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SGI performer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)


Archive-name: sgi/faq/performer
Last-modified: Wed Oct 20  1:00:04 CDT 1999
Posting-Frequency: Twice monthly
URL: http://www-viz.tamu.edu/~sgi-faq/

    SGI performer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

This is one of the Silicon Graphics FAQ series, which consists of:

    SGI admin FAQ - IRIX system administration
    SGI apps FAQ - Applications and miscellaneous programming
    SGI audio FAQ - Audio applications and programming
    SGI diffs FAQ - Changes to the other FAQs since the last posting
    SGI graphics FAQ - Graphics and user environment customization
    SGI hardware FAQ - Hardware
    SGI impressario FAQ - IRIS Impressario
    SGI inventor FAQ - IRIS Inventor
    SGI misc FAQ - Introduction & miscellaneous information
    SGI movie FAQ - Movies
    SGI performer FAQ - IRIS Performer
    SGI pointer FAQ - Pointer to the other FAQs
    SGI security FAQ - IRIX security

Read the misc FAQ for information about the FAQs themselves. Each FAQ is
posted to comp.sys.sgi.misc and to the news.answers and comp.answers
newsgroups (whose purpose is to store FAQs) twice per month. If you
can't find one of the FAQs with your news program, you can get it from

    ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/faq/
    ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/sgi/faq/

(rtfm.mit.edu is home to many other FAQs and informational documents,
and is a good place to look if you can't find an answer here.) The FAQs
are on the World Wide Web at

    http://www-viz.tamu.edu/~sgi-faq/

If you can't use FTP or WWW, send mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with
the word 'help' on a line by itself in the text, and it will send you a
document describing how to get files from rtfm.mit.edu by mail. Send the
command 'send usenet/news.answers/sgi/faq/misc' to get the SGI misc FAQ,
and similarly for the other FAQs. Send the command 'send
usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email' to get the
"Accessing the Internet by E-Mail FAQ".

You may distribute the SGI FAQs freely and we encourage you to do so.
However, you must keep them intact, including headers and this notice,
and you must not charge for or profit from them. Contact us for other
arrangements. We can't be responsible for copies of the SGI FAQs at
sites which we do not control, and copies published on paper or CD-ROM
are certain to be out of date. The contents are accurate as far as we
know, but the usual disclaimers apply. Send additions and changes to
sgi-faq@viz.tamu.edu.

Topics covered in this FAQ:
---------------------------
   -1- ================ General Topics ==================
   -2- What is IRIS Performer?
   -3- Where can I get more technical information about IRIS Performer?
   -4- Where can I get more product information about IRIS Performer?
   -5- The IRIS Performer mailing list
   -6- The IRIS Performer FTP Archives
   -7- The IRIS Performer WWW Pages in Silicon Surf
   -8- The IRIS Performer Technical Report
   -9- How does IRIS Performer relate to IRIS Inventor?
  -10- What version of IRIS Performer should I use?
  -11- What patches should be used with IRIS Performer?
  -12- What version of IRIS Performer am I currently running?
  -13- What are all of the released versions of IRIS Performer?
  -14- Does IRIS Performer use IRIS GL or OpenGL?
  -15- Is there a IRIS Performer file format?
  -16- What database file formats can IRIS Performer read?
  -17- Is there an IRIS Inventor file reader for IRIS Performer?
  -18- What are the .tlf files used by the Performer Town and Village?
  -19- What are the minimum requirements for using IRIS Performer?
  -20- Binary Compatibility on different machines
  -21- Binary Compatibility on different releases
  -22- Guaranteeing Real Time performance
  -23- How do I make GL calls from within a IRIS Performer program?
  -24- How do I overlay graphics on top of my Performer scene?
  -25- What is the difference between phases FREE, FLOAT, and LOCK?
  -26- Use of PFTMPDIR to configure shared memory
  -27- Which rendering primitives does IRIS Performer support?
  -28- How do I do triangle meshes in Performer?
  -29- ================= Known Problems =================
  -30- Video Rate sometimes reported incorrectly
  -31- Problems with Performer Town or Village demos
  -32- Antialiasing
  -33- Coplanar Polygons & pfDecal on certain platforms
  -34- Networked graphics (DGL & GLX)
  -35- Transparency
  -36- Gangdraw and cursor loading
  -37- Frame control on low- and mid-range machines
  -38- Timing on pre-1992 platforms
  -39- 2.0 Warnings from ld when building on IRIX 6.2
  -40- 2.0 Bug OpenGL functions missing when building static executables
  -41- 2.0 Bug Z buffer problems when moving windows on 5.3 EXtreme
  -42- 2.0 Bug Use of more than 512 simultaneous textures
  -43- 2.0 Bug IRIS GL on dual-head systems
  -44- 2.0 Bug Resizing of pfPipeWindows in MP X apps
  -45- 2.0 Bug Applying frustums transformed by pfOrthoXformFrust
  -46- 2.0 Bug pfFlatten with pfCycleBuffer attribute arrays
  -47- 2.0 Bug Sorting lights with pfChanBinSort()
  -48- 2.0 Bug OpenGL disables back material modes
  -49- 2.0 Bug CPU statistics in IRIX 6
  -50- 2.0 Bug pfdLoadFile_flt FLT loader in IRIX 6
  -51- 2.0 Bug hello sample program in IRIX 6
  -52- 2.0 Bug Forked X input handing in IRIX 6.2
  -53- 2.0 Bug Intersections with pfBillboard nodes
  -54- 2.0 Bug Channel fade LOD attributes & mixed gfx configs
  -55- 2.0 Bug libpfui C API incomplete
  -56- 2.0 Bug libpfdb pfdLoadFile_dxf incomplete
  -57- 2.0 Bug libpfdb pfdLoadFile_sgo incomplete
  -58- 2.0 Bug IRIS GL perfly on Indy
  -59- 2.0 Bug pguide/libpf/C/pipewin sample program
  -60- 2.0 Bug pguide/libpf/C/lpstate sample program
  -61- 2.0 Bug pfInitClock() and Video Rate on 250MHz IMPACT
  -62- 1.2 Bug Billboard normals and intersections
  -63- 1.2 Bug Incompatibility with IRIX 6.1 XFS
  -64- 1.2 Bug Billboards with multiple pfGeoSets
  -65- 1.2 Bug Flattening transformation hierarchies
  -66- 1.2 libpf Bug Hang on Exit, 5.2 VGX
  -67- 1.2 libpf Cull with overlapped draw latency
  -68- 1.2 libpf Cull with overlapped draw hang
  -69- 1.2 libpf Transparency Sorting
  -70- 1.2 libpf Multiple EarthSky fog
  -71- 1.2 libpf Bug Limit Phase
  -72- 1.2 libpr Highlighting when using wireframe
  -73- 1.2 libpf APPCULLDRAW does not honor LIMIT/FLOAT/LOCK phases
  -74- 1.2 libpf Phase toggling overlapped cull and draw
  -75- 1.2 libpf pfDataPool warning on exit
  -76- 1.2 libpf Multi-channel stats warning messages
  -77- 1.2 libpf Video warnings on Indy when multiprocessed
  -78- 1.2 stats Frame statistics for lightpoints
  -79- 1.2 stats Pixel fill statistics under 4.0.5 on RealityEngine
  -80- 1.2 libpr Directional pfLightPoints
  -81- 1.2 libpfutil pfuCollide is jerky
  -82- 1.2 libpfutil pfuSaveImage broken
  -83- 1.2 libpfsgi pfLoadDxf loader is incomplete
  -84- 1.2 libpfsgi pfLoadIv loader is incomplete
  -85- 1.2 GLX Overlay text with GLX on 4.0.5
  -86- 1.2 GLX Toggling antialiasing with GLX on 4.0.5 RealityEngine
  -87- 1.2 GLX Toggling antialiasing with GLX on any RealityEngine
  -88- 1.2 GLX on 4.0.5 Indigo, sample programs hang on startup.
  -89- 1.2 samples smallfly drive models broken
  -90- 1.2 samples pickfly drops core under abuse
  -91- 1.2 samples detail example broken on 4.0.5
  -92- 1.2 friends Belvis makefile requires pmake
  -93- 1.2 friends Toon has bad models and textures
  -94- 1.2 docs pfuGetGLXWin wrong on reference page
  -95- 1.2 docs pfuLockDownApp gives the incorrect location
  -96- 1.1 Bug with FP underflow
  -97- 1.1 Bug with Multipipe Onyx
  -98- 1.1 Bug Installing on Indy or Indigo2 XL
  -99- 1.1 Bug Unable to determine Indy graphics type
 -100- 1.1 Bug perfly cannot find libpf.so on Indy running 5.1
 -101- 1.1 Bug perfly FP error messages in 5.0.1
 -102- 1.1 Bug Installation on IRIX 5.2 - missing prerequisites
 -103- 1.0/1.1 Bug intersections with pfSwitch'es
 -104- 1.0/1.1 Bug with pfTexture()
 -105- 1.0/1.1 Bug with pfAntiAlias()
 -106- 1.0/1.1 Bug with pfFlatten()
 -107- 1.0/1.1 Bug with pfSequences
 -108- 1.0/1.1 Bug with pfClosestPtOnPlane()
 -109- 1.0/1.1 Bug on ELAN/XS with wireframe PFGS_QUADS
 -110- 1.0/1.2-IRIX4 Bug Z buffer configuration on 4.0.5 RealityEngine
 -111- 1.0 Bug pfInit(): mmap failed for /dev/zero
 -112- 1.0 Doc Bug in pfMakePolarSeg() man page
 -113- 1.0 Doc Bug in pfDispList() man page
 -114- 1.0 Doc Bug in PFPG (simple.c)
 -115- 1.0 Bug in pfGetTime()
 -116- 1.0 Bug in pfNodeBBox()
 -117- 1.0 Bug in pfInitGfx() with Z-buffer on RealityEngine
 -118- 1.0 Bug in libpfflt combineLODs()
 -119- 1.0 Bug with two-sided material and pfMtlColorMode()
 -120- 1.0 Bug in pfFilePath()
 -121- 1.0 Bug in pfGetCurGState()
 -122- 1.0 Bug in pfGetCurState()
 -123- 1.0 Bug with cloned scenes
 -124- 1.0 Bug intersections in collide.c
 -125- 1.0 Bug with flattened pfLightPoints
 -126- 1.0 Bug intersections with pfSequences
 -127- 1.0 Bug intersections with non-indexed quads

