The sort-first rendering architecture for high-performance graphics
The sort-first rendering architecture for high-performance graphics
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DOI：
10.1145/199404.199417
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发表时间：
1995-04
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影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
C. Mueller
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文献类型：
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作者：
C. Mueller
长期以来，交互式图形应用程序一直在挑战图形系统设计者，因为它们要求机器能够提供不断提高的多边形渲染性能。交互图形的另一个趋势是越来越多地使用像素数远远超过通常所认为的“高分辨率”的显示设备。如果我们检查高性能渲染系统的体系结构空间，我们会发现只有一个体系结构类别承诺用非常高的分辨率显示来提供高多边形性能，并以高效的方式做到这一点。它被称为“排序优先”。我们首先研究Sort-First体系结构，首先将其与其体系结构类伙伴(Sort-Medium和Sort-Last)进行比较。我们发现，Sort-First具有一种固有的能力，可以利用交互式应用程序中的帧到帧一致性。我们通过一组测试应用程序的模拟来检验这一能力，并展示了它如何降低Sort-First的通信需求，从而降低其并行开销。我们还探讨了排序优先的负载均衡问题，并引入了一种新的自适应算法来解决这个问题。另外的仿真实验证明了该算法的有效性。最后，我们讨论了为了实现Sort-First的最终承诺而必须解决的各种问题：无数像素的数百万个多边形。
Interactive graphics applications have long been challenging graphics system designers by demanding machines that can provide ever increasing polygon rendering performance. Another trend in interactive graphics is the growing use of display devices with pixel counts well beyond what is usually considered “high-resolution.” If we examine the architectural space of high-performance rendering systems, we discover only one architectural class that promises to deliver high polygon performance with very-high-resolution displays and do so in an efficient manner. It is known as “sort-first.” We investigate the sort-first architecture, starting with a comparison to its architectural class mates (sort-middle and sort-last). We find that sort-first has an inherent ability to take advantage of the frame-to-frame coherence found in interactive applications. We examine this ability through simulation with a set of test applications and show how it reduces sort-first's communication needs and therefore its parallel overhead. We also explore the issue of load-balancing with sort-first and introduce a new adaptive algorithm to solve this problem. Additional simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of this algorithm. Finally, we touch on a variety of issues that must be resolved in order to fulfill sort-first's ultimate promise: millions of polygons for zillions of pixels.