[R] rgl-snapshot failed (err-msg: "failed")

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 10/10/2008 8:55 AM, Oliver Bandel wrote:
> Zitat von Duncan Murdoch <murdoch at stats.uwo.ca>:
> 
>> On 10/10/2008 8:13 AM, Oliver Bandel wrote:
>> > Hello,
>> >
>> >
>> > I tried to use rgl.snapshot and it failed.
>> >
>> > The error message was not very verbose:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > ======================
>> >>
>> >> plot3d( motion[[idx+2]], motion[[idx+1]], motion[[idx]] )
>> >> rgl.snapshot(filename="/tmp/shot_01.png", fmt="png")
>> > [1] "failed"
>> >
>> > ======================
>> >
>> > There was a graphic created by rgl, but the snapshot was
>> > not created.
>> >
>> > The same problem occurs, when I use
>> >     > example(rgl.snapshot)
>> >
>> > The graphic/animation will be created, but there is no possibility
>> > to create the output-files.
>> >
>> > I use "R version 2.4.0 Patched (2006-11-25 r39997)".
>> > Is this a problem of this old version? or is there
>> > maybe a general problem, independent of the version?
>>
>> This is a problem with the build.  rgl is not easy to build, because
>> it
>> links to a lot of external libraries.  In this case it looks as
>> though
>> your build (the one from R-forge?  You should say...) did not link to
>> libpng.
> [...]
> 
> I installed a binary (Debian etch).
> 
> I may try the same things at my laptop.
> There I have Ubuntu, and it uses much newer R versions.
> maybe they also have fixed this problem.
> 
> If the error messages would be a littlebid more verbose,
> this could help.
> 
> Is it possible to configure the verboseness of the error messages?

Just a small followup:  the R-forge folks are in the process of making 
changes so their binary builds should include PNG support, and I've made 
changes to rgl so that its error messages in case PNG support is lacking 
are more informative.

Duncan Murdoch