Hierarchical graphics databases in sort-first

Carl Mueller
1997 Proceedings of the IEEE symposium on Parallel rendering - PRS '97  
Sort-first architectures for parallel rendering use the natural frame-to-frame coherence of primitives on the screen to increase performance by grouping primitives that are close together on the screen onto the same processor. This technique reduces processor-to-processor communications overhead. As primitives move on the screen, they may also be moved to other processors. This migration poses many problems for the editing and traversal of hierarchical graphics databases (HGD's) such as PHIGS.
more » ... n this paper we describe the major problems associated with implementing a HGD on a sort-first system. We discuss the basics of HGD's and how they extend to parallel graphics systems. We show why bookkeeping for HGD's is a more complex issue for sort-first than for other parallel architectures. We then propose two main solution branches for this issue and delve into the design choices and implementation issues that arise with either solution. The two solution branches differ in the amount of bookkeeping that they do versus the amount of primitive cull-testing that must be performed.
doi:10.1145/266638.266652 fatcat:zwfcnkewbrauxdeszmhpvfdwgq