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject:    -1- ================ General Topics ==================
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

------------------------------

Subject:    -2- What is IRIS Performer?
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  IRIS Performer provides a powerful and extensible programming
  interface (with ANSI C and C++ bindings) for creating real-time
  visual simulation and other interactive graphics applications.
  IRIS Performer 2.0 supports both the IRIS Graphics Library (IRIS
  GL) and the industry standard OpenGL graphics library; these
  libraries combine with the IRIX operating system and REACT
  extensions to form the foundation of a powerful suite of tools and
  features for creating real-time visual simulation applications on
  Silicon Graphics systems.

  IRIS Performer is an integral part of the Onyx/Onyx2 RealityEngine
  & InfiniteReality and Indigo2/Octane Impact graphics systems and
  provides interfaces to advanced features of RealityEngine-class
  graphics.  IRIS Performer is compatible with uniprocessor and
  multiprocessor SGI graphics platforms and attains maximum
  performance on all.  IRIS Performer provides an extensible basis
  for creating real-time 3D graphics applications in the fields of
  visual simulation, entertainment, virtual reality, broadcast video,
  and computer aided design.  IRIS Performer is the flexible,
  intuitive, toolkit-based solution for developers who want to
  optimize performance on Silicon Graphics systems.

  IRIS Performer consists of two main libraries, libpf and libpr, and
  four associated libraries, libpfdu, libpfdb, libpfui, and
  libpfutil.

  The basis of IRIS Performer is the performance rendering library
  libpr, a low level library providing high speed rendering functions
  based on pfGeoSets, efficient graphics state control using
  pfGeoStates, and other application- neutral functions.

  Layered above libpr is libpf, a real-time visual simulation
  environment providing a high-performance multi-processing database
  rendering system that takes best advantage of IRIS symmetric
  multiprocessing CPU hardware.

  The database utility library libpfdu provides powerful functions
  for defining both geometric and appearance attributes of three
  dimensional objects, encourages sharing of state and materials and
  generates efficient triangle strips from independent polygonal
  input.

  The database library libpfdb uses the facilities of libpfdu, libpf,
  and libpr to import database files in many popular industry
  standard database formats.  These loaders also serve as a guide to
  developers creating new database importers.

  libpfui contains user interface building blocks for creating
  manipulators common to many interactive applications. This library
  has both a C and C++ API and is GL independent.

  Completing the suite of libraries is libpfutil, the IRIS Performer
  utility library. It provides a collection of important convenience
  routines implementing such diverse tasks as smoke effects,
  MultiChannel Option support, graphical user interface tools, X and
  IRIS GL event collection and management, and traversal functions.

  For aid in application development, IRIS Performer includes sample
  application source code ranging from simple programs to illustrate
  particular features to the comprehensive, GUI-driven file viewer
  perfly.

  In addition to these SGI-developed tools, IRIS Performer also
  includes a very large repository of sample code, databases, games,
  and movies contributed by the Friends of Performer: companies and
  individuals with services of general interest to the IRIS Performer
  community.  We encourage you to sample their wares.

------------------------------

Subject:    -3- Where can I get more technical information about IRIS
                Performer?
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  The three best resources for additional information are:
  
    - The IRIS Performer mailing list
    - The IRIS Performer FTP Archives
    - The Performer WWW pages in Silicon Surf
    - The IRIS Performer Technical Report

  See below for further information.

