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3.1 Performance

Can I do visualization on a PC? The answer is yes and no!

The reader should consult the section on characterising the investigator's problem. Generally, problems towards the simple end of each characteristic can be solved on a PC or Apple Macintosh and suitable products are listed in section 2.1.

If there is a need for interactive viewing of surfaces, for a data flow system, for large data quantities, or for any visualization technique that is at least moderately advanced, any of these would trigger the need for a Unix workstation. In addition a data flow system (other than Khoros which is primarily for images) typically would need a minimum of 16 MBytes of main memory (preferably 24) and an 8-bit colour system. More bits for the colour system would be needed if advantage were being taken of graphics hardware such as Z-buffer, use of techniques which need a large number of colours, such as lighting or transparency; double buffering, which may result from needing animation.


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