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GeoReal is a set of applications and a software development library
for the real-time animation of Carbon Graphics GEO files. GeoReal
utilizes the Scene Graph technology as its core building block. To this was added
a complete set of SDK APIs tailored to the target application. These SDK APIs
were then used to develop the run-time applications delivered with GeoReal.
Though GeoReal targets running GEO files, the applications, SDK, and core
technology are NOT limited to GEO files. There is simply a GEO loader component
used to load the models. After loading, all of the work is accomplished via generic
components. Any format which can support animation could be supported
by the technology.
Driving Animation
Carbon Graphics GEO files, like Coryphaeus Designer's Workbench (DWB) files,
contain behavior / animation information for the 3D model.
The animation behaviors allow for external variables
to drive them. Carbon Graphics does not offer an application to run these
files outside the modeler, or a mechanism to drive them from existing
simulations. GeoReal provides the capability to run the GEO file and
to drive the animation using existing simulation data via Shared Memory, TCP/IP,
UDP, and data files. Absolutely no programming at all is required.
Applications Versus SDK
GeoReal comes as both a standalone applications (one has a GUI, the other is a complete
command line application) or as a SDK. If you just need to animate files in a window, you can
use either of the provided applications. If you want to integrate into your application,
you can use the SDK to have GeoReal draw into its own window or one of yours. The SDK
comes with example applications to illustrate how to use it various scenarios.
The SDK provides the ability to directly drive the animation from the application code. Therefore
if your application wants to integrate a real-time display but you don't want/need to use a
communication mechanism, the SDK is for you. The application can request animation variable
objects from the GeoReal SDK and directly set/get values on them immediately affecting the
real-time display.
Compile-Time versus Run-Time
Some companies will claim that the "no programming" model is flawed. They will claim that
you must use a compile time environment. What is meant by compile-time is that every file
must be compiled into code for it to be run. (Some companies refer to this as a "Code Generation"
option.) The compile-time concept does not handle the scenario
of products which require the ability to reconfigure a cockpit layout, but designers NOT
omputer engineers! A designer does not want nor need to compile everytime to see how well their
layout works IN the product. With GeoReal, just save the file from GEO, and run your
product (or run GeoReal) and you will see how well it works! The only time you need to compile
with GeoReal is when you have modified the code used to integrate GeoReal into your
product.
Configuration Files
The GeoReal GUI application allows all of the display and communication configuration to
be set and tested. The configuration can then be saved in a GeoReal configuration file
which can be loaded by the GeoReal applications and SDK. These configuration files can
even be shared between different models to be loaded.
Tired of searching for resources (textures, fonts, etc.)? Don't worry, the GeoReal GUI
and configuration files contain search paths for resources. Now you can place all the key
textures in one directory and just tell GeoReal to search here if the paths in the models
don't point to the necessary resources!
Usage
GeoReal allows users to run their GEO files with their existing
simulations without any programming. They can change their GEO files.
They can change their communication mechanisms. All without effecting
their use of GeoReal. In the past this mechanism has been
popular to animation aircraft instrumentation displays. The
"out-the-window" display and the instruments can share a data source,
for the same simulation but be developed with very different technology.
In this case, the Scene Graph used is actually a scene graph that is
ideally suited for out-the-window display so it would be possible to
use the same technology for both.
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