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Revision: 1.3
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# Content
1 .\" RCSid $Id: pvsum.1,v 1.2 2025/03/27 17:03:41 greg Exp $"
2 .TH PVSUM 1 12/09/09 RADIANCE
3 .SH NAME
4 pvsum - sum component Radiance pictures based on vector or matrix
5 .SH SYNOPSIS
6 .B pvsum
7 [
8 .B "\-o ospec"
9 ][
10 .B "\-o{f|c}
11 ][
12 .B "\-N nproc"
13 ]
14 .B ispec
15 [
16 .B mtx
17 ]
18 .SH DESCRIPTION
19 .I Pvsum
20 is an efficient tool for summing Radiance pictures
21 into one or more output pictures.
22 Similar to
23 .I dctimestep(1),
24 multiple frames are produced if the input
25 .I mtx
26 has more than one column.
27 The number of rows in this matrix corresponds to the
28 number of component pictures specified in
29 .I ispec
30 with an incorporated "%d" or similar format string.
31 The first row in the matrix corresponds to picture 0, and
32 counting proceeds to one less than the number of matrix rows.
33 .PP
34 If no
35 .I mtx
36 is specified on the command line, the required data is read
37 from the standard input.
38 The input matrix
39 must either have a single component or match the number of components
40 in the input pictures, and the output pictures will match the latter component
41 count.
42 (I.e., grayscale float pictures have a component count of 1, RGB and XYZ
43 pictures a count of 3, and spectral pictures typically have 6 or more
44 components.)\0
45 .PP
46 By default, the output pixel type will match that of the input pictures,
47 either floating point or common-exponent byte format (i.e., RGBE, XYZE,
48 or Radiance_spectra).
49 If float output is preferred, specify the
50 .I \-of
51 option.
52 If common-exponent byte format is preferred, use the
53 .I \-oc
54 option.
55 .PP
56 If a
57 .I "\-o ospec"
58 argument begins with an exclamation point ('!') and contains a "%d"
59 format string or similar, then a separate command will be executed
60 for each output stream.
61 If no
62 .I \-o
63 option is given, all data is sent to the standard output,
64 which may be a sequence of Radiance pictures as understood by
65 .I ra_rgbe(1)
66 in the case of a multi-column input matrix.
67 (Note that there is currently no Radiance tool that fully
68 handles a concatenated series of float or spectral pictures.)\0
69 .PP
70 The
71 .I \-N
72 option may be used on Unix systems to specify the number of
73 processes to employ in the summations.
74 This setting has an upper limit equal to
75 the count of matrix columns, but
76 the optimal number of processes depends on several factors.
77 Setting the process count above the number of physical cores may
78 offer some benefit on large input collections if
79 their total size significantly exceeds the available system RAM.
80 Experimentation with this setting is therefore encouraged.
81 .SH EXAMPLES
82 To compute Window2's contribution to an interior view at 12 noon on the summer solstice:
83 .IP "" .2i
84 gensky 6 21 12 | genskyvec | rmtxop Blinds30.xml
85 Window2.dmx - | pvsum view%03d.hdr > view_6-21-12.hdr
86 .PP
87 To compute a set of hourly spectral pictures at SFO airport
88 from a weather tape and set of Tregenza component pictures using
89 10 processes:
90 .IP "" .2i
91 gensdaymtx -of sfo.epw | pvsum -o timestep%04d.hsr -N 10 tregcomp%03d.hsr
92 .SH NOTES
93 This tool overlaps with
94 .I dctimestep,
95 but provides some important capabilities.
96 First,
97 .I pvsum
98 reads and can produce spectral pictures and matrices, whereas
99 .I dctimestep
100 expects and requires 3-component pictures and matrices throughout.
101 Changing the data structures in
102 .I dctimestep
103 proved too difficult and likely to
104 lead to a less efficient implementation, especially on systems with
105 limited memory.
106 In contrast,
107 .I pvsum
108 accelerates picture sums on Unix systems with more
109 memory and processint ability.
110 Second, operation was simplified by focusing on the Daylight Coefficient
111 command form, where the DC matrix is represented as a collection of
112 pictures.
113 By excluding the other operation modes of
114 .I dctimestep,
115 new functionality could be explored and optimized,
116 such as floating-point support and
117 sending output to commands as well as files.
118 .SH AUTHOR
119 Greg Ward
120 .SH "SEE ALSO"
121 dcglare(1), dctimestep(1), gendaymtx(1), gensdaymtx(1), genskyvec(1), getinfo(1),
122 mkillum(1), ra_rgbe(1), rcollate(1), rcomb(1), rcontrib(1), rcrop(1),
123 rfluxmtx(1), rmtxop(1), rtrace(1), vwrays(1)