Thanks for the help so far everyone. But I also did get a chuckle from the
"double click the Radiance icon" comment from Rob G. 
So I think I successfully installed Radiance, because the tools seem to be
responding, however I can't get very far into the tutorial
<http://radsite.lbl.gov/radiance/refer/tutorial.html>
I created a text file with the exact parameters from the tutorial, but named
room2.rad (room.rad I messed up by opening it twice and editing while it was
still open elsewhere)
This is what I typed, and received from within Terminal:
nick@nick-desktop:~$ oconv room2.rad > test2.oct
nick@nick-desktop:~$ getinfo test2.oct
test2.oct:
聽聽聽聽#?RADIANCE
聽聽聽聽oconv room2.rad
聽聽聽聽FORMAT=Radiance_octree
nick@nick-desktop:~$ rview -vp 2.25 .375 1 -vd -.25 .125 -.125 -av .5 .5 .5
test2.oct
VIM - Vi IMproved 7.1 (2007 May 12, compiled Jan 31 2008 11:53:56)
Unknown option argument: "-.125"
More info with: "vim -h"
nick@nick-desktop:~$ rview -vp 2.25 .375 1 -vd -.25 .125 -av .5 .5 .5
test2.oct
VIM - Vi IMproved 7.1 (2007 May 12, compiled Jan 31 2008 11:53:56)
Unknown option argument: "-av"
More info with: "vim -h"
nick@nick-desktop:~$
It seems as though when I use rview, the 8th parameter (-.125 the first time
I tried it, then for experiment's sake I took -.125 out, and then it said
"-av" was unknown) produces an error.
At your suggestion, I tried "rpict" with the same parameters as the "rview"
above from the tutorial, and Terminal spits back hundreds of lines of
unrecognizable characters to me. For example, this was the first line:
每 脺 每 脤 聦脥聙每 脺 每 脤
4鲁鲁鲁露脜脥脫芒猫卯梅媒聛聞聡聣聦聫'聲聴聶聹聻
垄陇娄(c)陋卢(R)炉卤鲁麓露路赂潞禄录陆戮驴脕脗脗脙脛脛脜聞脝聣脟脝脜脜脛脙脙脗脌驴戮陆录鹿路碌鲁炉卢(c)楼垄聺聴聬没每
脺 每 脤
4鲁鲁鲁露脜脥脫芒猫卯梅媒聛聞聡聣聦聫'聲聴聶聹聻
垄陇娄(c)陋卢(R)炉卤鲁麓露路赂潞禄录陆戮驴脕脗脗脙脛脛脜聞脝聣脟脝脜脜脛脙脙脗脌驴戮陆录鹿路碌鲁炉卢(c)楼垄聺聴聬没每
脺 每 脤
And still, no image of a ball, "You should start to see an image of a red
ball forming on your screen."
What step am I missing or not doing, that's not in the tutorial?
Thanks (again) in advance for the help.
-Nick Calcagni
路路路
Here's a bit of copy+past from a recent message (regular readers
might have a deja-vu experience here):First you have to get an idea about what Radiance is. I'd recommend
to read and follow the documents linked on this page:聽聽聽聽聽聽聽http://luminance.londonmet.ac.uk/learnix/docs.shtml
This should give you a good understanding of the basic interaction
between
the Radiance tools. Further you can download a lot of e-papers from聽聽聽聽聽聽聽http://radsite.lbl.gov/radiance/framer.html
Some of these documents are a bit dated but the principles have not
changed.That should keep you busy for a while.
Further notes on Ubuntu/Linux:
If you're new to Linux/Unix you have to become familiar with the command
line and a friendly text editor of your choice. There're a lot of
books available
that will make you an Unix guru in 7 days for $9.95. Just pick one.On Ubuntu (or Debian etc) you should check /usr/share/doc/radiance
or where ever the distribution stores the docs. In particular search for
the notes about renaming of applications (genbox -> genrbox in
particular)
or you won't have much fun with the old tutorials. Radiance comes with
a bunch of PDFs and text files which are worth reading.Then read the man pages for the most interesting apps:
rad, rpict, rtrace, oconv, ximage, rvu. They contain examples of
their use
and all together should give you an idea about how things are supposed
to work.Regards,
Thomas