Download Data Structures for Scenes, The Basics of Scene Graphs

Data Structures for Scenes,
The Basics of Scene Graphs
Glenn G. Chappell
[email protected]
U. of Alaska Fairbanks
CS 481/681 Lecture Notes
Friday, January 23, 2004
Review:
More on Drawable Objects
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We have discussed deriving various classes of drawable
objects from a base class Drawable.
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This makes it convenient to deal with drawable objects
without knowing much about them.
Thus new kinds of objects can be added to a program without
altering existing drawing code.
And all objects can be stored together in one big container.
But watch out for that last one.
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These are no good:
Drawable scenearray[MAX_DRAWABLES];
std::vector<Drawable> scenevec;
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But this is fine:
std::vector<Drawable *> scenevec;
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If you do this, make sure you handle allocation & deallocation
properly!
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Review:
Hierarchical Objects [1/3]
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By a hierarchical object we mean a
(moving) object with moving parts (that
have moving subparts that have moving
subsubparts …).
We can implement hierarchical objects
conveniently using the OpenGL matrix
stacks, as long as we follow a few rules.
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Draw all objects in “standard position”.
Handle model/view properly.
Details on the next slide …
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Review:
Hierarchical Objects [2/3]
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A function that draws an object should draw it with a “standard”
position and orientation.
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A function that draws an object should use the current
model/view transformation.
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For example, in face.cpp, all object-drawing functions draw the
object upright, centered at the origin, and fitting (roughly) within the
square in which x & y lie between –1 and 1.
Thus, the actual position, orientation, and size of the object drawn by
a function are determined by the function’s caller.
When model/view is modified, always do a push before the
modification and a pop after you are done using the modified
transformation:
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Do glPushMatrix.
Modify model/view (glTranslate*, etc.).
Use model/view (draw something).
Do glPopMatrix.
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Review:
Hierarchical Objects [3/3]
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EXAMPLE TIME
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A program to draw a movable “robot
arm” was created in class.
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Data Structures for Scenes:
Introduction
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So far, we have generally represented an object in a
program by writing a function to draw it.
In serious CG applications, this is almost never done.
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Instead, we separate data and code.
We write code to draw objects of various types.
This code is applied to various data structures, which might
be initialized from external files.
Thus, we make it easier to modify a scene.
• But harder to write the initial code, of course.
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Using some of the OO-design ideas discussed last week, we
can also allow introduction of new types of data with only
minimal modification of the code.
If a program is to draw an arbitrary scene, then we should
store the scene objects in some kind of container.
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Now we look at how this might be done.
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Data Structures for Scenes:
Talking About Trees
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But first, some tree terminology:
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Trees are made of nodes.
One node is the root.
The nodes (if any) attached immediately below a given node are its
children.
Nodes with no children are leaves.
Each node (except the root) is a child of its parent.
Root
A’s parent
A
Leaves are
shown in green.
A’s children
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Data Structures for Scenes:
Scene Containers [1/2]
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A scene could be stored as a linear sequence (array, vector, list)
of objects.
However, most often we store scenes in some kind of tree-like
structure.
Why?
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Scenes often have a natural hierarchical structure, and trees are
good for representing hierarchies.
Partial traversal of a tree can sometimes give us a good
“approximation” of a scene.
• For example, have general shapes high in the tree and details lower in the
tree. Then we can draw at a coarse level of detail by ignoring all nodes
below a certain level.
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Some tree structures allow fast queries of various sorts.
• For example, “Am I inside an object?”.
• More on this later.
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Finding a node in a tree is fast (if the tree is reasonably balanced and
has a structure that facilitates searching).
Tree traversal is just about as fast as list traversal, so there is little
performance penalty.
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Data Structures for Scenes:
Scene Containers [2/2]
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There are many types of tree-like structures for holding
scenes. Some of the ways they vary:
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Trees can be organized by how the scene is constructed
(scene graphs, CSG trees) or by spatial relationships of the
parts (BPS trees, quadtrees & octrees).
• The former helps deal with transformations & such conveniently.
The latter gets us quick answers to questions like “Am I inside an
object?” “What is the nearest object?” or helps do certain
operations like HSR efficiently.
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The order in which children are listed can have various
meanings (BSP trees, quadtrees & octrees) or no meaning
(scene graphs).
Numbers of children can vary.
• E.g., in an octree, each node can have up to 8 children.
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Are objects stored in all nodes or just in leaves?
What objects does the tree hold?
• Polygons?
• General drawable objects?
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Data Structures for Scenes:
Four Data Structures
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We will discuss four types of trees for holding scenes:
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Scene Graphs
• Organized by how the scene is constructed.
• Nodes hold objects.
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CSG Trees
• Organized by how the scene is constructed.
• Leaves hold 3-D primitives. Internal nodes hold set operations.
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BSP Trees
• Organized by spatial relationships in the scene.
• Nodes hold facets (in 3-D, polygons).
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Quadtrees & Octrees
• Organized spatially.
• Nodes represent regions in space. Leaves hold objects.
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The Basics of Scene Graphs:
Introduction
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We have already discussed
(informally) a tree structure for
holding a hierarchical object.
The organization is based on the
composition of the object.
 It helps us deal with transformations
(and moving parts with moving
subparts …) conveniently.
 This structure is a simple example of
what is called a scene graph.
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The Basics of Scene Graphs:
Structure
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Structure of a (simple) scene graph:
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Each node corresponds to a drawable object.
The children of a given node correspond to “parts” of
the object; these may be movable.
Thus, each node has a transformation. It, and all of its
descendants, are drawn with this transformation.
• The descendants have, in addition, their own
transformations.
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Data needed in each node:
• Drawable object (pointer to this?).
• Transformation (a matrix? a pointer to a matrix? a pointer
to a function that returns a matrix?).
• Pointers to child nodes.
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The Basics of Scene Graphs:
Notes
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In face.cpp, if we stored the face in a scene graph, it
might look like this:
Head
Hair
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Eye
Eye
Iris
Iris
Pupil
Pupil
Ear
Ear
Nose
L.
Mouth
R.
We can add functionality to scene graphs by putting other
things in them. In particular:
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Light sources.
Other things like light sources (e.g., environment maps).
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