------------------------------

Subject:    -4- Where can I get more product information about IRIS
                Performer?
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  For product information about IRIS Performer or SGI Visual
  Simulation issues contact Ralph Humphries (ralphh@asd.sgi.com).  To
  learn about SGI Virtual Reality solutions contact Joshua Mogal
  (mogal@asd.sgi.com).  To just give in and buy a copy call SGI
  Direct at 1-800-800-7441 (product SC4-PERF-2.0), or to have both a
  demonstration and a presentation call your local SGI sales office.

  Brochure-style information about IRIS Performer is also available
  from the Performer WWW pages in Silicon Surf (see below)

------------------------------

Subject:    -5- The IRIS Performer mailing list
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  The IRIS Performer mailing list is a resource for developers who
  are using IRIS Performer to maximize the performance of their
  graphics applications on Silicon Graphics hardware.  The list is an
  unmoderated, free-form discussion of IRIS Performer with issues
  both technical and non-technical; and provides feedback to Silicon
  Graphics about the product.  Much like the comp.sys.sgi.*
  newsgroups, it is not an official support channel but is monitored
  by the IRIS Performer development team, so it's an excellent source
  of early information about upcoming events and product features, as
  well as a venue for asking questions and having them answered.

  To become a subscriber to the IRIS Performer mailing list you must
  send email to:

	info-performer-request@sgi.com

  New subscribers are added "by hand".  Once your request is processed 
  you will recieve submission/posting instructions, some guidelines, 
  and a current copy of the Performer Frequently-Asked-Questions (FAQ) 
  list.

  The mailing list has become rather large and carries several
  hundred messages per month.  A performer newsgroup with a gateway
  to the mailing list may be created if there is enough interest.

  Mailing list archives are available in the Performer FTP area (see
  below) in ftp://sgigate.sgi.com/pub/Performer/monthly-archives/

------------------------------

Subject:    -6- The IRIS Performer FTP Archives
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  An archive of Performer-related material is available via anonymous
  FTP:  ftp://sgigate.sgi.com/pub/Performer

  Current Contents:

  README               - Overview file
  FAQ                  - The Performer FAQ
  INFO-PERFORMER       - information about the Performer mailing list
  src/                 - Sample source code & misc patches
  docs/                - IRIS Performer docs including SIGGRAPH '94 paper
  selected-topics/     - directory of info, Q&A, etc from mailing list
  monthly-archives/    - raw archives (monthly) of the mailing list
  CortaillodCentre/    - goodies from SGI's Cortaillod Office
  RealityCentre/       - goodies from SGI's RealityCentre in the UK
  
------------------------------

Subject:    -7- The IRIS Performer WWW Pages in Silicon Surf
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  Silicon Surf (http://www.sgi.com/) contains an archive of
  Performer-related technical and promotional material in the
  _Extreme Tech_ section.

  http://www.sgi.com/Technology/Performer contains links
  to further information regarding:

  - What is IRIS Performer ? 
  - IRIS Performer 2.0 Technical Information 
  - IRIS Performer 2.0 Product Information 
  - IRIS Performer Friends, Goodies, & Free Stuff! 
  - The IRIS Performer Mailing List 
  - The IRIS Performer Anonymous FTP Archives  
  - The IRIS Performer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). 

------------------------------

Subject:    -8- The IRIS Performer Technical Report
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  The IRIS Performer 2.0 Technical Report (IRIS-PERF-TR-10/95) is
  available in hardcopy from your local Silicon Graphics sales
  office.  An electronic copy (Postscript format) is also available
  via FTP from:

  ftp://sgigate.sgi.com/pub/Performer/docs/pf2.0techreport/

------------------------------

Subject:    -9- How does IRIS Performer relate to IRIS Inventor?
Date: 26 Jun 93 00:00:01 EST

  The short answer is, Performer was designed for vis-sim, while
  Inventor was designed to be more general purpose.  

  IRIS Performer is for developers who need to extract maximum
  performance from SGI machines for visual simulation, virtual
  reality, game development, and high-end CAD systems.  Often these
  applications need multi-processor Onyx systems with multiple
  RealityEngine pipelines with a high degree of parallelism and
  running at fixed frame rates.

  Inventor is designed for maximum programmer productivity when
  writing other kinds of 3D applications, like modelling, animation,
  visualization, etc.

  Both toolkits are general purpose enough that they could be extended
  into the domain of the other, but the question you should consider is
  "what is the *fundamental* goal of my graphics development?" If it's
  portability to non-SGI systems, easy X-window system integration, or
  handy graphic widgets, IRIS Inventor is for you.  If it's brochure-
  level performance in advanced graphic applications for the specific
  domains listed above, then IRIS Performer would be the likely tool.

------------------------------

Subject:   -10- What version of IRIS Performer should I use?
Date: 16 Oct 97 00:00:01 EST

  The short answer is that IRIS Performer 2.0 is the latest
  all-platform release and 2.1 is the InfiniteReality (all flavors -
  Onyx, Onyx2, iR Reality) release.  If you are doing development for
  an application targeted primarily at an InfiniteReality graphics
  platform using InfiniteReality features, you should buy 2.1.  You
  can run 2.1 on any platform running IRIX 6.2 or later, but its only
  benefit over 2.0 was features for the InfiniteReality graphics
  platform.

  IRIS Performer also creates and ships binary compatible bug-fix
  upgrades for the execution environment of the main releases.  These
  maintenance releases have a third field in their number string and
  are binary compatible with the base release.  These upgraded
  execution environments include the optimized DSOs and demo
  executables and are shipped with IRIX releases and made available
  for older IRIX releases through patches.  The following table lists
  the latest versions of our releases and the version of IRIX that
  they shipped with and the corresponding patch number.

  Performer Maintenance Releases:
  
    performer_eoe   shipped in IRIX  available in Patch  for IRIX Releases
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------
*** 2.0.4/2.1.2(*)	6.4		1696		 6.2 and later
    2.0.3/2.1.1(*)	6.3	
    2.0.2				1347		 6.2 and later
    2.0.1		6.2

  
  (*) The 2.1.X upgrades are included as 2.1 compatibility subsystems 
    inside the corresponding 2.0.X version.  This is done to allow upgrades
    for both releases to ship inside IRIX.
  (***) this is the latest maintenance version check it out!

  All InfiniteReality systems (Onyx, Onyx2, ir Reality) running IRIX
  6.2 or later should use IRIS Performer 2.1 (eoe and dev).  Note
  that Performer 2.1 was originally only officially supported on Onyx
  InfiniteReality systems and is only of benefit on those system or
  for doing development for those systems.  Other systems and
  projects not targeted at InfiniteReality should use 2.0 eoe and 2.0
  dev,  plus the latest eoe upgrade or patch as indicated above.

