R3vis Corporation - Current News & Events

3 November 2003
Check out Tim Rightnour's use of OpenRM in a first person RPG.
8 October 2003
Check out Paul Beardsley's use of OpenRM in a very cool project.
8 October 2003
OpenRM Activities at IEEE Visualization 2003. IEEE Visualization 2003 is being held October 19-24, 2003 in lovely Seattle, Washington. There are a several OpenRM-related activities on the program:
- Sunday October 19, 2003. Bethel will be giving an overview of the OpenRM+Chromium sort-first, distributed memory parallel achitecture at the Parallel Visualization and Graphics Workshop being held on Sunday's program.
- Monday October 20, 2003. Bethel will be delivering the paper "Sort-First, Distributed Memory Parallel Visualization and Rendering" at the 2003 Parallel Visualization and Graphics Symposium.
- Thursday October 23, 2003. Bethel will be leading a panel about visualization software interoperability entitled "Interoperability of Visualization Software and Data Models is NOT and Achievable Goal."
10 August 2003
OpenRM+FLTK demonstration programs (Gordo) updated for OpenRM 1.5.0. The OpenRM+FLTK demonstration programs, known as "Gordo", have been updated for OpenRM Scene Graph version 1.5.0, and made available for download from the download page on the OpenRM website.
6 August 2003
OpenRM+CAVELib demonstration programs updated for OpenRM 1.5.0. The OpenRM/CAVELib demonstration programs have been updated for use with OpenRM version 1.5.0. They may be downloaded from the download page at the OpenRM website. More information about using OpenRM with the CAVELibrary to create high performance immersive graphics and visualization application may be found on the OpenRM+CAVELib technical reference page.
6 August 2003
OpenRM+Chromium PVG 2003 Paper Updated. The PVG2003 paper underwent some minor cosmetic updates during the final preparation of camera-ready artwork.
27 June 2003
OpenRM 1.5.0 is Released! The 1.5.0 release of OpenRM Scene Graph contains substantial new functionality that is designed to enable developers to create high performance graphics and visualization applications on distributed memory parallel platforms, such as clusters of PCs running Linux. You can grab the source code by visiting the OpenRM website at Sourceforge. Accompanying this release is a substantially updated Programming Guide, which may be obtained from the OpenRM Programming Guide sales page. The new technology has withstood rigorous peer review within the graphics and visualization community, and is described in detail in a technical paper accepted for publication in the 2003 Symposium on Parallel Visualization and Graphics at IEEE Visualization 2003.
9 June 2003
OpenRM 1.5.0 Release Candidate 1 The 1.5.0 release candidates for openrm-devel and openrm-demo are available from the 1.5.0 beta page. A full release is scheduled for approximately 6 July 2003. We are making substanital edits to the programming guide and rebuilding the website, in addition to continuing to perform thorough testing of the new code base. Thanks for your patience.
(5 Sept 2003 - we turned off access to the 1.5.0 beta pages.)
19 Apr 2003

OpenRM 1.5.0 beta. OpenRM version 1.5.0 supports distributed memory operation in conjunction with Chromium, so that you can turn your Linux cluster into a large, high-bandwidth parallel rendering machine! The 1.5.0 beta release, along with updated demonstration programs, a new set of OpenRM+Chromium demonstration programs, updated Programming Guide may be accessed via this link. We anticipate 1.5.0 FCS will occur on or about 10 May 2003.
(5 Sept 2003 - we turned off access to the 1.5.0 beta pages.)
23 Sep 2002
- OpenRM 1.4.3 is released! Visit the OpenRM website for more information.
- Updated RM Programming Guide. Concurrent with the OpenRM 1.4.3 release, we have made released an updated version of the OpenRM Programming Guide. While the manual may still be downloaded for free, and will continue to be downloadable for free (if the donations to support the work are forthcoming), we request a small donation in support of this effort. Visit the RM Scene Graph Technical Reference page for details.
- OpenRM 1.4.3 Win32 Binaries R3vis is making available free of charge pre-built versions of the OpenRM 1.4.3 development libraries and demonstration programs. We are requesting a donation for this service. Visit this page for more information.
30 June 2002
R3vis Corporation is selected to receive a Phase I SBIR award from the U.S. Department of Energy to design and implement a distributed memory scene graph system suitable for use on low-cost PC clusters. The work will commence in Q3 2002.
30 June 2002
OpenRM version 1.4.2 is released. Visit the OpenRM project website for more information.
24 January 2002
W. Bethel to make present a technical paper at the 2002 IS&T/SPIE Conference on Electronic Imaging Science and Technology, the Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality in San Jose, CA. Bethel will discuss issues related to combining scene graph technology with environments for managing tiled and segmented displays. Download the paper.
21 January 2002
R3vis Corporation is pleased to announce the first public release of a draft version of the RM Scene Graph Programming Guide. You can download this manual from the this page.
15 October 2001
OpenRM v1.4.1 is released at the OpenRM website..
15 August 2001
W. Bethel to present OpenRM status at the OpenGL BOF at Siggraph 2001, focusing upon accomplishments of the past year. Check http://www.opengl.org/news/events/siggraph2001.html for more information about the OpenGL BOF and other OpenGL-related activities at Siggraph 2001. (Note: Jan 2004 - the news link at OpenGL.org has long since expired).
11 August 2001
Gordo is the name for a new mini-project that provides code for demonstration applications showing how to combine OpenRM with the Fast Light Toolkit (FLTK), a popular user interface toolkit. You can grab the source for Gordo from the OpenRM downloads page. Note that Gordo hasn't been integrated into the Sourceforge project system at this time.
15 July 2001
OpenRM 1.4.0 production release at the OpenRM website. This production release includes a fully multistage, pipelined-parallel rendering engine, along with thread safety, and support for offscreen rendering on all OpenGL platforms. Image below created by custom terrain visualization software written by J. Dean Brederson, Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, University of Utah. Data courtesy of the USGS National Elevation Dataset [website sample] from http://edcnts12.cr.usgs.gov/ned/default.htm.
6 June 2001
OpenRM 1.4.0-beta-1 is released at the OpenRM website. This beta release adds support for JPEG and PPM raster image I/O.
31 March, 2001
OpenRM 1.4.0-alpha-2 is released at the OpenRM website. This second pre-production release implements multistage and multithreaded rendering support on Unix/Linux and Windows platforms. In addition, this release contains direct support for offscreen rendering on Unix/Linux/Win32, as well as enhanced support for use in tiled display environments, such as the CAVE or PowerWall. This work was funded by a Phase I SBIR Grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of High Performance Computing Research in the Office of Science.
7 December, 2000
OpenRM Scene Graph version 1.4.0-alpha-1 is now downloadable from the OpenRM website. This pre-production release contains numerous new features, and is the result of an SBIR Phase I R&D grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science. This release contains an implementation of a thread-safe scene graph. That means that multiple application threads can simultaneously read, in parallel, from a single scene graph, and simultaneously render, in parallel, to multiple windows. Thread-safetey also means that multiple application threads can simultaneously write, in parallel, into a single scene graph. The thread safe scene graph API can be used in Unix or Win32 operating environments.
8 November, 2000
OpenRM Scene Graph is used as the rendering layer for the 3D Visapult volume viewer at SC00 in Dallas Texas. Visapult is an application and framework for terascale visualization that leverages network resources to create a high performance, distributed, and parallel scientific visualization application. Visapult won the "Fastest and Fattest" award in the SC00 Application Bandwidth Challenge, consuming 668Mbps over a WAN (between California and Texas) for 60 minutes, and achieved peak transfer speeds of 1.48 Gbps over a 5-second window.
7 September, 2000
R3vis Corporation is awarded a Phase I SBIR Grant from the US Department of Energy. This grant funds R&D work on OpenRM Scene Graph, to include support for 1) a thread-safe scene graph, 2) a pipelined-parallel rendering engine, 3) support for tiled displays, and 4) support for off-screen rendering.
2 September, 2000
OpenRM version 1.3.0 released at the OpenRM website. With this release, OpenRM is compatible with CAVELib[tm], a popular framework and toolkit useful in creating cross-platform Virtual Reality applications.

