Jenny Zhao (zhz++at++dandan.engr.sgi.com)
Thu, 5 Aug 1999 12:06:03 -0700
Please come to Friends of Performer at SIGGRAPH. I am looking forward
to having a great discussion with everyone.
On Aug 5, 10:45am, Kent Watsen wrote:
> Subject: cross-platform scenegraph?
>
>
> *** Sorry if you receive this more then once! ***
> *** Also, sorry about the off-topic Performer post ***
> *** Please read entire message before flaming... ***
>
> A few years back, when SGI was way ahead of everyone else
> in graphics technology, it was clear how one developed
> their VR application - Performer. Performer has been and
> is still a good scenegraph (straight forward, fast, stable).
> However, the times have changed and MIPS/Irix is no longer
> exclusively used development and/or deployment, as SGI
> itself has acknowledge thru its various multi-platform
> graphic API attempts (OpenGL, Cosmo3D, OpenGL++, Fahrenheit).
>
> As a developer of VR software, I have been patiently waiting
> for a "solution" - a cross-platform scenegraph (inc. low level
> api - opengl assumed) that meets my operational requirements:
>
> 1) straight forward, standard features, stable, etc.
>
> for obvious reasons...
>
> 2) low cost for development
>
> I'd be nice if everything were free, but I don't mind
> paying for my development environment.
>
> 3) No distribution restrictions or costs
>
> In order to realistically deploy applications outside
> the development environment, it is necessary to
> minimize the end user's installation process.
>
> 4) Written in Assembly/C/C++ with like API
>
> The reason for this is several fold. While the primary
> issue is maximizing runtime performance, there is the
> truism that all other languages are embedable, but not
> visa versa. Mind you, I am not promoting C/C++, as I
> believe languages have their strengths and weaknesses.
> But this is the only (efficient) way that I know of for
> code written in multiple language and executing in the
> same process space, to act on the same scenegraph. Why
> you would want to do that is left as an exercise for the
> reader (hint: look at http://watsen.net/Bamboo).
>
> 5) Available on many platforms
>
> Nobody likes to see their applications become obsolete,
> like that raytracer I wrote on my NeXT. One of the best
> features of Performer is that its had a long run, which
> is now to continue on Linux (yeah!). But, its not on
> Windows and that is a big audience. Clearly there is no
> technical reason why Performer can't be ported to Windows
> or many other platforms - it just doesn't make business
> sense for SGI (and, in the case of Windows, it may not
> even be legal). Too bad, as this would be my #1 choice.
>
>
> For a while there, I thought the my patience had paid off -
> Fahrenheit. Not that it was ever going to be on "many"
> platforms, but I knew that it would at least be on two (irix,
> windows) out of three (linux being the other) that I care
> about. But now that SGI has publicly announced a reduced
> interest in Fahrenheit, due to use restrictions in their
> contract with Microfoft, it appears that we (people trying
> to deploy solutions across platforms) are back to not having
> any cross-platform scenegraph solution.
>
>
> What are we to do?
>
> This really is a question for you all. What are your groups
> doing about all this? How come now one is talking? Is my
> group the only one that feels abandoned?
>
>
> To get the discussion rolling, I see a few viable alternatives:
>
> 1) design code to use existing platform specific graphic APIs.
>
> this could either be done using a "common denominator"
> api wrapper or be done using a factory pattern (OO term
> for moving specialization into a derived class). The
> first approach allows for code-reuse while the second
> allows for platform-specific extensions. If anybody
> has done this, please share...
>
> 2) find a vendor-neutral solution
>
> does anyone know of a company out there selling something
> meeting the above requirements (language bindings optional)?
>
> 3) find an open-source solution
>
> does anyone know of an open-source solution out there
> meeting the above requirements (language bindings optional)?
> BTW, I am open to the idea of starting one if need be...
>
>
> And before you say it: yes, Java3D is great - too bad Java's GC
> is so unpredictable....
>
>
> PS: I subscribe to all the mailing lists I sent this to
>
> PPS: see you at SIGGRAPH!
>
>
> Kent Watsen
> http://watsen.net/kent
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>-- End of excerpt from Kent Watsen
-- Jenny Zhao zhz++at++engr.sgi.com 650 933-5091 IRIS Performer Manager
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