  Patches available for IRIS Performer development subsystems: (also
  see later section on patches)

  There have are 2 patches available for the Performer 2.0
  development subsystems (sample source code, header files, debug and
  static libraries) that correspond to the 2.0.2 eoe maintenance
  release:

  patch 1392 IRIX 6.2 and later
  patch 1414 for IRIX 5.3 (contains dev and eoe)

  These patches are for the 2.0 development subsystems _only_.  Do
  not attempt to install them if running any other base release for
  development.

------------------------------

Subject:   -11- What patches should be used with IRIS Performer?
Date: Wed Sep 22 16:26:21 CDT 1999

  performer_eoe:

  6.4:      No patches required for performer_eoe 2.0.4/2.1.2
  6.3:      Patch 1696 - updates Performer 2.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.3/2.1.1 
		to the 2.0.4/2.1.2 EOE shipped in IRIX 6.4
  6.2:      Patch 1696 - updates Performer 2.0 and 2.0.1,
		to the 2.0.4/2.1.2 EOE shipped in IRIX 6.4
  5.3:      Patch 1414 - updates Performer 2.0 eoe & dev -> 2.0.2.
  
  All versions of performer_eoe for 2.0[.X] are binary compatible.
  All versions of performer_eoe for 2.1[.X] are binary compatible.
  Patch 1696 updates all performer_eoe 2.0.x to 2.0.4 and all 2.1 to 2.1.2
  Patch 1696 replaces patch 1347.

  performer_dev:

  All performer_dev 2.0 should be upgraded to at least performer_dev 2.0.2
  for IRIX 6.2 and later IRIX releases.

  6.4:      Patch 1392 - updates Performer 2.0 DEV   -> 2.0.2 DEV
  6.3:      Patch 1392 - updates Performer 2.0 DEV   -> 2.0.2 DEV
  6.2:      Patch 1392 - updates Performer 2.0 DEV   -> 2.0.2 DEV
  5.3:      Patch 1414 - updates Performer 2.0 eoe & dev -> 2.0.2.
  	
  Patch 1392 IS for the 2.0 development subsystems _only_.
  Do not attempt to install it if running any other base release
  for development.

  performer_eoe 2.0.2 and 2.0.4 are both binary compatible with
  performer_dev 2.0[.X]

  All of the patches require a base subsystem from the IRIS Performer CD or
  from IRIX to be loaded first.
  Customers with SupportFolio online access can download patches from:

    http://www.sgi.com/support/patch_intro.html

------------------------------

Subject:   -12- What version of IRIS Performer am I currently running?
Date: 16 Oct 1997 00:00:01 EST

  To find out what release of IRIS Performer is currently installed
  on the system do:

  % versions | grep performer

  and you will see a list of all IRIS Performer subsystems that are
  currently installed.  Note that you might see execution
  environments and compatibility DSOs for older releases of IRIS
  Performer -- this is what allows you to run any IRIS Performer
  executable, regardless of the development release you are currently
  using.

  To find out which version a given IRIS Performer DSO library is do:

  % elfdump -L lib.so | fgrep IVERSION

  and you will see the DSO version number of the library.  Note: DSO
  version numbers are NOT the same as IRIS Performer product release
  numbers.  DSO numbers are X.Y.Z where the X must change with each
  change in binary compatibility, where the Y changes to signify a
  binary compatible version, and the .Z is an additional tag.  The
  mapping of IRIS Performer releases to DSO numbers is:

  IRIS Performer release      DSO lib version
  -------------------------------------------
        1.0                     sgi1.0 
        2.0                     sgi2.0 
        2.0.1                   sgi2.1
        2.0.2                   sgi2.2 
        2.0.3                   sgi2.3 
        2.0.4                   sgi2.4
        2.1                     sgi3.0 
        2.1.1                   sgi3.1 
        2.1.2                   sgi3.2

  Each release of IRIS Performer includes the versioned DSO libraries
  from previous releases for each binary compatible group.  Upon
  program startup, rld will find the proper version of the IRIS
  Performer library for the current executable.  These DSOs are
  installed under /usr/lib/ and /usr/lib/Performer.

  ex:
      /usr/lib/libpf_ogl.so.2 
      /usr/lib/libpf_ogl.so.3
      /usr/lib/libpf_ogl.so.4

      % elfdump -L /usr/lib/libpf_ogl.so.2 | fgrep IVERSION
          [34]    IVERSION sgi2.4

  To find out which version a dynamically linked IRIS Performer
  executable was made with do:

  % elfdump -L progname

  and you will see a list of the DSOs required by the program and
  their DSO version number.

------------------------------

Subject:   -13- What are all of the released versions of IRIS Performer?
Date: 16 Oct 1997 00:00:01 EST

  Performer 2.0.4:  performer_eoe 2.0 bug fix upgrade, shipped with IRIX 6.4
                    [equivalent updates in patch 1696 for 6.2 and later]

  Performer 2.1.2:  performer_eoe 2.1 bug fix upgrade, shipped as 
                    compatibility libs in 2.0.4 in IRIX 6.4 and patch 1696
			
  Performer 2.0.3:  performer_eoe  2.0 bug fix upgrade, shipped with IRIX 6.3

  Performer 2.1.1:  performer_eoe 2.1 bug fix upgrade, shipped as 
                    compatibility libs in 2.0.3 in IRIX 6.3
			 
  Performer 2.1:    InfiniteReality release, for all InfiniteReality systems 
                    running IRIX 6.2 or later, (eoe and dev)

  Performer 2.0.2:  bug fix upgrade for Performer 2.0.1/2.0 eoe and dev,
                    shipped in patches 1347(eoe)+1392(dev) (for IRIX 6.x) or
                    patch 1414 (for IRIX 5.x) 

  Performer 2.0.1:  bug fix upgrade for 2.0 EOE update only, shipped in 
                    IRIX 6.2
  
  Performer 2.0:    All-platform release for IRIX 5.3 and later releases

  IRIS Performer 1.2/IRIX5:  (obsolete) For IRIX 5.2, 5.3, 6.0.1, 6.1
  IRIS Performer 1.2/IRIX4:  (obsolete) For IRIX 4.0.5(A-J) only
  IRIS Performer 1.1:        (obsolete) For IRIX 5.x only
  IRIS Performer 1.0:        (obsolete) For IRIX 4.x only

  Patch 1696:  performer_eoe updates Performer on IRIX 6.2 and 6.3 to
	       the 2.0.4/2.1.2 shipped in IRIX 6.4.  
               It updates 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3 eoe to revs equiv to 2.0.4.
	       It updates 2.1, 2.1.1 eoe to revs equiv to 2.1.2.
               Replaces 1347.
  Patch 1414:  performer 2.0 eoe & dev patch for IRIX 5.3 only
  Patch 1392:  performer_dev 2.0 patch for IRIX 6.2, 6.3, 6.4.
  Patch 1347:  performer_eoe 2.0.1 patch for IRIX 6.2 only

  Historical/Background information:

  Note that the above list is included only for completeness' sake.
  Also note that you might not want "highest numbered" version of
  Performer, you want the the highest maintenance rev of your main
  release (2.1.X for InfiniteReality and 2.0 otherwise). Note that
  maintenance releases have been done for both 2.0 and 2.1
  simultaneously.

