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Installation

Pre-install

The simulator has four dependencies that can be installed with a package manager such as MacPorts, DNF, AptGet, etc... Downloads are also available for free from each of the dependencies’ web site if a package manager is not used. Following are the dependencies that must be installed prior to the simulator's use:

  1. Python
    The simulator was written and debugged using Python versions 2.7...
    It is therefore strongly suggested you use a 2.7... release.
    The simulator might not work with Python versions ≥ 3.0.
  2. NumPy
    The simulator performs most numerical calculations with the NumPy library for reasons expressed here.
  3. PyOpenGL
    This is a Python language binding to OpenGL which is used for hardware-accelerated graphical rendering of the simulated neural fields.
  4. GLFW
    The simulation window, with an OpenGL context, is created and managed by GLFW. This installation is easy on many systems. On recent Fedora distributions, for example, in a Terminal typing 
    sudo dnf install glfw glfw-devel
    is all that needs to be done. However, there are a couple gotchas in some other systems...
    • If a package manager is used for GLFW installation,
      • GLFW version ≥ 3.0 is required. Some distros do not have this, necessitating a source install.
      • the GLFW development package (i.e. glfw-devel or similar) also needs to be installed if it is not included in the main glfw package.
    • GLFW_LIBRARY environment variable must be created. It can be set, for example, in a...
      ⇨ Ubuntu OS after an install from source code, enter in a terminal:
      set GLFW_LIBRARY=/usr/local/bin/libglfw3.so
      ⇨ Mac Mavericks OS after a MacPorts install, enter in a terminal:
      sudo open -t /etc/launchd.conf
      then enter and save: setenv GLFW_LIBRARY /opt/local/lib/libglfw.dylib
      ⇨ Fedora 22 OS after a dnf install, add to your ~/.bashrc:
      export GLFW_LIBRARY=/usr/lib64/libglfw.so

Installation

The simulator (package DNF_GUI) can be downloaded from https://gforge.inria.fr/projects/nfsimulator/.

Extract the download into any directory with full permissions. Reading and writing permissions are needed to load and save field and graphic properties and execution permission is required to run the simulator.

When this is complete, proceed to the next page for simulation instructions.