Large-Model Visualization

OpenGL Optimizer™ Programmer's Guide: An Open API for Large-Model Visualization

Document Number: 007-2852-002

| List of Figures | List of Examples | List of Tables |

Table of Contents

Audience for This Guide How to Use This Guide What This Guide Contains Recommended Background Reading Conventions Used in This Guide

I. Getting Started

1. OpenGL Optimizer Overview

The Optimizer Challenge and Solution The OpenGL Optimizer Toolset

2. Basic I/O: Getting Started with OpenGL Optimizer

Calling opInit()Saving and Loading Scene-Graph Files Viewing Class: opViewer Controlling Rendering: opKeyCallback and opDrawImpl

II. High-Level Strategic Tools for Fast Rendering

3. Sending Efficient Graphics Data to the Hardware

Display Lists Vertex Arrays Shortening Representations of Surface Normal Data Avoiding OpenGL Mode Switching Creating OpenGL Connected Primitives

4. Rendering Appropriate Levels of Detail

Overview of Simplification Tools opSimplify: Base Class for Adding Level-of-Detail Nodes Creating LODs: opSRASimplify Rossignac Simplification Algorithm: opLatticeSimplify Merging Graphs With Differing Levels of Detail: opMergeScenes

5. Culling Unneeded Objects From the Scene Graph

View-Frustum Culling Occlusion Culling View-Frustum and Occlusion Cull Draw Traversal: opDrawAction Rendering With View-Frustum and Occlusion Culling: opOccDrawImpl Tuning Tips for Occlusion Culling Detail Culling Back-Face Culling

6. Organizing the Scene Graph Spatially

Effect of Spatialization on Cull Traversals Granularity Trade-offs When to Spatialize Spatialization Algorithm Spatialization Tool: opSpatialize Classes for Component Procedures of Spatialization

III. Specific Tools for Fast Rendering

7. Interactive Highlighting and Manipulating

Overview of Highlighting and Picking Interacting With a Rendered Object: opPickDrawImpl Scene Graph Modification: opPick Node to Override Appearances: opHighlight

8. Efficient High-Quality Lighting Effects: Reflection Mapping

Simple Mapping: Remote View of a Remote Environment Accurate Mapping: Local View of a Local Environment Reflection-Mapping Class: opReflMap

IV. Managing and Rendering Higher-Order Geometric Primitives

9. Higher-Order Geometric Primitives and Discrete Meshes

Features and Uses of Higher-Order Geometric Primitives Objects Required by Reps Geometric Primitives: The Base Class opRep and the Application repTest Planar Curves Spatial Curves Parametric Surfaces opCuboid Regular Meshes and Discrete Surfaces

10. Creating and Maintaining Surface Topology

Overview of Topology Tasks Summary of Scene Graph Topology: opTopo Consistent Vertices at Boundaries: opBoundary Collecting Connected Surfaces: opSolid

11. Rendering Higher-Order Primitives: Tessellators

Features of Tessellators Base Class opTessellateAction Tessellating Curves in Space Tessellating a Cuboid: opTessCuboidAction Tessellating Parametric Surfaces Tessellating a Regular Mesh

V. Traversers, Low-Level Geometry Processing, and Multiprocessing

12. Traversing a Large Scene Graph

Traversals and Callbacks: General Features Controlling a Traversal With the Callback Return Value opTravDisp Specifying Deletion of Traversal Object Storage: opActionDisp Depth-First Traversals: opDFTravAction Breadth-First Traversals: opBFTravAction Sample Traversal Function From the opoptimize Sample Application Traversing a Scene Graph and Applying a csDispatch: opDispatchAction

13. Manipulating Triangles and Rebuilding Renderable Objects

Overview of Low-Level Geometry Tools Decomposing csGeoSets Into Constituent Triangles: opGeoConverter Specifying Coloring of New csGeoSets: opColorGenerator Building New csGeoSets

14. Managing Multiple Processors

MP Control Tasks and Related Classes Overview of the Thread Manager Thread Manager: opThreadMgr Defining Tasks for a Thread Manager Coordinating Threads That Change a Scene Graph: opTransactionMgr Low-Level Multiprocess Tools

VI. Utilities and Troubleshooting

15. Utilities

Error Handling and Notification Performance Indicators opx: A Template Class for Dynamic Arrays of Contiguous Elements Printing a Scene Graph Gathering Triangle Statistics Displaying Node Information Observing OpenGL Modes Command-Line Parser: opArgParser

16. Troubleshooting

Compiler Warning Messages Run-Time Warning Messages Tuning the Scene Graph Database

VII. Appendices

A. Installing OpenGL Optimizer

Installing the OpenGL Optimizer and Supporting Software on UNIX Systems Installing OpenGL Optimizer on NT Systems

B. OpenGL Optimizer Sample Applications

Command-Line Options and User Input opviewer Sample Application Other Sample Applications

C. opviewer Sample Application

Verifying Installation Compiling and Running opviewer opviewer Code

D. Scene Graph Tuning With the opoptimize Application

Values Returned by Scene Graph Tools Compiling and Running opoptimize opoptimize Code

E. Optimizer Class Hierarchy

opGUI Class Hierarchy opXmGUI class hierarchy Optimizer Class Hierarchy

Glossary

Index