete MS Reference Manual, Version 3.1 and
MS Applications, which describes various applications written locally
which use MS (including A Quick Reference
Guide, is available via the WWW.
Online, see the ms man page, the
ccms man page, the
Version 3.1 Release Notes and
old news updates on ms and mstty. The
MS v3.1 Announcement gives a brief summary
of MS and various applications which utilize MS.
Many applications utilizing the MS libraries also have their own man pages.
These include
mstty (the command line interface to MS),
motel (a Motif interface to MS),
msvu (for interactive display of an MS geometry file),
surfvu (display a surface from a 2D regular grid),
contour (create isolevel contour curves for MS),
isovu (create and display iso-surfaces from a 3D regular grid),
volvu (display a slice of a 3D regular grid) and
molec (build spherical models using MS)
Document Name: ms
Author/Maintainer: Aaron D. Fuegi (aarondf@bu.edu)
Libraries: /usr/local/include/ms/
Other Files: /usr/local/bin/ccms
Keywords: ms, ccms, modeling, system, mstty, animation
Machines List: CGL Cluster, Bears Cluster, ursa-major, conx, lobster, squid, ACS Cluster
Related Man Pages: ms, ccms, mstty, motel, msvu, surfvu, contour, isovu, volvu, molec
Related SCV Help Pages: mstty
Created June 23, 1995; Last Revised July 7, 1995; Last Modified
URL of this document: http://scv.bu.edu/SCV/Graphics/ms.html
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