OpenSG: A Scene Graph System for Flexible and Efficient Realtime Rendering for Virtual and Augmented Reality Applications

Abstract

This work opens a path to keep scenegraphs a viable paradigm for real-time rendering systems for the foreseeable future, which in the computer and computer graphics area does not exceed three to five years. The analysis of the microprocessor state of the art in chapter 2 and the extrapolations based on it predict that parallel processing of multiple independent threads will be ubiquitous soon, either as separate processors or in a single chip. On the graphics hardware front performance will continue to rise faster than processor performance, but more importantly programmability will spread and the need to differentiate themselves will drive the hardware vendors to keep adding unique features to their systems, demanding high flexibility and extensibility from the scenegraph systems. The commonly available scenegraph systems Open Inventor, OpenGL Performer, Y and Java3D have been analyzed according to their ability to fulfill these demands. The analysis shows that three areas are not adequately covered: - extensibility - handling of parallel tasks - flexible and efficient handling of graphics hardware. Thus they have been analyzed and solutions are proposed in this work.