Immersive Visualization and Collaboration with LS-PrePost-VR and LS-PrePost-Remote

This paper describes two new branches of LS-PrePost that are designed to work together to extend LS-PrePost with immersive visualization and collaboration capabilities. LS-PrePost-VR supports immersive visualization on a wide range of immersive displays, including CAVE-like devices, large-screen displays, and head-mounted displays. The software can run on either a single computer, a visualization cluster, or an SMP machine. By itself, LS-PrePost-VR supports command-line reading of supported file types as well as playback of command files generated by desktop versions of LS-PrePost. A VR input device provides an intuitive interface that includes animation control, an interactive clipping plane, and selection capability. LS-PrePost-Remote is a client application that connects to the LS-PrePost-VR application and allows input to the application through the traditional LS-PrePost GUI. Multiple remote clients can connect to and synchronize with a VR session, allowing collaborative analysis on a corporate intranet. The paper discusses software design and implementation, as well as possible future directions for this software. LS- PrePost-VR and LS-PrePost-Remote are developed and supported by Inv3rsion, a software engineering firm located in Goffstown, New Hampshire.