Re: [Algorithms] FW: [CsMain] Scene Graphs

[Stephen J B. <sj...@li...>]

On Thu, 7 Sep 2000, Dave Eberly wrote:

> From: "Stephen J Baker" <sj...@li...>
> >The worst part of it is that without a standard SG, there is no
> >way to promote the writing of generic 3D file loaders - which is
> >something that's badly needed IMHO.
> 
> Standardization is evil.  Okay, a strong statement
> to make :)  Perhaps better is to point out that
> standardization and innovation are in direct conflict.
 
So you don't use OpenGL or D3D?  You prefer to write your
own renderer and forgo the advantages of (say) a GeForce2-Ultra?

Not if you are into 'realtime' I suspect.

I bet you *once* thought that a standardized renderer would
stifle innovation - but it happened and you are still happily
innovating away.  You may once have been one of those people
who did their own T&L rather than using OpenGL because it
was stifling their innovation ... you don't hear much from
those people anymore either.

The deal is that this higher level of standardization doesn't
prevent you from innovating - it just frees you from the
bothersome details and lets you innovate at a higher level.

Standardization *becomes* necessary the moment that hardware
comes into the picture.  With increasing need to put things
into the memory of the graphics card - so will come the need
to use a standardized scene graph API.  There is no reason
why a next-gen graphics card couldn't handle all the field
of view culling and a bunch of other things automatically.

----
Science being insufficient - neither ancient protein species deficient.

Steve Baker                      (817)619-2657 (Vox/Vox-Mail)
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