[Visualpython-users] VisualPython Performance

[Bruce P. <bap...@te...>]

I've recently been developing an app for data animation using 
Python/Vpython. After reading all the hits on Python about performance (due 
to no compilation) my thought was that I would develop a prototype and then 
replace slow routines with C modules. I suspected that Vpython might be one 
of those. I've gotten far enough to do some performance testing -- and it 
looks like my major bottleneck is my video card! Vpython has next to no 
overhead for static display (e.g. lots (thousands) of objects in a scene 
but just spin and zoom operations using the mouse). The updating of moving 
objects could be a bottleneck but on my machine (2.2 Ghz Xeon with 512 meg 
ram, NVidia Quadro 2 VDI, Windows XP) the practical limit for objects (over 
100 or so on screen and you can't really follow anything anyway) is reached 
before the updating function causes a noticeable delay. The bottom line is 
I can get 20 fps at virtually any scene complexity and if I want more speed 
I'll probably have upgrade the hardware.
The only thing leading me to replace Vpython is its' lack of translucency 
for objects.
Anyone else have experience with Vpython performance?



Bruce Peterson
Terastat, Inc
Information Access Systems
Voice (425) 466 7344
Fax (206) 350 3685