Comparing OpenSG and OpenSceneGraph

This page tries to give an exhaustive point-by-point comparison of OpenSG's and OpenSceneGraph's (including OpenThreads and OpenProducer) features. It is split into logical pieces to keep it more manageable, and to have a natural spot for explanations, as not everything can really be described by a check mark.

The comparison is given for OpenSG version 1.8 (i.e. the current CVS head)

1. Fundamentals
2. OpenGL Support
3. Multi-Threading
4. Clustering
5. Node Types
6. I/O
7. Windows/Viewports?
8. Advanced Techniques
9. Extensions
10. 3rd Party tools

Fundamentals

1.8

2.0

OSG

Vector library

(./)

(./)

(./)1

Reflective Core

(./)

(./)

(./)

₁

Support provided through an OSG introspection plugin.

OpenGL Support

1.8

2.0

OSG

Single Textures

(./)

(./)

(./)

Multi Textures

(./)

(./)

(./)

ARB Shaders

(./)

(./)

(./)

GLSL Shaders

(./)

(./)

(./)

Multi-Threading

Clustering

1.8

2.0

OSG

Cluster possible

(./)

(./)

{X}1

"Simple" clustering

(./)2

(./)2

{X}

Sort-First Rendering

(./)

(./)

{X}

Sort-Last Rendering

(./)

(./)

{X}

₁

The distribution contains an example on how to do clustering, but the system itself doesn't give any support for it.

₂

Because of OpenSG's use of changelists, clustering is supported nearly automatically and is very simple to setup. See the cluster examples in the documentation.

Node Types

I/O

External formats supported in the released packages, not counting externally provided loaders).

• Split into image/scene/archive?
  

• Many of these format names where pasted from OpenSceneGraph's plugin directoy. I'm not sure all names/extensions are correct. /ML

Those types listed supported by OpenSG 1.8 and not 2.0 will be be ported into the 2.0 release.

1.8

2.0

OSG

Comment

Model Formats

3dc

{X}

{X}

(./)

Point cloud data

3ds

(./)

(./)

(./)

3D Studio 3.x/4.x (Writable and readable by 3D Studio Max)

ac

{X}

{X}

(./)

AC3D scene

arcinfo

(./)3

{X}

{X}

ARCInfo scene

bsp

{X}

{X}

(./)

Quake Data ??

bpoly

(./)3

{X}

{X}

Side Effects Software PRISMS binary

collada

{X}

(./)

(./)

Collada scene

csb

(./)3

{X}

{X}

SGI Optimizer binary format

dae

{X}

{X}

(./)

Collada digital asset exchange

dat

(./)

(./)

{X}

directx (.x)

{X}

{X}

(./)

DirectX model file

dw

{X}

{X}

(./)

Designer Workshop scene

dxf

(./)

{X}

(./)

AutoCAD drawing (2D or 3D model)

exr

(./)

{X}

{X}

OpenEXR scene

flt

(./)3

{X}

(./)

OpenFlight scene

gdal

{X}

{X}

(./)

http://gdal.org/

geo

{X}

{X}

(./)

Carbon Graphics GEO

iv

(./)34

{X}

(./)

Inventor scene

ive

{X}

{X}

(./)

OpenSceneGraph native binary format

lwo

{X}

{X}

(./)

Lightwave object

lws

{X}

{X}

(./)

Lightwave scene

md2

{X}

{X}

(./)

Quake 2 model

mtd

(./)

(./)

(./)

nff

(./)3

{X}

{X}

Eric Haines' ray tracing test data format

obj

(./)

(./)

(./)

Alias|Wavefront scene (predecessor to Maya)

off

(./)

{X}

{X}

Object File Format

osb

(./)

(./)

{X}

OpenSG native binary format

pfb

(./)3

{X}

(./)

Performer scene

ply

(./)

{X}

{X}

Stanford PLY format

shp

{X}

{X}

(./)

ESRI Shapefile

slp

(./)

{X}

{X}

stl

(./)

(./)

(./)

stereolithography CAD

txp

{X}

{X}

(./)

TerraPage terrain

vtk

{X}

(./)

{X}

Visualization Toolkit file

vrml (.wrl)

(./)

(./)

(./)

VRML scene

Image Formats

bmp

(./)

(./)

(./)

Windows Bitmap image

dds

(./)

(./)

(./)

DirectDraw? surface

exr

(./)

{X}

{X}

OpenEXR image

gif

(./)

(./)

(./)

GIF image

hdr

(./)

(./)

(./)

HDRI image (OpenEXR format)

jp2

(./)

{X}

(./)

Jasper (JPEG 2000)

jpeg

(./)

(./)

(./)

JPEG image

mng

(./)

(./)

(./)

Multiple-image Network Graphics

nrrd

(./)

{X}

{X}

pic

{X}

{X}

(./)

SGI picture image format

png

(./)

(./)

(./)

Portable Network Graphics

pnm

(./)

(./)

(./)

Portable AnyMap (variants PPM, PGM, PBM)

psd

(./)

{X}

{X}

PhotoShop image

qt

{X}

{X}

(./)

QuickTime image only (no movie)

raw

(./)

{X}

{X}

Raw image data

rgb

{X}

{X}

(./)

SGI rgb image format

sgi

(./)

{X}

{X}

SGI rgb image format

tga

(./)

(./)

(./)

TARGA image

tif

(./)

(./)

(./)

Tagged Image File Format image

xine

{X}

{X}

(./)

Meta loaders

rot, scale, trans

{X}

{X}

(./)

OpenSceneGraph loaders for modifying base transformation.

net

{X}

{X}

(./)

OpenSceneGraph metaloader for reading data over network

normals

{X}

{X}

(./)

Adds normals to file on load

tgz

{X}

{X}

(./)2

TAR-GZipped archive

zip

{X}

{X}

(./)2

ZIP archive

₂

OpenSceneGraph uses external programs (unzip and tar) to support these archive formats.

₃

Can be loaded using the OpenGL Performer converter from Contrib, needs installed Performer libraries

₄

Can be loaded using the Open Inventor converter from Contrib, needs installed Open Inventor libraries

Performer loader source is in $PFROOT/usr/share/Performer/src/lib/libpfdb if performer-devel is installed

OSG loader source can be found here:  http://openscenegraph.org/viewcvs/src/osgPlugins/

OpenSG Loader source can be found here: http://www.opensg.org/browser/trunk/Source/System/FileIO

It would be nice to have a poll somewhere about what the most important formats are to add to OpenSG

Windows/Viewports?

Advanced Techniques

1.8

2.0

OSG

Occlusion Culling

(./)

(./)

{X}

Small-feature culling

(./)

(./)

(./)

Imposters

{X}

{X}

(./)

CLOD Terrain

{X}

{X}

(./)

ShadowMaps?

(./)

(./)

{X}

Extensions

3rd Party tools