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[Gnu3dkit-discuss] Actions as transactions
From: |
Brent Gulanowski |
Subject: |
[Gnu3dkit-discuss] Actions as transactions |
Date: |
Tue, 31 Dec 2002 11:34:34 -0500 |
The more I think Scene Actions, the more it gnaws at me that we are in
some way talking about a specialized database application. I don't know
databases, however, so this is very much just a feeling. But it
certainly seems as though there's a lot of searching, sorting, and
selecting being done by the Scene Actions. And the threat of
multi-threaded or multi-client access is also very database-like. So I
thought I should bring it up, as a means of understanding the process
distinct from the part about painting pixels.
If a scene were to be treated like a database, what sort of assumptions
would the nature of the data allow us to make that would simplify the
design of the (programming) interface?
The data is all linked together in a hierarchy
There are only a few kinds of data (groups, shapes, geometry, lights,
attributes/appearance)
Very large quantities of structured data are regularly requested -- to
be rendered
Certain data might be read-only (static and compiled data)
I'm intrigued by the RenderMan RIB as the solution model for
transferring large rendering instructions between RenderKit and the
Renderer plug-in. If one was loose in one's definitions, it could
almost be comparable to a database table in its ASCII form. In any case
a serialized representation, as opposed to direct API calls, which is
therefore data-driven (i.e.: more database-like), not code-driven.
Therefore more versatile, and slower. Does this conceptual approach
offer us any new insights or opportunities?
I've downloaded the RenderMan Interface spec (3.2). I can't find
anything about NeXT 3DKit yet, so links are requested (or if you have
docs, email/instant message me -- brentgulanowski(at)mac.com via AIM
will work). I have quite a lot of reading to do this week.
Brent Gulanowski
--
Mac game development news and discussion
http://www.idevgames.com
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