Conclusions

This project was not intended to be finised in one semester. Therefore, there are two sets of conclusions on this page -- one set regarding the stated goals in the course contract, and one set regarding the future of the project.

Course Goals

To define a logical, clean programming interface for dgiGL: This goal is accomplished. With help from John Kelso and Lance Arsenault, I designed the programming interface to mirror that of dgiPf. Although there may be changes to the interface before an official release, the overall design of the interface has been quite successful.

To implement enough of dgiGL to seamlessly scale several different example programs from a desktop workstation to the VT-CAVE: This goal is accomplished. My dgiGL code effectively controls multiple graphics pipelines with multiple threads of execution, loads and unloads display and (in the future) input DSOs, and sets up the appropriate viewing frusta for disparate types of VE hardware.

To develop a Programming Manual, Reference Manual, and short Tutorial for the dgiGL API: This goal is partially accomplished. The short tutorial is in the "Programming with dgiGL" section of the web presentation. It contains everything necessary for a programmer who is familiar with Unix, GLUT, and OpenGL to write effective dgiGL applications. The programming manual and reference manual are incomplete because of the incomplete nature of the code which they are supposed to document.

To develop a WWW presentation for interested professors and students which describes the project and the level of successs that I achieved as measured by these objectives: This is that presentation.

Future Outlook

DgiGL needs to become more stable, complete, and well documented before it can be integrated into the DIVERSE project, but I do intend to continue working toward that goal. Because it uses the same "Augment" code as dgiPf, dgiGL should be able to plug in and use the new input subsystem which was developed during the fall of 2000.

It should also be noted that several other projects exist whose purpose overlaps with that of dgiGL. The following list describes those projects:

• CAVE Libs -- The industry standard VE library, developed by VRCO under a proprietary license.
• VR Juggler -- A VR/VE library developed at Iowa State University under a free license which supports the OpenGL (formerly Iris) Performer and OpenGL interfaces.
• OpenGL Multipipe -- A library developed by SGI which allows you to use multiple pipes on Onyx computers in a plug-in manner. Currently in beta release as of Fall 2000.

Features Required For Version 1.0

In addition to stability and error checking, there are some features which need to be included in the codebase before dgiGL on par feature-wise with dgiPf.

• Correct Asymmetric Viewing Frusta -- Asymmetric viewing frusta are used in stereo viewing and projection-based immersion (CAVEs). The current interface supports asymmetric frusta, but the implementation is not correct and needs to be fixed. testDSO can be used to demonstrate symmetric and asymmetric frusta.
• Stereoscopic Viewing -- The current interface does not support stereoscopic viewing.