  Systems running IRIX 6.2 or later should load the performer_eoe
  IRIX cd, and performer_dev from the Performer 2.0 CD.  Then load
  the relevant patches as described below.

  The N32 and N64 libraries in Performer 2.0 are not intended for
  systems running IRIX 6.1.  If you require N32 or N64 functionality,
  you need to upgrade to 6.2 (or above) and use 2.0.1 (or above).

  No further releases of Performer are planned for IRIX 4.x or 5.x.

  Performer 1.2 was shipped for both 4.0.5 and 5.2 systems.  If you
  are using IRIS Performer 1.2, only install that version that is
  appropriate for your machine.  The IRIS Performer version is
  indicated by the "IRIX4" or "IRIX5" string in each product name.
  IRIX4 products should only be installed on 4.0.5 systems.   IRIX5
  products can be installed on 5.2, 5.3, 6.0.1, and 6.1 systems.

  When a choice is possible between using Performer 1.2 with IRIX 5.x
  or IRIX 4.0.5, IRIX 5.x is highly preferable.  IRIX 5.3 is the
  current operating system release and contains many bug fixes and
  enhancements utilized by IRIS Performer.   IRIS Performer 1.2/IRIX4
  was intended only for users who are unable to upgrade to IRIX 5.x.

------------------------------

Subject:   -14- Does IRIS Performer use IRIS GL or OpenGL?
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  Performer 2.1 is OpenGL only, having bindings for O32 (32-bit)
  OpenGL, N32 (32-bit) OpenGL, and N64 (64-bit) OpenGL.

  IRIS Performer 2.0, 2.0.1, "2.0.2", 2.0.3, and 2.0.4 contain
  bindings for O32 IRIS GL, O32 OpenGL, N32 OpenGL, and N64 OpenGL.

  IRIS Performer 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2 use IRIS GL (32-bit).

------------------------------

Subject:   -15- Is there a IRIS Performer file format?
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  Yes.  Performer "2.0.2", 2.0.3, 2.0.4, and 2.1 now include pfb (a
  fast-loading binary database format) support in libpfpfb.  It also
  adds support of "pfa" format, a slow-loading ascii version of pfb.

  The 'pfconv' program can be used to convert other file formats to
  pfb.  

  Prior releases do not have a Performer-specific file format.

------------------------------

Subject:   -16- What database file formats can IRIS Performer read?
Date: Thu Sep 30 16:55:07 CDT 1999

  Performer "2.0.2", 2.0.3, 2.0.4, and 2.1 add support of the
  following two formats, in addition to those available in Performer
  2.0:

     pfa:    IRIS Performer ASCII format developed by Rob Mace
     pfb:    IRIS Performer BINARY format (very fast) developed by Rob Mace

  IRIS Performer 2.0 and 2.0.1 contain direct import capabilities for:

     3ds:    AutoDesk 3DStudio binary data 
     bin:    Minor SGI format used by powerflip 
     bpoly:  Side Effects Software PRISMS binary 
     byu:    Brigham Young University CAD/FEA data 
     dwb:    Coryphaeus Software Designer's Workbench 
     dxf:    AutoDesk AutoCAD ASCII format 
     flt11:  MultiGen public domain Flight v11 format 
     flt14:  MultiGen OpenFlight v14 format 
     gds:    McDonnell-Douglas GDS things data 
     gfo:    Minor SGI format (radiosity output) 
     im:     Minor SGI format (IRIS Performer example) 
     irtp:   AAI/Graphicon Interactive Real-Time PHIGS 
     iv:     SGI OpenInventor / VRML 1.0 
     lsa:    Lightscape radiosity solutions (ASCII) 
     lsb:    Lightscape radiosity solutions (binary) 
     m:      University of Washington mesh data 
     medit:  Medit Productions medit modeling tool 
     nff:    Eric Haines' ray tracing test data format 
     obj:    Wavefront Technologies data format 
     post:   Minor SGI format (example gridded terrain loader) 
     phd:    Minor SGI format (polyhedra) 
     poly:   Side Effects Software PRISMS ASCII data 
     pts:    University of Washington point data 
     ptu:    Minor SGI format (IRIS Performer example) 
     s1k:    US ARMY SIMNET databases (Texas Instruments) 
     sgf:    US NAVY standard graphics format 
     sgo:    Minor SGI format 
     spf:    US NAVY simple polygon format 
     sponge: Sierpinski sponge 3D fractal generator 
     star:   Yale University compact star chart data 
     stla:   3D Structures Stereolithography (ASCII) 
     stlb:   3D Structures Stereolithography (binary) 
     sv:     Format of John Kichury's i3dm modeler 
     tri:    University of Minnesota Geometry Center data 
     unc:    University of North Carolina data 

  Several other file formats will be available via translators:

  via Acuris Corporation translators (to OpenInventor):
    iges        Old standard computer aided design interchange format
    alias       Alias Research animation system data
    3ds         AutoDesk 3DStudio
    obj         Wavefront Technologies OBJ format
    dxf         AutoDesk AutoCAD format
    softimage   Microsoft/Softimage animation system data

  via Clarus AB translators:
    step        New standard computer aided design interchange format
    vertigo     Vertigo animation system data

  via ViewPoint, http://www.viewpoint.com/, translators (to OpenInventor):
    3D Studio, BRender, Alias polyset, CAD-3D, CADL, DXF, Imagine,
    Inventor, LightWave objects and scenes, MovieBYU, Haines NFF,
    Sense8 NFF, POV-Ray, Pro/ENGINEER, Prisms, RAW, RenderWare,
    Sculpt, SGI spin, Soft F/X, stereolithography, StyleGuide,
    Swivel, GDS "things", trueSpace, Vertigo, Vista DEM, VideoScape
    and Wavefront formats.

  IRIS Performer 1.2 includes loading utilities and file loaders for:

      - The SGI .bin, .sgo, .gfo, .poly, and .ptu formats
      - IRIS Inventor's .iv format.
      - Coryphaeus' Software .dwb format.
      - Software Systems (MultiGen Inc) Version 11, 13, and 14 .flt
      - The SuperViewer .sv format used in I3DM
      - Lightscape Graphics Software's .lsa and .lsb formats
      - Autodesk's AutoCAD .dxf format
      - Miscellaneous formats (.gfo, .irtp, .stla, .stlb).

  For source code to loaders for MultiGen .flt versions greater than
  11, contact MultiGen, Inc at (408) 556-2600.

