Up: SGI performer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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Subject: -2- What is IRIS Performer?
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST
IRIS Performer provides a powerful and extensible programming
interface (with ANSI C and C++ bindings) for creating real-time
visual simulation and other interactive graphics applications.
IRIS Performer 2.0 supports both the IRIS Graphics Library (IRIS
GL) and the industry standard OpenGL graphics library; these
libraries combine with the IRIX operating system and REACT
extensions to form the foundation of a powerful suite of tools and
features for creating real-time visual simulation applications on
Silicon Graphics systems.
IRIS Performer is an integral part of the Onyx/Onyx2 RealityEngine
& InfiniteReality and Indigo2/Octane Impact graphics systems and
provides interfaces to advanced features of RealityEngine-class
graphics. IRIS Performer is compatible with uniprocessor and
multiprocessor SGI graphics platforms and attains maximum
performance on all. IRIS Performer provides an extensible basis
for creating real-time 3D graphics applications in the fields of
visual simulation, entertainment, virtual reality, broadcast video,
and computer aided design. IRIS Performer is the flexible,
intuitive, toolkit-based solution for developers who want to
optimize performance on Silicon Graphics systems.
IRIS Performer consists of two main libraries, libpf and libpr, and
four associated libraries, libpfdu, libpfdb, libpfui, and
libpfutil.
The basis of IRIS Performer is the performance rendering library
libpr, a low level library providing high speed rendering functions
based on pfGeoSets, efficient graphics state control using
pfGeoStates, and other application- neutral functions.
Layered above libpr is libpf, a real-time visual simulation
environment providing a high-performance multi-processing database
rendering system that takes best advantage of IRIS symmetric
multiprocessing CPU hardware.
The database utility library libpfdu provides powerful functions
for defining both geometric and appearance attributes of three
dimensional objects, encourages sharing of state and materials and
generates efficient triangle strips from independent polygonal
input.
The database library libpfdb uses the facilities of libpfdu, libpf,
and libpr to import database files in many popular industry
standard database formats. These loaders also serve as a guide to
developers creating new database importers.
libpfui contains user interface building blocks for creating
manipulators common to many interactive applications. This library
has both a C and C++ API and is GL independent.
Completing the suite of libraries is libpfutil, the IRIS Performer
utility library. It provides a collection of important convenience
routines implementing such diverse tasks as smoke effects,
MultiChannel Option support, graphical user interface tools, X and
IRIS GL event collection and management, and traversal functions.
For aid in application development, IRIS Performer includes sample
application source code ranging from simple programs to illustrate
particular features to the comprehensive, GUI-driven file viewer
perfly.
In addition to these SGI-developed tools, IRIS Performer also
includes a very large repository of sample code, databases, games,
and movies contributed by the Friends of Performer: companies and
individuals with services of general interest to the IRIS Performer
community. We encourage you to sample their wares.
Up: SGI performer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Next: -3- Where can I get more technical information about IRIS Performer?
Previous: -1- ================ General Topics ==================