=============
Visualisation
=============

Introduction
============

Blue Crystal Phase 4 has facilities for remote visualisation


Installing the Viewer Software
==============================

The client software "Endstation" which needs to be installed on your
workstation can be downloaded from the NICE website:
http://www.nice-software.com/download/nice-dcv-2016

The NICE documentation for installation on Windows, MacOS and Linux is in
Chapter 2 of the Guide
http://www.nice-software.com/storage/nice-dcv/2016.0/docs/nice-dcv-endstation-guide-2016.0-17057.pdf

Logging On
==========

- In a browser got to the Engine Frame login page https://bc4vis.acrc.bris.ac.uk/

- Use your UoB username and password
- In the Services section of the menu on the left hand side click "Linux Desktop"

.. image:: logon.png
   :alt: picture of web page after logging on

- The web server will automatically download the connection file for the NICE DCV application
- The desktop you get will be `KDE <https://www.kde.org/>`_ (for technical
  reasons this in the only one supported)

.. note::
   Mac Users: since the upgrade to High Sierra, the client no longer
   starts automatically when the connection file is downloaded. The
   workaround is to start the client from the command line

   .. code:: bash

      /Applications/DCV\ Endstation.app/Contents/MacOS/vncviewer Downloads/Linux\ Desktop.vnc

To Test The Connection
======================

Open up konsole and run the command ``dcvtest``. You should see a spinning logo
on a starfield and text finishing with something like

.. code::

  DCV ON

  Produced 2509 frames in the last 5002 ms: average FPS 501.599
  [ ... ]

(this result is from a wired network connection, if you are connecting over
wireless it will perfrom more slowly). To stop the program press CTRL-C

Reconnecting
============

You can close your connection and the session will continue to run. You can then
reconnect to it at a later time (for example from another location).

.. note::
   The visualisation sessions are managed by Slurm in the dcv partition which has
   a maximum runtime. There is a licensing limit of 16 simultaneous sessions so
   the time limit may need to be reviewed depending on usage.