Angus Dorbie (dorbie++at++sgi.com)
Mon, 16 Mar 1998 12:43:05 -0800
Performer is a library and API which can *help* turn a
workstation into a simulator visual, some of the methods are
common to other simulator visuals, and the library is used by
developers who build real military flight simulators. Most
parts of Performer are dedicated to making workstation class
hardware draw quickly and flight simulation is just one of
its targeted or adopted markets. There are a few aspects of
the library which could really be considered dedicated to
flight simulation and usefull for simulation. For example
calligraphic light capability (which work with the multisampled
zbuffer), although this is actually a civil flight requirement
for FAA level D certification it could be used in maritime
ships bridge simulators or military flight but tends not to be
a requirement.
CLIP map texturing is also usefull for military flight allowing
full mission training over huge detailed geospecific databases
but this is also an extremely general purpose technique and finds
application in non military simulations and applications, but it
is unique to SGI workstations and Performer, it wasn't borrowed
from military flight simulators.
The statement you quote is reasonable but hardly representative,
it sounds like a synopsis a journalist would invent. The
graphics pipeline is also an important part of a simulation
solution on SGI which probably has more in common with simulator
heritage than the Performer API which IMHO is fairly original
'glue' which didn't exist in traditional simulator designs.
Having said this SGI customers were adding that glue prior to
Performer with varying degrees of success and Performer tries
to help them and us by encapsulating some expert knowledge and
reducing the SGI suport burden of trying to help everyone tune
their code at an atomic level.
Cheers,Angus.
-- "Only the mediocre are always at their best." -- Jean GiraudouxFor advanced 3D graphics Performer + OpenGL based examples and tutors: http://www.dorbie.com/ ======================================================================= List Archives, FAQ, FTP: http://www.sgi.com/Technology/Performer/ Submissions: info-performer++at++sgi.com Admin. requests: info-performer-request++at++sgi.com
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