commit 5384b6c8ca7da2f156655e87a83025cf499a56e8
parent 2e4eb5265cfc4875f8e1f5afbcb98d18cc1f9466
Author: Vincent Forest <vincent.forest@meso-star.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2020 12:49:03 +0100
Update the library overview in README.md
Diffstat:
| M | README.md | | | 45 | +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------- |
1 file changed, 31 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
@@ -6,41 +6,58 @@ atmospheric gas mixture is loaded from a
loaded from data stored with respect to the
[HTCP](https://gitlab.com/meso-star/htcp/) fileformat. The optical properties
of the clouds are finally retrieved from a
-[HTMie](https://gitlab.com/meso-star/htmie/) file. Once loaded, the sky
-properties (scattering or absorption coefficient, phase function, etc.) can
-then be retrieved through functions compatible with the
-[Star-MTL](https://gitlab.Com/meso-star/star-mtl/) specification. Consequently
-one can use this library as a Star-MTL program describing a semi-transperent
-material compatible with the Star-MTL fileformat.
+[HTMie](https://gitlab.com/meso-star/htmie/) file. Once provided, the clouds
+can be repeated infinitely into the X and Y dimension.
+
+HTSky relies onto the [Star-VX](https://gitlab.com/meso-star/star-vx) library
+to build space partitioning data structures upon raw sky data. These structures
+can then be used in conjunction of null-collision algorithms to accelerate the
+tracking of a ray into this inhomogeneous medium, as described in [Villefranque
+et al.
+(2019)](https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2018MS001602).
+These accelerating structures are built with respect to an optical thickness
+criterion whose threshold is user defined. One can also fix the maximum
+resolution of the structures in order to constraint their memory consumption.
+Even though the building itself of the structures is quite efficient, computing
+their underlying data from the input files can be time consuming. So, once
+built, these structures can be stored into a file to drastically speed up the
+subsequent initialisation steps of the same sky. We point out that this file is
+valid as long as the provided HTGOP, HTCP and HTMie files are the ones used to
+build the cached structures. If not, an error is returned on sky creation.
+
+Note that this library provides functions compatible with the
+[Star-MTL](https://gitlab.Com/meso-star/star-mtl/) specification. Consequently,
+HTSky can be use as it, to describe a semi-transparent inhomogeneous medium in
+a Star-MTL file.
## How to build
This library is compatible GNU/Linux 64-bits. It relies on the
[CMake](http://www.cmake.org) and the
[RCMake](https://gitlab.com/vaplv/rcmake/) packages to build. It also depends
-on the
-[HTCP](https://gitlab.com/meso-star/htcp/),
+on the [HTCP](https://gitlab.com/meso-star/htcp/),
[HTGOP](https://gitlab.com/meso-star/htgop/),
[HTMie](https://gitlab.com/meso-star/htmie/),
[RSys](https://gitlab.com/vaplv/rsys/) and
[Star-VX](https://gitlab.com/meso-star/star-vx/) libraries, and on
-[OpenMP](http://www.openmp.org) 1.2 to parallelize its
-computations.
+[OpenMP](http://www.openmp.org) 1.2 to parallelize its computations. If the
+[Star-MTL](https://gitlab.com/meso-star/star-mtl) library is found, HTSky
+will provide functions compatible with the Star-MTL specification.
First ensure that CMake is installed on your system. Then install the RCMake
package as well as the aforementioned prerequisites. Finally generate the
project from the `cmake/CMakeLists.txt` file by appending to the
`CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH` variable the install directories of its dependencies. The
resulting project can be edited, built, tested and installed as any CMake
-project. Refer to the [CMake](https://cmake.org/documentation) for further
-informations on CMake.
+project. Refer to the [CMake documentation](https://cmake.org/documentation)
+for further informations on CMake.
## License
Copyright (C) 2018, 2019 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS),
-Université Paul Sabatier <contact-edstar@laplace.univ-tlse.fr>.
+Université Paul Sabatier (<contact-edstar@laplace.univ-tlse.fr>).
Copyright (C) 2018, 2019, 2020 [|Meso|Star](http://www.meso-star.com)
-<contact@meso-star.com>. HTSky is free software released under the GPL v3+
+(<contact@meso-star.com>). HTSky is free software released under the GPL v3+
license: GNU GPL version 3 or later. You are welcome to redistribute it under
certain conditions; refer to the COPYING file for details.
