[Algorithms] FW: [CsMain] Scene Graphs

[Aaron D. <ri...@ho...>]

I've read many discussions on this list as to the pro's and con's of various
solutions to storing, rendering and processing 3D objects but the
scene-graph hasn't really made much discussion since I've been subscribed.

I can't seem to find much on the web in regards to their usefulness apart
from a few papers on VRML and Java3D.

I'm having trouble seeing how the added cost of unnecessary traversal of
nodes and the memory overheads of parent/child links in a scene would be
worth the added effort but I'm curious as to the thoughts of the many
experienced developers on this list.

Do scene-graphs pay off?

If so, how?

Managing vertex buffers, textures, multiple instances of objects (with
shared vertex data), etc can get rather clumsy without a consistant system
yet everything I've read about scene-graphs suggests that they are simply
traversed and the objects in them rendered. How would I represent (say) an
octree implementation within a construct like
this?

- Aaron