Improvement of virtual EAST system based on WebVR

Abstract

As the EAST (Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak) experimental data is analyzed by more and more collaborators, the former virtual EAST system based on WebGL needs to be improved to be more convenient for sharing data and communicating between collaborators. The improved virtual EAST system is established as an open web-portal without plug-ins or third party components by using Three.js. This portal offers a more highly-interactive interface for scientists and collaborators to roam inside the EAST device, view the complex structure, and acquire diagnostic metadata via a user-friendly control panel. In order to enhance the system's interactivity and user's immersion within the 3D virtual scene, WebVR technology which provides support for exposing virtual reality devices is used in this new system. Moreover, the EAST wiki system and web model editor are integrated into the new system to collect information and store the EAST models. The wiki system displays the information of the EAST device and diagnostic systems, which provides collaborative modifications and content update. The web model editor offers an open interface for users to edit and upload models through a web browser. Compared with the former system, the improved system adds more models and experimental data visualization. This paper presents the implementation details for optimizing models and improving performance.