Study on the hybrid software architecture of distributed parallel rendering system for virtual design

The application of virtual environments (VEs) to the product design and development process has intrigued researchers and practitioners in industry, government, and academia in recent years. To meet the characteristics and the requirements of virtual design, VDPR, a distributed parallel rendering software infrastructure, which combines the advantages of immediate-mode frame and retained-mode frame, is put forward in this paper. By transmitting the model operation event rather than the modified model from master node to the render node, the network bandwidth is freed from unnecessary transmission of excessive graphics commands and data, and the mix-mode frame decreases the network communication flux greatly. Furthermore, the application can implement efficient dynamic database updates based on distributed objects and capture the face data of product model for rendering from the client application. The problems including software architecture of parallel rendering systems, alignment of projectors, synchronization of displays in distributed parallel rendering systems and so on are investigated in detail in this paper. Finally, overall display performance is given. The aim of constructing the display system is to build a large-scale, high resolution, immersive virtual environment supporting users´ collaboration for virtual design, and it shows great promise for manufacturing industry to raise productivity, improve product quality, shorten lead times, reduce costs and improve competition ability in a global environment.