  IRIS Performer 1.0 and 1.1 include database loaders for MultiGen v11
  "flt", SGI "bin", and SGI "obj" formats.

------------------------------

Subject:   -17- Is there an IRIS Inventor file reader for IRIS
                Performer?
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  Yes.  IRIS Performer 2.x ships with a fully-functional Open
  Inventor 2.0 file loader.

  IRIS Performer 1.2 ships with a minimal .iv reader that will read a
  subset of the IRIS Inventor 1.0 format.

  A port of the more robust 2.x reader for Open Inventor files is
  also available for Performer 1.2, in the Performer FTP Archives:

    ftp://sgigate.sgi.com/pub/Performer/src/pfiv1.6.tar.Z

  No Inventor file reader exists for Performer 1.0 or 1.1.

------------------------------

Subject:   -18- What are the .tlf files used by the Performer Town and
                Village?
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  They are encrypted .flt files of the Town and Village database.
  Only the "demo" version of perfly shipped with RealityEngine
  systems in demos.sw.visualization can read these files.

  Unencrypted versions of the Town and Village databases are included
  in the performer_friends.sw.town subsystem of Performer 1.2 and 2.0.

------------------------------

Subject:   -19- What are the minimum requirements for using IRIS
                Performer?
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  IRIS Performer 2.0 is the all platform release and requires IRIX 5.3 
    or later IRIX releases.
    Binary compatible upgrade patches are available and recommended.

  IRIS Performer 2.1 requires IRIX 6.2 or a later IRIX release.
    IRIS Performer 2.1 is intended for running on or developing for the 
    InfiniteReality graphics platform.
  
  IRIS Performer 2.0.4 (eoe) requires IRIX 6.2 or a later IRIX release
    and shipped in IRIX 6.4 and IRIS Performer patch 1696
  IRIS Performer 2.0.3 (eoe) requires IRIX 6.2 or a later IRIX release
    and is shipped in IRIX 6.3.
  IRIS Performer 2.0.2 (eoe) requires IRIX 6.2 and later and is
    shipped in IRIX 6.2 and was shipped in IRIS Performer patch
    1392 and has now been obsoleted by IRIS Performer 2.0.4 in patch 1696.
  IRIS Performer 2.0.1 (eoe) requires IRIX 6.2 or a later IRIX release
    was shipped in IRIX 6.2.
  

  Patch 1347 (eoe 2.0.2) requires IRIX 6.2 or later IRIX releases
    and is obsoleted by patch 1396.
  Patch 1396 (eoe pf2.0.4) requires IRIX 6.2 or later IRIX releases
  Patch 1392 (dev pf2.0.2) requires IRIX 6.2 or later IRIX releases
  Patch 1414 (eoe+dev pf2.0.2 for IRIX 5.3) is only for IRIX 5.3.
  
  IRIS Performer 1.2/IRIX5 requires IRIX 5.2 or later IRIX release.
  IRIS Performer 1.2/IRIX4 requires IRIX 4.0.5.  Because IRIX 4.0.5F
      added several new Graphics Library (GL) calls to support
      RealityEngine features, any application that uses GL routines or
      tokens found only in 4.0.5F and later, will not run properly under
      4.0.5C and earlier releases.

------------------------------

Subject:   -20- Binary Compatibility on different machines
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  Applications compiled with IRIS Performer 2.0 using IRIX 5.3 will
  run unmodified across all SGI platforms.  For best performance, use
  IRIS GL with RealityEngine and other pre-Impact systems and use
  OpenGL for Impact and post-Impact graphics hardware.
  OpenGL-oriented systems provide the IGLOO (Iris GL on OpenGL)
  portability layer to execute IRIS GL applications, but it is not
  the maximum performance route.  Performance oriented developers are
  advised to generate both IRIS GL and OpenGL executables, by linking
  with the API-compatible IRIS Performer 2.0 IRIS GL and OpenGL
  libraries.  In this way, you can assure optimum performance across
  present and future graphics systems. For OpenGL development on
  RealityEngine with IRIX 5.3, patch 154 (or a superseding patch) is
  recommended for performance and features.

  IRIS Performer 1.2/IRIX5 contains a single version of libpr for all
  machines.  Applications built with Performer 1.2 for Irix 5.2 are
  fully compatible across machines and can run on any graphics type
  without relinking.

  In IRIS Performer 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2/IRIX4, libpr is platform-
  specific with one of two versions installed depending on whether
  the machines is a RealityEngine or not.  Binaries linked on
  non-RealityEngine machines will run on a RealityEngine, but not all
  features will be available.

------------------------------

Subject:   -21- Binary Compatibility on different releases
Date: 17 Oct 97 00:00:01 EST

  o Compatibility issues with previous Performer releases:

  IRIS Performer release have a number of 3 fields: Major.Minor.Maint
  Maintenance releases are binary compatible with all versions of
  the same Major.Minor base release.  For example, 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3
  and 2.0.4 are all binary compatible with each other and are
  all binarcy compatible with their base release, 2.0.  Maintenance
  releases contain bug fixes and the highest maintenance number will
  be the most recent release.  Different Major.Minor releases are not
  binary compatible; ie: IRIS Performer 2.0 is not binary compatible
  with IRIS Performer 2.1.  For this reason, IRIS Performer releases
  include compatibility libraries from previous releases (properly
  versioned and suffixed for the IRIX environment) so that old
  IRIS Performer applications will continue to run without re-linking.
  
  Performer compatibility issues with IRIX 5.3:

  Applications created with IRIS Performer 2.0 using IRIX 5.3 also
  run under IRIX 6.1 and later IRIX releases in 32-bit mode.  The
  32-bit applications created using IRIX 5.3 will not make use of
  64-bit address space and other MIPS III/IV features provided by the
  IRIS Performer N32 and N64 development environment under IRIX 6.2
  and later operating system releases.

  Note that applications built on an IRIX 6.1 or 6.2 systems are not
  guaranteed to run properly on 5.3 systems, due to changes in
  structures used by system libraries. (This is true even for
  applications that do not use IRIS Performer-- applications built on
  later versions of IRIX may not run on earlier ones).  Therefore to
  produce an O32 executable that will run on all SGI systems 5.3 and
  later, the compiling must be done on an IRIX 5.3 system.

  Performer compatibility issues with IRIX 6.1:

  Applications created with IRIS Performer 2.0 under IRIX 6.1 can be
  compiled and linked for 32-bit IRIX 5.3-style execution (known as
  Old 32-bit mode, or O32) only.  IRIS Performer programs built for
  the two new executable types (N32 and N64) are not operable on
  pre-6.2 systems -- specifically, they will not run on IRIX 5.3 or
  6.1 systems.

