[X] My Assistant

[Guest_Magnus Lundstedt_*]

I am toying around with some raw image data from MGS in the form of pds files. (EDIT: MOLA instrument images). I have downloaded the data from here:

http://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/mgs/megdr.html

Each image consists of a pair of files: ".img" and ".lbl". The img-file contains the data and the lbl file contains metadata. In this metadata file it says that the sample size is 16 bits. But in the program NASAView, which one uses to generate images from pds files, I have only managed to create 8 bit images.

Is it possible to create images with the full 16 bit data with NASAView? Or should I use some other program? Or do I have to write it myself?

Thanks for any suggestions!

/Magnus (magnus @ #space)

[djellison]

That's exactly what I'm planing I did a spreadsheet comparing total system cost to render speed (basically frames per hour per pound purchase prices) for various options. I've always had this belief that the best cpu in performance/£ isn't always the best component because it's only a part of the whole system...and indeed and for £300 I can do exactly the sort of rig you suggest - little asus barebone boxes, Q6600's, 2gb and a small SATA drive. I'm looking at the various asus boxes carefully as I used Win XP 64 and would like the same OS on the nodes for rendering consistency - and if possible, I'd like to do what I've done on my desktop rig which is overclock the 2.4 gig Q6600 to 3 gig - 25% extra free, and it's been 100% stable on my desktop rig

I literally, set the fsb from 266 to 300 by accident when I built it, so it was at 2.7 all the time before I noticed - and seeing as 3 gig is the fastest quadchip they'll sell you, all be it at 3x the £150 price of the Q6600, I thought it was worth a stab, so I set the FSB to 333 and it's been 100% perfectly stable ever since - even when rendering for 3 days straight over Christmas. 3ds Max is the only thing I can give it to 'fill' all four cores

However - I don't really need a farm just yet - so I'm going to hold off as long as I can, and then maybe sort something out in a few months time. For £1k today, I could have 12 cores - and technically quadrouple the rendering performance of the shed.

I'm also looking at ISIS again on my Macbook. Last time around I gave up before I even got any app working. Last night I got vicar2isis working for HRSC dem's - but in trying to shortcut the data rsync, I'd missed some template it needed so I've got a day of that to get thru yet before I can try that, and I'll try MOLA thru it as well.

Doug