Hi All,
André Garneau has kindly beavered away on our behalf and developed a
GrpahicsWindowWin32 implementation. A cvs update will get all the
required changes, and finally a short absence the OSG examples should
work once more on all platforms ;-)
André sent along some release notes that I'm including below.
A couple of the points below are good topics for discussion as they
reflect further extensions to the GraphicsContext/Window framework
that I've put in place.
Have fun!
Robert.
--
=============================
OSG Viewer component on Win32
=============================
This file contains the release notes for the Win32 implementation of
the windowing interface
supporting the new cross-platform OSG Viewer (osgViewer) component.
--------
Contents
--------
The following information is discussed in this document:
1. Purpose of this release
2. Implemented features (and planned ones)
3. Known issues and limitations
4. Build/installation notes
5. Usage & testing
6. Support
-----------------------------------------
1. Purpose of this release (and features)
-----------------------------------------
This release is a snapshot of the current development taking place for
the implementation
of graphics window support on the Win32 platform.
This release is alpha-level software (not all features implemented,
not fully tested).
The above disclaimer said, many usage contexts have been tested to
ensure that the release is
worthy of initial distribution to the OSG community. Should you
encounter issues with it, please
provide feedback and bug reports so we can resolve them.
------------------------------------------
2. Implemented features (and planned ones)
------------------------------------------
This release contains the following features
--------------------------------------------
* Support of rendering across multi-monitor setups (in this release,
only monitors attached
to the Windows desktop are supported)
* Rendering can be done full-screen or in Windows with/without decorations
* Full multi-threaded rendering support
* Bug fixes for multi-threading issues discovered in the Core OSG library
What this release does not implement yet (planned features)
-----------------------------------------------------------
* Support for rendering in pbuffers
* Shared graphic contexts (can be specified but is ignored)
* v-sync programmatic support (still need to be configured at the
driver control panel level)
* Support for display devices not attached to the Windows desktop
-------------------------------
3. Known issues and limitations
-------------------------------
Known issues
------------
* SEV2: When window decorations are turned on/off repeatedly, window
content may stop refreshing
* SEV2: Moving a rendering window from one display device to another
display device may cause
texturing to disappear
* SEV3: Mouse support when going from one screen to another screen
needs improvement (usability issue)
* SEV4: When a window is moved, rendering is frozen (standard
Windows-behavior). A workaround would be
to dedicate a single-thread for all window event processing
* SEV5: Display devices not attached to the desktop cannot be used.
Workaround is to add them
to the desktop until the features becomes available.
The following OSG examples fail to execute because of missing features:
* osgslice (port to the OSG Viewer implementation is not complete)
* osgprerendercubemap (missing pbuffer support)
* osgsimulation (missing pbuffer support)
* osgtexture3d (to be defined - possibly a bug in the Win32
implementation)
Current limitations (and possible extensions)
---------------------------------------------
* Implementation is missing a number of useful graphic trait options :
(needs to be discussed with Robert)
- topMostWindow flag
Forces rendering window to remain on top of other ones in all conditions
(including the taskbar even if not fully covered)
- fullScreen flag
Indicates that specified resolution in the graphic traits is
for the full-screen
(on-the-fly resolution change for display devices)
- refreshRate value
Indicates at which frequency the display device should be driven
- frameRate value
Indicates the target frequency for frame update (ideally equal
to refreshRate)
The implementation will derive the vsync-divider from this.
- hideCursor flag
Indicates that the mouse pointer should be hidden when
hovering above the rendering window
---------------------------
4. Build/installation notes
---------------------------
The Win32 implementation is provided in the following files:
applications
osgviewer
=> osgviewer.cpp
osgViewer
include
=> GraphicsWindowWin32.h
src
=> GraphicsWindowWin32.cpp
VisualStudio
icons
=> osg_icon.rc
=> osg.ico
=> producer.ico
* These files must be added to the osgViewer core library project.
* If not already done, the OSG example projects and applications must be updated
to include the dependency on the osgViewer core project.
* In addition to these files, it is strongly recommended to update the
following files
(which include multi-threading bug fixes). Failure to update these
files will likely
result in random crashes at rendering window-initialization time:
osg/src
FrameBufferObject.cpp
GLExtensions.cpp
Texture.cpp
To test the correct operation of a new installation, try the following command
from a command shell:
osgcamera -1 -c cow.osg { to create a single screen view }
osgcamera -2 -c cow.osg { to create a multi-screen view }
--------------------
5. Usage and testing
--------------------
Usage
-----
To setup the display devices, the new osgViewer component uses the
term DISPLAY and SCREEN,
following the X11 terminology. In the Windows world, there is only one
Window Manager, so
this translates to a system allowing only one X-11 type display.
However, like X11, this
display can have one or more SCREENS attached to it (what X11 calls
screens, are known as
display devices in the Windows terminology).
When creating a screen configuration, use the Windows display ID as
the screen number *MINUS 1*.
To determine the display ID assigned by Windows:
1. Right-click on the Windows desktop
2. Select Properties...
3. Select Settings tab
4. The display ID will be present on the monitor icons.
Alternatively press the Identify button to see them on each screen.
Example
-------
A four monitor setup would define the following graphic traits:
Monitor 1: traits->displayNum = 0;
traits->screenNum = 0; // first graphic card, first screen
... (other traits)
Monitor 2: traits->displayNum = 0;
traits->screenNum = 1; // first graphic card, second screen
... (other traits)
Monitor 3: traits->displayNum = 0;
traits->screenNum = 2; // second graphic card, first screen
... (other traits)
Monitor 4: traits->displayNum = 0;
traits->screenNum = 3; // second graphic card, second screen
... (other traits)
The important thing to remember is that under Windows, the displayNum
field must always be 0.
Each screen ID goes from 0 to n-1 where n is the total number of
screens present in the system.
Testing
-------
This release has been tested on an Athlon 4200+ X2 (dual core) based
computer with an
Nvidia 9700GT graphic card. Testing was performed on single and
dual-head setups.
No testing has been done on ATI-based configurations and multi-graphic card
setups (3 or more screens), so testing feedback on these setups is welcomed.
Performance assessments are still to be conducted, and should be easier once
osgViewer statistics are available.
----------
6. Support
----------
This work is my contribution to the OpenSceneGraph community. As a
seasoned visual
systems developer/consultant, I did my best to ensure that it can be
useful in its
first incarnation even if it may not be fully polished. With support from the
community through active testing, feedback and bug reports, this implementation
should mature quite rapidly.
For feedback, suggestions or bug reports, please use the existing
osg-users mailing
list. Since I sometime queue messages from this list in my inbox for a
few hours,
you can also reach me directly, if more appropriate (or urgent), at my
email address
below.
Andre Garneau ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Visual System Consultant
PIXDEV inc.
27 des Souverains
Blainville (QC)
J7C 5A9
CANADA
_______________________________________________
osg-users mailing list
osg-users@openscenegraph.net
http://openscenegraph.net/mailman/listinfo/osg-users
http://www.openscenegraph.org/
