AirWare Reference Manual: Model Output Animation

AirWare On-line Reference Manual

Release Level 5.4
Release Date 2008 10

Revision Level 1.0

Model Output Animation

Wherever models produce a time series of results (24, 48, 72, or 24*365 hours) these results can be converted to and viewed as an MPG animation, using a Java applet as player.

Creating PNG images and MPG movies from model results matrix data

The utilities mpeg2encode / mpeg2decode are used to convert PNG into MPG. Contains implementation of an ISO/IEC DIS 13818-2 codec and converts uncompressed video frames into MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video coded bitstream sequences and vice versa. The codec is used by 'convert' program for encoding/decoding. mpeg2encode and mpeg2decode binaries are located in /usr/bin/

Databases:

AIRMATRIX.MATRIX_DATA
AIRMATRIX.MATRIX_METADATA

Function:

/var/www/cgi-bin/matrixmpg.cgi

Usage: matrixmpg.cgi [-?] [-f|--db-config STRING] [-i|--matrix-id INT] [-?|--help] [--usage]

input options: matrixID and db config file
reads matrix MetaData for given matrixID
sets image options (WIDTH, HEIGHT, BACKGROUND MAP,...)
uses MatrixImageCreator() functions to create png images (source directory mp2:/d0/acatk/libsrc/libmetamatrix/)
creates png images for all matrix layers and timesteps
uses background map saved as PNG images named mapserver$IMAGEMAP in

/var/www/html/templates/metamatrix/data

converts png images into mpg animation using 'convert' program
saves png files into PNG_OUT_DIR defined in MM5.MM5_scenario (/var/www/html/templates/mm5/img)
saves mpg files into MPG_OUT_DIR defined in MM5.MM5_scenario (/var/www/html/templates/animations/mpg)

Utility program:

/usr/bin/convert

converts list of png images sorted by timestep in ascending order into a mpg animation
program belongs to package ImageMagick 5.4.7 web:http://www.imagemagick.org

ANIMATIONS DISPLAY:

html directory: /var/www/html/templates/animations

java applet:

/var/www/html/templates/animations/mpeg_java-3.6

Java class files for the MPEG decoder and player: /var/www/html/templates/mm5/php

The Java applet is installed in a php file for animations display (var/www/html/templates/animations/php/animation_matrix.php)

The parameters that can be controlled within the applet are:

WIDTH of animation,
HEIGHT of animation,

DELAY describes the delay (in ms) between 2 images during animation (default: 50).

Animation control:

oneleft() - one step back
stopanim() - stop
oneright() - one step forward
moreright() - play animation

The movie files are in /var/www/html/templates/animations/mpg/
naming convention: movie.$matrixID.$layer.mpg

The class "MPEG_Play" is the main applet. Its work is divided into 2 phases:

scanning: A "ScanThread" and an "AnimatorThread" work concurrently The "ScanThread" produces a list of frames (images) and informes the "AnimatorThread" if a frame is decoded. The number of the frame (timestep) is displayed under the loaded frame.
display: By means of the method "Element.close_chain()" the list of frames is closed to a ring of frames. After that the frames are displayed. The "ScanThread" dies and the "AnimatorThread" begins to display the frames.