View of /trunk/src/examples/eqPly/README

                          Parallel Polygonal Renderer
Overview
   The eqPly example is the primary Equalizer sample implementation. It does
   render polygonal data, read from a ply file. I supports all Equalizer
   compound features, namely 2D (sort-first), DB (sort-last) and Eye (stereo)
   decompositions. In DB mode, each contributor renders it's part of a model
   in a different color to illustrate the database decomposition.
Application Structure
   As any Equalizer application, eqPly consists of the main application and
   the rendering clients. In this simple example, they are both contained in
   the same executable. The executable can also be run as a resident render
   client, which is used to pre-launch rendering nodes manually.
  Application Main Loop
   The main application is driving the rendering, that is, it controls the
   execution flow by receiving events from the render nodes, acting on these
   events and by issuing the rendering of new frames. It does not execute any
   rendering code.
  Render Nodes
   The main function executes first eq::init(), which will not return when
   the program is launched by the server as a render client. The Equalizer
   library connects the render client to the server, and receives commands
   from this server. The individual rendering entities --nodes, pipes,
   windows, channels-- are created using the NodeFactory. On these entities,
   various functions, e.g. init, update and exit, are called based on the
   commands received from the server. These callback functions typically
   receive an identifier defined by the application to provide contextual
   information. For example, the node's init method receives the identifier
   of the InitData object, as defined by the application. It instanciates the
   object and loads the polygonal model named by the InitData. A seperate
   document describes all task methods.
  Event Processing
   Equalizer collects events for all windows asynchronously and sends them to
   the application thread, where they are processed at the end of the frame
   by Config::handleEvent. This example implements a trackball, move and zoom
   mouse interaction, as well as some keystroke commands. A seperate document
   describes the event handling.
Usage
 USAGE:
    ./eqPly  [-c unsigned short] [-n unsigned] [-b] [-p string] [-m
             string] [--] [--version] [-h]
 Where:
    -c unsigned short,  --client unsigned short
      Run as resident render client
    -n unsigned,  --numFrames unsigned
      Maximum number of rendered frames
    -b,  --bw
      Don't use colors from ply file
    -p string,  --port string
      tracking device port
    -m string,  --model string
      ply model file name
    --,  --ignore_rest
      Ignores the rest of the labeled arguments following this flag.
    --version
      Displays version information and exits.
    -h,  --help
      Displays usage information and exits.