The HLA/RTI architecture is far more sophisticated than what might be needed.
The idea is not to split FlightGear into a distributed, federated application
across a multi-platform machine or network although that is an intriquing
prospect for stimulating the brain cells. ;-)
By way of an example, consider the 3D cloud system.
Given a three projector system, each CPU is configured in a similar manner as
before for a multi-monitor system; i.e. there is a master FDM, the slave FDMs
are disabled and each CPU is bound to a display. I don't recall the exact
syntax but for those who have run multi-monitor display systems you understand.
The doc files and readme's provide a good description of how to implement this
configuration for those not familiar with the setup. The down side in this
approach is that each CPU creates it's own graphics context and dynamic/random
scenery objects are not sync'd. It has been a year or two since I last spent
any time digging into or running FlightGear with master/slave machines. The
current 737/747 sim runs on a single CPU with three projectors to make use of
all the "eye-candy". But I believe the above assertion is still true.
In the case of the cloud system, something similar might be possible. Rather
than using the network, we would use shared memory as the IPC. The master cloud
generator creates the shared memory segment and manages the cloud objects. The
slaves obtain the objects from the memory segment and render as required. They
do NOT create their own objects. AI objects could be handled as well with this
approach.
Each fgfs executable is still a monolithic process within the supporting CPU
and would not require major surgery on the existing source outside of adding a
shared memory instantiation. The question would be how to make it applicable
for all platforms. Linux I can do, clueless for Mac and MS.
With Gene and Wayne's awesome work on collimated displays, have a proto version
of the required warping code and mesh generation working ala Sol7 ( btw I owe
Mathias a response and some data and source, my bad, just too busy ATM ).
Providing a basic mechanism to run with multi-core machines, support collimated
display systems, and preserve all the great new features would greatly enhance
Flightgear as a professional product. IMHO we need to keep the vision of
FlightGear as a product that is attractive to professional organizations and
keep it compatible with improving hardware and software technologies.
Regards
John W
----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Spott" <martin.sp...@mgras.net>
To: flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2012 7:18:47 AM
Subject: Re: [Flightgear-devel] Slow frame rates
castle...@comcast.net wrote:
> Multi-core machines have been around for some time now. Perhaps it is
> time to think beyond running Flighgear as a monolithic process in a
> single CPU configuration.
As a start you may want to visit:
http://www.mail-archive.com/flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net/msg30433.html
As far as I can tell, splitting the monolithic process is steadily
getting more difficult (despite the fact that almost everybody would
like to see improved multi-core support), because recent eye-candy
development relies on having a monolithic FlightGear - and eye-candy is
attracting flies ....
Cheers,
Martin.
--
Unix _IS_ user friendly - it's just selective about who its friends are !
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