Problems with Scivis… (Yes there were many)
Difficult for users to exchange filters, since each user ran their own server.
Difficult for users to run the Isosurface routine.
Slow performance for 3D graphics.
Collaborations with many users would often kill the system.
We wanted an easy way to incorporate “state-of-the-art” visualization routines (like Stanford’s Volpack routines for raytracing, or VTK routines).
Needed a methodology for creating “maps” of filters, so users could invoke them from C/Fortran/Java.
Operates on the premise of shared inputs.