The CAVELib(tm) is an Application Programmers Interface (API) that provides general support for building virtual environments for Spatially Immersive Displays and head-mounted displays including desk-type devices, cubic displays, multi-piped curved displays, and some dome styled displays. The CAVELib is not an application, it's a cross-platform building block used to create applications for a variety of virtual environments.

Using OpenRM Scene Graph version 1.3.0, developers can create applications with exciting capabilities using CAVELib for VR device event management, and OpenRM Scene Graph for rendering services and scene management.

CAVELib[tm] is a registered trademark of the University of Illinois, and is commercially licensed by VRCO. More information.
28 July, 2000
R3vis Founder W. Bethel to present at Siggraph 2000 in New Orleans in the Application Sketches session on the subject of tera-scale, remote and distributed scientific visualization.
27 July, 2000
The 3rd Annual Linux 3D BOF will be at SIGGRAPH on Thursday July 27th in the Hilton Riverside Versailles Ballroom from 6:30-8:30. Check the http://www.linux3d.org/ - Linux3D.org website for more information. (NB - Jan 2004; the linux3d.org website has been off the air for a while.)
24 July, 2000
In this press release, R3vis Corporation announces that it has been selected to receive a Phase One Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant from the U. S. Department of Energy. The Grant funds research and development on OpenRM Scene Graph.
27 April, 2000
OpenRM version 1.2.1 released at the OpenRM website.
1 March, 2000
On March 1, 2000, R3vis Corporation announced the launch of the OpenRM Scene Graph project in this press release. OpenRM is an Open Source derivative of RM Scene Graph. The current version of OpenRM, as of April 27, is 1.2.1.
January 10, 2000
This online scene graph tutorial appeared over in Tom's Hardware Guide.
December, 1999
R3vis Corporation announces the formation of OpenRM, an Open Source project based upon RM Scene Graph. More details of the announcement are available in this press release.
November, 1999
The LBL Visualization Group shows a novel parallel volume rendering engine based upon image-based rendering acceleration techniques using RM Scene Graph at SC99 in Portland, Oregon. In addition, RM Scene Graph is used to drive the tiled, multi-pipe projection display in the ASCI booth at SC99.
October, 1999
RM Scene Graph Beta-09 available for public download. This beta release shows engineering emphasis upon the OpenGL imaging pipeline. With this release, OpenGL-accelerated imaging operations are made available via the scene graph interface. RM Scene Graph adds support for false-colored and pseudo-polymorphic image data in a unified manner across all image-based primitives and objects.
August, 1999
RM Scene Graph Beta-07 made available for public download.
August, 1999
R3vis Founder and CTO Wes Bethel chairs a panel at Siggraph 99. The panel, titled Scene Graph APIs: Wired or Tired? serves to examine technical issues pertaining to the usefulness of scene graph technology.
August, 1999
Khoral Research Inc. releases Khoros Pro 2001. The KP2001 visualization tool, xprismPro, uses RM Scene Graph as the rendering and visualization engine. Check here for more info.
November 10, 1998
R3vis Corporation and HPCwire invade SC98. Check out our ad in the HPCwire publication titled "HPC Contributions to Society."
July 8, 1998
Prerelease of VUMaster announced jointly by R3vis and Khoral Research, Inc. Check here for more info.