  O32 IRIS Performer programs will run on IRIX 6.1. However, the
  OpenGL development environment of IRIX 6.1 is not as full featured
  as the 32-bit OpenGL of IRIX 5.3 or IRIX 6.2. This can cause both
  low-performance and lack-of-feature problems for developers
  creating OpenGL applications. For this reason, developers are
  advised to build only IRIS GL applications on IRIX 6.1 systems or
  to upgrade to IRIX 6.2 for access to its enhanced 32-bit and 64-bit
  OpenGL development environment.

  Performer compatibility issues with IRIX 6.2:

  IRIS Performer 2.0 and 2.1 are compatible with IRIX 6.2 and later 
  IRIX relases.  Applications can be developed for all three execution 
  modes: O32, N32, and N64.
  The IRIX 6.2 32-bit and 64-bit OpenGL implementations have the
  RealityEngine feature extensions and performance enhancements found
  in IRIX 5.3. For this reason, developers are urged to use IRIX 6.2
  or later rather than IRIX 6.1 for OpenGL development. As mentioned
  above, IRIS Performer applications built in either N32 or N64 mode
  will not run on IRIX 5.3 or 6.1 systems, and, in general,
  applications should not be run on earlier versions of IRIX than the
  machine on which they are compiled.

  Applications using Performer 1.2/IRIX5 are binary compatible with
  machines running Irix 5.2, 5.3, 6.0, and later IRIX releases
  without relinking.

  IRIS Performer 1.0 requires IRIX 4.0.5 or later.  Because IRIX
  4.0.5F added several new GL calls to support RealityEngine
  features, an application that uses GL routines or tokens found only
  in 4.0.5F and later does not run properly under 4.0.5, 4.0.5B, or
  4.0.5C.  When run on these earlier IRIX releases, an IRIS Performer
  1.0 application making calls to GL functions or using GL tokens
  that are undefined in the run-time environment cause run-time
  errors or undefined behavior.

  An IRIS Performer 1.0 binary compiled and linked under IRIX
  releases earlier than 4.0.5F will run under IRIX 4.0.5F and later,
  but some RealityEngine features are not directly accessible to the
  application.  An application can still access RealityEngine
  features supported automatically or explicitly through IRIS
  Performer when linked with IRIS Performer shared libraries.

  Running a IRIS Performer application built with IRIX 4.0.5 on IRIX
  5.X is not recommended.  In particular, multiprocess applications
  cannot take advantage of all processors.  Also, because IRIX 4.0.5's
  relaxed shared memory accounting was replaced by a despotic and
  stricter regime under IRIX 5.2, a Performer application built on
  4.0.5 will need a much larger amount of swap space to be allocated up
  front unless PFTMPDIR is used to specify a memory mapped file.


------------------------------

Subject:   -22- Guaranteeing Real Time performance
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  - Run as root so that Performer can lock your process to
    a particular CPU (if using pfuLockCPU) and give it a
    non-degrading priority.

  - Be sure to kill any clocks, gr_osview, or other tools that may
    wake up and draw themselves, so as to avoid graphics context
    switches.

  - When multiprocessing, make sure the executable is on a local file
    system.

  - There is a new real-time kernel directive for Onyx/Challenge
    processors for directing system interrupts away from real-time
    processors.

    In the file /var/sysgen/system/irix.sm, Search for NOINTR and
    below the comment explaining NOINTR, add the line

	NOINTR: 1 2 3 4 ..etc..

    where you list the CPUs that you intend to do real-time
    processing on.  Then reboot.  This can be done on 5.2+
    Onyx/Challenge systems but wasn't covered in the base IRIX5
    documentation.  Be sure -not- to specify CPU 0, as you will want
    it to be available for necessary interrupts.

  - With IRIS GL, real-time performance can only be guaranteed if you
    have one window rendering at a time, per pipe.

    If more than one application is rendering to the same hardware
    pipeline, the (hardware) graphics pipe has to switch back & forth
    between each GL window's context several hundred times per
    second.  This is horribly inefficient and the graphics pipe will
    instruct the "other" process to block while its context is
    switched out.

  - Since having other (cpu-based) applications running can also
    effect real-time performance, it's sometimes desirable to
    minimize the number of daemons and other processes.  If you have
    problems achieving real-time behavior, try the pfuLockCPU in
    libpfutil.  You might also try turning off the desktop support
    and other daemons that are not crucial to your application,
    e.g.:

       % touch ~/.disableDesktop
       or
       % mkdir ~/.desktop-<machinename>
       % touch ~/.desktop-<machinename>/nodesktop

    and for total removal do:

       % chkconfig desktop off
       % chkconfig objectserver off
       % chkconfig directoryserver off
       % chkconfig fontserver off
       % chkconfig soundscheme off
     
------------------------------

Subject:   -23- How do I make GL calls from within a IRIS Performer
                program?
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  GL calls can only be made from a process that has a GL context.  In
  multi-process Performer applications only the draw process has GL
  context, so you must make your GL calls in a function called in the
  draw process.

  The pipe initialization callback, draw function callback, and node
  draw callbacks are all executed in the draw process.

  In an application that only will ever run single-process, GL calls
  can be made from anywhere in the program, but this is considered a
  dangerous practice.

  To set up a pipe initialization callback, see the pfInitPipe()
  manpage.  To set up a draw function callback, see the
  pfChanDrawFunc() manpage.  To set up a node draw callback, see the
  pfNodeTravFuncs() manpage.

------------------------------

Subject:   -24- How do I overlay graphics on top of my Performer scene?
Date: 06 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  Typically this is done to implement a heads-up display (HUD).

  In the draw function callback, the basic algorithm is:

  	save state with pfPushState()
  	disable textures, fog, & lighting with pfBasicState()
  	save & clear projection matrix
  	ortho2()
  	save & clear modelling matrix
  	draw()
  	restore modelling matrix
  	restore projection matrix
  	restore state with pfPopState()

  Or, you can draw your static info in the overlay planes and only
  redraw it when the window receives a REDRAW event (moved, resized,
  etc.).  Changing between drawing to the overlays and drawing to
  regular bitplanes takes a big hit.

  For things that need to be updated real-time, draw() would consist
  of:

          zfunction(ZF_ALWAYS);
          zwritemask(0x0);
  	draw HUD stuff
          zfunction(ZF_LEQUAL);
          zwritemask(0xffffffff);

------------------------------

Subject:   -25- What is the difference between phases FREE, FLOAT, and
                LOCK?
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  PFPHASE_FREE_RUN wakes the application and draw processes up on the
  next video field boundary after the draw finishes. i.e. it's
  Performer's version of the usual run as-fast-as-I-can or
  as-slow-as-I-must mode that most simple graphics programs use.

  PFPHASE_FLOAT wakes the application up only on frame boundaries,
  i.e.  time = n*(1/frame_rate).  However, the draw process "floats"
  with respect to the frame rate and wakes up on the next possible
  field boundary and then does a swapbuffers() when it's done,
  regardless of whether it finished drawing in time for the desired
  frame rate.  Hence you see every frame that's drawn to the
  backbuffer, but it may not appear at exactly the time for which it
  was planned.  If you never frame extend, it behaves like
  PFPHASE_FIXED.  Latency is variable.

