The sort-first architecture for real-time image generation
The sort-first architecture for real-time image generation
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发表时间：
2000
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通讯作者：
A. Lastra;C. Mueller
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作者：
A. Lastra;C. Mueller
实时计算机图形领域一直在将硬件能力推向极限。不仅需要增加所显示模型的复杂性，而且还需要增加图像的分辨率。为了提供交互式图形的终极功能，我们开发了完全并行化的系统，该系统可在图形管道的所有主要阶段渲染多个多边形。北卡罗来纳大学的研究人员设计了此类架构的分类法，将这些类命名为“sort-first”、“sort-middle”和“sort-last”[MOLN91、MOLN94]。虽然后两者已经得到了很好的探索和开发，但排序优先却没有，尽管它为实时渲染提供了巨大的希望。优先排序比中间排序具有优势，因为它可以利用交互式应用程序中固有的帧到帧一致性来减少在处理器之间发送原语所需的通信带宽。先排序还比后排序有一个优势，因为它不需要大量的通信带宽来处理像素流量。基于这些优势，我们的论文指出，排序优先是最适合快速渲染复杂模型数据集的高分辨率图像的架构。然而，为了支持这篇论文，我们必须展示如何有效地实现排序优先。阻碍排序优先实现的主要问题是负载平衡和迁移原始数据库的管理。本论文对这些问题进行了深入探讨。我们演示了一种新的自适应负载平衡方法（也适用于中间排序），该方法允许以较低的开销实现高效的负载分配。我们还展示了两种用于管理迁移基元的分层数据库的解决方案方法。此外，我们首先通过检查设计示例，然后通过提供与中间排序的比较来检查排序优先的通信要求。我们的研究表明，排序优先是一种可行且非常有竞争力的架构。当复杂的保留模式数据集需要非常高分辨率的渲染时，它的优势使其成为理想的选择。虽然本文为排序优先的实现扫清了道路，但该领域仍有许多进一步探索的机会。
The field of real-time computer graphics has been pushing hardware capability to its limits. There is demand to increase not only the complexity of the models that are displayed, but also the resolution of the images. To provide the ultimate power for interactive graphics, fully-parallelized systems have been developed which work on rendering multiple polygons at all major stages of the graphics pipeline. UNC researchers have devised a taxonomy of such architectures, naming the classes “sort-first,” “sort-middle,” and “sort-last” [MOLN91, MOLN94]. While the latter two have been well explored and developed, sort-first has not, despite the fact that it offers great promise for real-time rendering. Sort-first offers an advantage over sort-middle in that it can take advantage of the frame-to-frame coherence that is inherent in interactive applications to reduce the communications bandwidth needed to send primitives among processors. Sort-first also offers an advantage over sort-last in that it does not require huge amounts of communication bandwidth to deal with pixel traffic. Based upon these advantages, our thesis states that sort-first is the architecture best suited for rapidly rendering very high-resolution images of complex model datasets. However, to support this thesis, we must show how sort-first can be implemented efficiently. The main issues standing in the way of sort-first implementation are load balancing and management of a migrating primitive database. These issues are explored thoroughly in this dissertation. We demonstrate a new adaptive load-balancing method (applicable to sort-middle as well) which allows for efficient load distribution with low overhead. We also show two solution methods for managing a hierarchical database of migrating primitives. In addition we examine the communications requirements for sort-first, first by examining a design example and later by providing a comparison against sort-middle. Our research shows that sort-first is a viable and very competitive architecture. Its strengths make it the ideal choice when very high-resolution rendering is needed for complex, retained-mode datasets. While this dissertation clears the way for sort-first implementation, there are still many opportunities for further exploration in this area.