Vision Egg Visual stimulus creation and control
with open source software

Introduction

Home Introduction & News
News
Screenshots Views of the demos
Technologies About Python and OpenGL
Platforms Hardware compatibility
Frame rates Frame rates explained
Synchronization Interfacing with other hardware
Calibration Calibrating displays

Documentation

Programmer's Manual Concept overview
Tutorial Simple demo programs explained
Library Reference
FAQ Frequently asked questions

Download and Install

Downloads Get it now!
Installation overview A quick installation summary
Windows Install Step-by-step
Mac OS X Install Step-by-step
Linux install Step-by-step
SGI IRIX install Step-by-step

Miscellaneous

Mailing list Stay up to date
Eye tracking
Labview GUI/Data acquisition interface
The future Potential upcoming changes to be aware of
Develop! How to help the Vision Egg
Other solutions Links to similar stuff
Thanks Credits
VisionEgg @ SourceForge

SGI IRIX install: Step-by-step

Installing the Vision Egg for SGI IRIX is similar to installing for linux. This document will covers mainly the differences from the linux installation process. I have installed the Vision Egg on IRIX64 6.5 using SGI's cc compiler.

Many of the tools used in the development of the Vision Egg are included on SGI's freeware distribution, so you might want to have that handy. (Despite SGI's choice, ''freeware'' is not the best term for open source software. ''Open source software'' has a couple more syllables, but is probably preferred by the authors of open source software, including the Vision Egg!) This method makes extensive use of SGI's Software Manager to install as much of the basic software as possible. Undoubtedly, because all of this software is open source, you could compile it yourself, as well.

Installing Python

Python compiles without trouble from the source, but I've had troubles getting the Tkinter module compiled. Therefore, I've been using precompiled Python from SGI's ''freeware'' distribution.

Installing Python Imaging Library (PIL)

I've had the following the error when building PIL:

The source file "tk.h" is unavailable.
1 catastrophic error detected in the compilation of "././_imagingtk.c".

I've just edited the file ''Setup'' and commented out the lines involving _imagingtk.

After building, my installation was:

cp PIL.pth /usr/freeware/lib/python2.1/site-packages/
mkdir /usr/freeware/lib/python2.1/site-packages/PIL
cp *.so PIL/* /usr/freeware/lib/python2.1/site-packages/PIL

Installing PyOpenGL

I built from the PyOpenGL2 cvs repository checked out on 5 June 2002.

I changed the following lines in config/irix.cfg:

[General]
build_togl=0
include_dirs=/usr/include:/usr/include/X11:/usr/freeware/include

[GLUT]
libs=Xi:Xmu

I had to regenerate (using swig1.3a5, which built just fine from source) the C interface files using ''python setup.py build_w''. From there, it was ''python setup.py build'' and then, as root ''python setup.py install''. After I wrote this document, I noticed that GLUT was not working, but I have not had a chance to go back and fix it. I believe the solution is simply to point PyOpenGL to libGLUT in the irix.cfg file and re-build.

Installing SDL

I installed from the ''freeware'' distribution. Make sure you install the subpackage ''SDL-1.2.3 full shared libraries'' from the package ''SDL-1.2.3 Simple DirectMedia Library''.

Installing pygame

Once I had SDL installed as above, installing pygame 1.5 was easy. The only quirk is to point pygame at SGI's default installation directory. Set your environment variable LOCALBASE to ''/usr/freeware''.

Installing the Vision Egg

This is a snap. Get the Vision Egg, decompress, move to that directory, and run ''python setup.py install''. You probably need to have root access.

Check your installation with the ''check-config.py'' program. Also run this script if you run into any installation errors.


Please direct enquires to the Vision Egg mailing list.
The primary author of the Vision Egg is Andrew Straw
This page last modified 27 Jun 2004.
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