IRIS Performer™ Programmer's Guide

Table of Contents

About This Guide

Why Use IRIS Performer?

What You Should Know Before Reading This Guide

How to Use This Guide

Bibliography

1. Getting Acquainted With IRIS Performer

Exploring the IRIS Performer Sample Scenes

Exploring Code

Going Beyond Visual Simulation

Deciding Where to Start

2. IRIS Performer Basics

What Is IRIS Performer?

Survey of Visual Simulation Techniques

Overview of the IRIS Performer Libraries

Database Formats and IRIS Performer

Graphics Libraries

pfObjects and the Class Hierarchy

3. Building a Visual Simulation Application

Overview

Setting Up the Basic Elements

Performance

Compiling and Linking IRIS Performer Applications

4. Setting Up the Display Environment

Using Pipes

Using pfPipeWindows

Using Channels

5. Nodes and Node Types

Nodes

Working With Nodes

Node Types

Sample Program

6. Database Traversal

Scene Graph Hierarchy

Application Traversal

Cull Traversal

Draw Traversal

Controlling and Customizing Traversals

Process Callbacks

Intersection Traversal

7. Frame and Load Control

Frame-Rate Management

Level-of-Detail Management

Dynamic Load Management

Successful Multiprocessing With IRIS Performer

8. Creating Visual Effects

Using pfEarthSky

Atmospheric Effects

Light Points

Spotlights and Shadows

Morphing

9. Importing Databases

Overview of Performer Database Creation and Conversion

libpfdu - Utilities for Creation of Efficient Performer Run-Time structures

Developing Custom Importers

Supported Database Formats

Description of Supported Formats

10. libpr Basics

Overview

Geometry

Graphics State

Windows

libpr Sample Code

Managing Nongraphic System Tasks

11. Math Routines

Vector Operations

Matrix Operations

Quaternion Operations

Matrix Stack Operations

Creating and Transforming Volumes

Intersecting Volumes

Creating and Working With Line Segments

General Math Routine Example Program

12. Statistics

Interpreting Statistics Displays

Collecting and Accessing Statistics in Your Application

13. Performance Tuning and Debugging

Performance-Tuning Overview

How IRIS Performer Helps Performance

Specific Guidelines for Optimizing Performance

Performance Measurement Tools

Guidelines for Debugging

Notes on Tuning for RealityEngine Graphics

14. Programming with C++

Overview

Class Taxonomy

Programming Basics

Porting from C API to C++ API

Subclassing pfObjects

Multiprocessing and Shared Memory

Performance Hints

A. Image Gallery

Glossary

Index