Sharon Clay (src++at++rose)
Tue, 30 Dec 1997 18:24:15 -0800
On the contrary!
ASD, flux buffers and pfEngines, the pfCompute process, asynrchonous lpoint
computation, the pfi image loader and other new loaders, the process manager,
and video channel management do not require any graphics support and
thus are available everywhere.
Video texture and the improved projective textured lights are supported on
all platforms.
Features that still require an iR to see are: cliptexture, DVR, OpenGL shadows,
calligraphic light points, and OpenGL gang swap.
Here is the list again from the original posting:
New features in IRIS Performer2.2 include:
o Cliptextures - bigger and better than before!
Cliptextures can now be up to 2^23 texels on a side.
You can have multiple cliptextures - even really big ones,
and give up memory for the lower unused parts of the stack to make
it all fit. The configuration files are much simpler and friendlier.
There are utilities to help you write your own cliptexture config
files in case you want to do something custom.
Cliptextures in IRIS Performer 2.2 support multipipe operation with
automatic updating of the texture in local texture memory for all pipes.
o Active Surface Definition (ASD) in libpf provides applied to
smooth LOD morphing of terrain. No more tons of sub-pixel polygons
at your horizon! ASD also works seemlessly with the really big
cliptextures and provides automatic management of the cliptexture
stack for visible LODs. ASD in IRIS Performer2.2 supports multi-channel
operation, alignment of features to the ASD terrain or surface, and
automatic paging of sub-regions for very large terrains.
o Flux buffers for asynchronous computation of dynamic data
IRIS Performer 2.2 includes several new features for the improved
representation and evaluation of dynamic data. pfEngines allow the
description of operations -- such as morphing, blending, and bounding
box computation -- to be performed on specific objects or buffers of
data. pfFluxes are dynamic evaluated objects the contents of which can
be computed by pfEngines and used as geometry or transformations any
place where fluxed data is allowed. Asynchronously generated data is
rendered when available in a frame-accurate manner.
o pfCompute process for pfASD and pfFlux/pfEngine computation
IRIS Performer2.2 provides a new process for the asynchronous
computation of dynamic data.
ASD morphing is computed in this process.
o Asynchronous light-point computation in a separate light-point process
o Support for calligraphic light points and calligraphic hardware
o OpenGL Shadow support and improved projective texture lights
o Fast image format loader
The new libpfpfi image loader (and writer) will let you convert your
databases to this new fast-loading .pfi format. You can store
your MIPmaps in this format for custom MIPmap generation and for
faster texture paging.
o Video Textures on DIVO, Sirius, Octane, and O2
Check out the new pguide/libpf/C/movietex.c.
o Video Channel management and Dynamic Video Resizing (DVR) for dynamic
resolution (from 2.1). IRIS Performer 2.2 give you an interface for
general output video channel management. Additionally,
DVR, provides a real way to manage overload due to pixel fill
limitation. InfiniteReality allows for the resolution of an output
channel to be changed dynamically in real time, allowing fill-limited
application to draw to a smaller viewport as load
increases. IRIS Performer manages the details, as well as provide
automatic and user-controlled load management utilities.
Multi-channel DVR works in 2.2 (was buggy in 2.1).
o Graphics timing from within the graphics pipeline (from 2.1) using special
InfiniteReality timing support for better real-time load management
o Updated Programmers Guide and the new Getting Started Guide
The online documentation includes these books plus C and C++
reference guides.
o API search tool
This API search-tool uses html technology to provide searching of
the IRIS Performer class hierarchy, man pages, and sample code.
This is located in the performer_tools prouct included with
IRIS Performer2.2.
--
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Sharon Rose Clay (Fischler) - Silicon Graphics, Advanced Systems Dev.
src++at++sgi.com (650) 933 - 1002 FAX: (650) 965 - 2658 MS 8U-590
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