StubeRena
Studierstube Render Array -
A Seamless Tiled Display

We created a seamless tiled display with a networked PC cluster which we called StubeRenA. In this project we examined different approaches taken by other research groups to build a tiled display. The goal is to create a seamless tiled display using mid-range projectors and a computer cluster. The computers within the cluster are autonomous and connected via a network to form an integrated facility. A 3D scene is distributed among and rendered by all nodes of the cluster. Each node within the cluster drive one or more displays to show the rendered scene. By using projectors as displays we can create a seamless tiled display. The advantage of this display type is its high resolution and the possibility to render tiled specific parts of the shared scene. When we use N projectors, each node that renders to a projector has only to generate 1/N of the whole scenery. So with tile specific volume clipping we can improve the overall performance of the tiled display.

We used our "Studierstube" framework to render a shared scene graph. The Studierstube system is a multi-user, mulit-task 3D rendering system based on Open Inventor. With its abilities to render virtual scenes for multiple users and to share a scene graph among different computers, we have little work to do to drive the tiled display. We extended our system to counteract distortion and seams due to oblique and overlapping projection.

The StubeRenA is a light-weight and transportable tiled display. Since the StubeRenA can handle oblique projections, front projection can be used in small rooms like office rooms. This allows the user to set up the tiled display in small rooms and arrange the projectors as space permits.

Introduction

Seamless tiled displays provide very high resolutions and offer an overview and a high-detail look of a scenery at the same time. These displays can be used to visulalize and explore scientific data. Imagine a CAD scene rendered on a tiled display, one can examine fine details while watching the whole blueprint. This offers a new sight to data and its visualisation. The presentation semantics of tiled displays are different to a normal desktop computer. Tiled displays can be used to show information to a huge adience. With its high-resolution ability an the integration of different presentation techniques and styles can result in a better understanding of the presented information.

Using a tiled display with Studierstube

We extended our Studierstube framework to render to a tiled display. This gives us the opportunity to run already existing Studierstube applications on the StubeRenA. The profound research and work behind the Studierstube makes this extension very easy. Since the Studierstube is based on top of Open Inventor, we created new nodes to make the Studierstube system ready to handle a tiled display. This extension include a camera node that can handle oblique projection, a blending mask node that blends images in overlapping projections, and a synchronization node that synchronize the frame buffer switch of all stations within the render cluster. We exploit the multi-user ability of the Studierstube framework to render a shared scene on the different render stations. In the StubeRenA each station runs an instance of the Studierstube system, and a virtual user renders the tile specific scenery.

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StubeRena Studierstube Render Array - A Seamless Tiled Display

Introduction

Using a tiled display with Studierstube

StubeRena
Studierstube Render Array -
A Seamless Tiled Display