Managing Deformable Objects in Cluster Rendering

This paper presents DRS (Distributed Rendering System), a software library for rendering dynamic 3D scenes on low cost Virtual Reality (VR) computers. This library allows the distribution of object descriptions and geometries over several graphics nodes of a PC cluster for synchronized rendering. The objects can be dynamic: in particular DRS can manage deformable objects over time. Data compression is put to profit to optimize transfer of objects geometry over the cluster nodes. This library allows real-time VR rendering on PC clusters for applications where objects are highly deformable, such as solid modeling or simulation. DRS is available as a set of C++ classes to manage the 3D objects as well as their synchronized distribution and rendering. We present experimental results in the form of examples of applications successfully ported to inexpensive distributed Virtual Reality hardware thanks to DRS.