Equalizer - Parallel Rendering

We are pleased to announce the release of Equalizer 0.5, a framework for the development and deployment of parallel OpenGL applications. Equalizer 0.5 focuses on scalability, most notably by adding pixel compounds for fill-rate-bound applications and ... [More] a 2-4x performance increase during sort-last compositing. The Programming Guide has been extended to 43 pages and covers various new topics. Preview the content and order your hardcopy today at lulu.com!Equalizer 0.5 now uses GLEW to provide easy-to-use OpenGL extension handling in parallel OpenGL applications. The new support for off-screen PBuffers on all platforms opens new use cases for Equalizer-based applications, for example seamless integration for scalability on multi-GPU workstations. Where available, image compression during network transfer has been accelerated using OpenMP.We would like to thank all individuals and parties who have contributed to the development of Equalizer 0.5. (0 comments) [Less]

As promised, here is the release of Equalizer 0.5: We are pleased to announce the release of Equalizer 0.5, a framework for the development and deployment of parallel OpenGL applications. Equalizer 0.5 adds a number of features to increase the ... [More] scalability, most notably pixel compounds for fill-rate-bound applications and a 2-4x performance increase during [...] [Less]

The Equalizer 0.5 release was planned for end of February, but then a couple of conferences got in between. Now it is already April, and we are back to it. You can already get the programming guide, either as as a hardcopy or as a download, after filling out a short survey. Have a look at the [...]

I’ve just uploaded a white paper showing how much difference a parallel OpenGL application can make on a multi-GPU, multi-core workstation. We have been able to increase the rendering performance from 5.2 frames per second to 20.7 FPS for the medium-sized data set, and from 2.1 FPS to 9.7 FPS for the large data set. Get [...]

Three years ago today, I started at the University of Zürich with the goal to develop an open parallel rendering toolkit for the 21st century, using Equalizer as the project name. In the last year, Equalizer made big steps in facilitating application ... [More] porting, driven by the successful integration into a major commercial application. We broadened support [...] [Less]

Benjamin has a nice article on using secondary threads to offload some CPU-intensive operations. I’ve played around with this some time ago with and created a small example for X11/glX-based systems, which I neglected lately. I’m sure some of you find Benjamin’s article useful, and may want to use glAsync as a starting point. [...]

Some time ago I mentioned that an Ogre3D-based Equalizer example application is coming. Meanwhile I’ve integrated the code from Hui Chang into the Equalizer tree under src/contrib/eqOgre. Hui will be the one extending and maintaining this code. You ... [More] can read about the progress in his blog. I’m counting on him and the community to look after this. [...] [Less]

It seems that 2008 will be the year of performance for Equalizer. I’ve just commited the first version of CPU-based depth assembly to the Equalizer code base. The algorithm first assembles all images into a memory buffer on the CPU, and then transfers the result to the GPU using the default algorithm (GLSL in [...]

Equalizer just got a lot faster for database (sort-last) compounds. The problem with the recomposition is that if you are using a fixed-function pipeline the standard algorithm is using stencilling and glDrawPixels. The latter is dreadfully slow for ... [More] depth values, since the depth and stencil values are interleaved in the frame buffer. Equalizer’s new default algorithm [...] [Less]

Some of you might already have seen it, but it’s a nice hack to get cheap head tracking with a Wii Remote: If you are new to VR - he gives an easily understandable explanation how head tracking works. And the video manages to show the effect quite well. Now if I only had the time to [...]