Welcome to Equalizer 0.5, a framework for the development and deployment of parallel, scalable OpenGL applications. Equalizer 0.5 adds a new 'pixel' task decomposition mode for fill-rate bound applications such as raytracing and volume rendering, and speeds up database (sort-last) decompositions significantly.
Equalizer 0.5 is a beta release, and therefore targeted towards application developers and early adopters.
Features
Equalizer provides the following major features to facilitate the development and deployment of scalable OpenGL applications. A detailed feature list can be found on the Equalizer website.
- Runtime Configurability: An Equalizer application can run on any configuration, from laptops to large scale visualization clusters, without recompilation. The runtime configuration is externalized from the application to a systemwide resource server.
- Runtime Scalability: An Equalizer application can use multiple CPU's, GPU's and computers to scale the rendering performance of a single view.
- Distributed Execution: Equalizer applications can be written to support cluster-based execution. The task of distributing the application data is facilitated by support for versioned, distributed objects.
- Support for Stereo and Immersive Environments: Equalizer supports both active and passive stereo rendering, as well as the head tracking, which is required for immersive Virtual Reality installations.
New in this release
The following features, bug fixes and documentation changes where introduced in this release:
New Features
- Pixel compounds to accelerate fill-bound applications
- GLEW integration for simplified OpenGL extension handling in a multi-context environment
- Improved eVolve volume rendering example
- Pluggable window initialization
- Off-screen rendering support using PBuffers
- Interoperability between Mac OS X and Windows XP (same endianess, Linux is untested)
Performance Improvements
- Much increased DB (sort-last) assembly performance using a mixture of GLSL-based and CPU-based compositing
- Improved network pixel transfer using parallel image compression through OpenMP
- Pluggable window initialization
Bug Fixes
Equalizer 0.5 includes various bugfixes over the previous release, including the following:
- 1831090: Session::mapObject() might deadlock
- 1839291: Initial window size is too small on Win32
- 1842242: Bug with exiting examples on linux
Documentation
The Programming Guide has been extended to 43 pages. The following documentation has been added:
Removed Features
None
Supported Platforms
Equalizer is a cross-platform toolkit, designed to run on any modern operating system, including all Unix variants and the Windows operating system. A compatibility matrix can be found on the Equalizer website. Version 0.5 has been tested on:
Operating System Support
- Linux: Ubuntu 6.10 (x64, i386), RHEL4 (x64, i386)
- Windows: XP with Visual Studio 2005 (i386, x64) and Cygwin (i386)
- Mac OS X: 10.5 (PowerPC, i386)
Window System Support
- X11: Full support for all documented features.
- WGL: Full support for all documented features.
- AGL: Full support for all documented features.
Documentation
The Programming Guide is part of the Equalizer and can be found online. Equalizer does not yet have an Users Guide. The shipped eqPly example provides a reference for developing or porting applications. The Developer Documentation on the website provides further design documents for specific features. The source code is a last resort for information.
Support
Technical questions can be posted to the Developer Mailing List, or directly to info@equalizergraphics.com.
Commercial support, custom software development and porting services are available from EyeScale. Please contact info@eyescale.ch for further information.
