20020920: ** McIDAS - Color Troubles

>From: James T Brown <address@hidden>
>Organization: Michigan State University
>Keywords: 200209201951.g8KJpY102732 McIDAS-X MCGUI -displayVisualMode

Jim,

>I have recently installed McIDAS-X (Version 2002) on 
>a number of Sun Solaris workstations, but am having
>some trouble getting the colors to work properly
>with the MCGUI application.  Is there a way to force
>the MCGUI tool to use 8-bit PseudoColor?

Not that I know of, but you shouldn't have to.

>The reason I ask - along with McIDAS, all of the workstation
>are used for GIS and Remote Sensing and 24-bit (Creator3D) 
>graphics is required.  This seems to be causing some trouble
>with the McIDAS GUI (MCGUI) application.

I run McIDAS in 24-bit depth sessions on Linux all of the time with no
problems.

>For example, if McIDAS is started using the Function 
>Key Menu (-c 'MCMENU UNIDATA.MNU') instead of the GUI, 
>all images seem to be displayed properly.  However, if 
>the GUI (-c 'MCGUI') is used instead, typically only 
>the first image loaded is displayed correctly.  For
>example, within the McIDAS GUI:
>
>   1) Load Topo Map:
>
>         Display -> Imagery -> TOPO:   Image Type: CONF
>
>      (Image loads fine - colors display in blue, brown,
>       and green as it should)
>
>
>   2)  Load Satellite Image:
>
>         Display -> Imagery -> RTIMAGES:  Image Type: GE-IR
>
>      (Would expect the image to load in grayscale, but the
>       image seems to be making use of the same colors used
>       in the previous TOPO map display - gray mixed with blue,
>       brown, and green)
>
>Uncommenting the "-displayVisualMode" entry in the ".mcidasrc"
>file seems to have no impact.

Hmm...  This is the next thing that I was going to suggest.

I think that the problem is that the MCGUI startup is not setting the
-displayVisualMode on startup.  Your observation that the Fkey menu
works correctly confirms that this is the problem _assuming_ that you
had -displayVisualMode uncommented when you ran the Fkey menu.  True?

>I dug a little deeper and used the "xwininfo" command to help
>in determining what might be going on.  Using "xwininfo" on 
>various McIDAS windows gave the following results for Color
>Depth and Visual Class:
>
>   1) Using McIDAS Function Key Menu (no GUI) [-c 'MCMENU UNIDATA.MNU']:
>
>         Function Key Window:
>
>            Depth:        24
>            Visual Class: TrueColor 
>
>
>         Command Window:
>
>            Depth:        24
>            Visual Class: TrueColor
>
>
>         Display/Image Window:
>
>            Depth:        8
>            Visual Class: PseudoColor
>
>
>
>   2) Using McIDAS GUI [-c 'MCGUI']:
>
>         GUI & Display Window:
>
>            Depth:        24
>            Visual Class: TrueColor
>
>
>Looking at the results from "xwininfo" reported above, it 
>almost seems if I could force the MCGUI tool to make use of 
>8-bit, PseudoColor without compromising the 24-bit, TrueColor 
>settings that are used by other applications by default, I 
>might have more favorable results.  Again, "-displayVisualMode" 
>seems to do nothing for me.  

After doing some code digging, I see my problem.  I did not add
support for setting -displayVisualMode to the MCGUI startup.  This
is an error that I will correct.

>Any thoughts, hints, or suggestions?

For now, you should:

o setup the .mcidasrc file to start MCGUI automatically
o uncomment the -displayVisualMode line in .mcidasrc
o start McIDAS using:

mcidasx

  instead of:

mcidas

The side effect of this is that the McIDAS sessions will also have the
Command and Text window lying around.  These can be iconified to clean
up the desktop.

>Many thanks.

I will try to quickly get out a patch for mcstart.gui and mcgui.k so
you won't have to keep using mcidasx for startup.

Sorry for the problems...

Tom Yoksas