  PFPHASE_LOCK wakes the application and draw up only on frame
  boundaries and only swaps on frame boundaries.  The advantage is
  that each new image always appears at precisely the time for which
  it was rendered.  The disadvantage is that if the draw runs even
  slightly over a frame time, you skip that entire frame and are
  stuck with an outdated picture for a frame.  Latency is fixed.

  For more information see the pfPhase() man page or section 7.1.2 of
  the PFPG.

------------------------------

Subject:   -26- Use of PFTMPDIR to configure shared memory
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  IRIS Performer requires shared memory and uses a memory-mapped
  file, the location of which depends on the value of the PFTMPDIR
  environment variable:

  If PFTMPDIR is not set, Performer uses /dev/zero as the default.
  Running an application in this configuration:

    - Uses swap space 
    - Does not require disk space until main memory is exhausted 
    - Is faster than using a regular memory mapped file via PFTMPDIR 
    - Causes IRIX to kill the process(es) and log an error to the
      console if the application runs out of space for shared memory in
      the swap partition.

  If PFTMPDIR is set, Performer creates files in the specified
  directory. Running an application in this configuration:

    - Requires disk space even before main memory is exhausted 
    - Is slower than /dev/zero because it touches the disk 
    - Produces appropriately sized core dump files with no limit set by
      IRIS Performer
    - Might cause a core dump from a segmentation violation inside
      pfMalloc if the application runs out of space for shared memory
      in the file system containing PFTMPDIR
    - PFTMPDIR should be set only to a directory on a local file system.

------------------------------

Subject:   -27- Which rendering primitives does IRIS Performer support?
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  Points (PFGS_POINTS), 
  Independent line segments (PFGS_LINES), 
  Connected line strips (PFGS_LINESTRIPS), 
  Flat connected line strips (PFGS_FLAT_LINESTRIPS), 
  Independent Triangles (PFGS_TRIS), 
  Independent quadrilaterals (PFGS_QUADS),
  Connected triangle strips (PFGS_TRISTRIPS),
  Flat Connected triangle strips (PFGS_FLAT_TRISTRIPS),
  Independent n-sided polygons (PFGS_POLYS).

  See the pfGeoSet(3pf) man page for more information.

------------------------------

Subject:   -28- How do I do triangle meshes in Performer?
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  You must change your triangle meshes to triangle strips by hand.
  In Performer 2.0, pfdMeshGSet (pfuMeshGSet in 1.2) does this for
  you.

------------------------------

Subject:   -29- ================= Known Problems =================
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

------------------------------

Subject:   -30- Video Rate sometimes reported incorrectly
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  The video rate used by IRIS Performer for frame rate control is
  computed at application startup on some machines and is not always
  exactly correct. If this is a problem, the video rate can be set
  with pfVideoRate.

------------------------------

Subject:   -31- Problems with Performer Town or Village demos
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  - IRIX 5.0:  It was reported that perfly would cause an Onyx RE or
    VTX to hang.  This was fixed in 5.0.1.

  - IRIX 5.0.1:  perfly would generate floating point exceptions due
    to a bug in the font manager library (libfm).  This was fixed in
    5.1.

  - IRIX 5.2/5.3 Kernel Panic:  Certain IRIX patches were
    incompatible with Performer and would cause the Town or Village
    demos to panic the system if run as root.  The error message
    was:

        PANIC: CPU 3: Stack Extension Page is inconsistent
        Double PANIC: CPU 0: Stack Extension Page is inconsistent 111
        at block 0

    In IRIX 5.2, the crash occurs with patches 125 and 139.
    In IRIX 5.3, the crash occurs with patch 158.

  - Jerky forward motion.  This is caused by an uneven frame rate.
    The Performer town demo is fill limited and typically can not
    maintain a steady 30Hz.

    This can also occur if perfly is not being run as root.  When run
    by root, Performer applications will set nondegradable priorities
    for their processes to improve the consistency of the run-time
    behavior.

    This same problem is also caused by the user having another
    GL-based application (like gr_osview) running at the same time.

  - Ghosting.  A true FAQ is why multiple images of objects like
    trees, house edges, the horizon, etc. are seen as the viewer
    turns.  This is a form of "temporal aliasing" and is an attribute
    of having a frame rate which is less than the video refresh
    rate.

    The problem is that a single image is scanned out onto the
    monitor several times before being changed.  The repetition of a
    frame means that the image is temporally inaccurate for motion.
    Real moving objects do not stay in one place for a couple frame
    times and then move.

    What's actually happening is that your eye is following an
    object, moving with the same angular velocity, which keeps the
    image stationary on the retina.  Between two video refreshes of
    the same frame, your eye has moved, but the image on the screen
    has not.  Consequently the image of the second frame appears at a
    different location on the retina, and you see a "ghost" image.

    So a simulation running at 20Hz update on a display refreshing at
    60Hz, the object will appear tripled.  On large objects such as
    horizon silhouette, the effect manifests itself as multiple
    edges.

------------------------------

Subject:   -32- Antialiasing
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  When it is not multisampling, pfAntialias can significantly degrade
  performance.  Specifically, on non-RealityEngine systems, use
  pfAntialias only for lines and points.

------------------------------

Subject:   -33- Coplanar Polygons & pfDecal on certain platforms
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  pfDecal works only on machines that support the stencil or
  displacepolygon command.  The default decaling mode for PFDECAL_BASE
  now uses displacepolygon instead of stencil.  This can significantly
  improve rendering performance but can result in visual anomalies
  where layer polygons incorrectly "poke" through other geometry.  If
  you wish the old behavior then specify the PFDECAL_BASE_HIGH_QUALITY
  token.

------------------------------

Subject:   -34- Networked graphics (DGL & GLX)
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  libpf-based applications in IRIS Performer 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 2.0
  do not support applications that use networked GL (DGL).  However,
  applications using libpr only can use DGL.

  This bug/problem is a side-effect of having vertical retrace
  counter control, which is only available on VGX, VGXT, VTX, Reality
  Engine, Reality Engine 2, Elan, and Extreme graphics systems.

  OpenGL-based Performer 2.0 applications display properly to remote
  systems via the GLX X server extension.

------------------------------

Subject:   -35- Transparency
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  pfTransparency works only on machines that support either
  blendfunction or multisampling.

  Sometimes users report that their transparency seems quantized.  This
  is not a bug -- Performer defaults to using Multisample transparency
  (msalpha) when multisampling is enabled, instead of using the
  "standard" (blendfunction) transparency mechanism.

  Multisample transparency is faster but has much less resolution, and
  so less quality.  Standard transparency using blendfunction is
  slower, but the quality is very good.

  To force Performer to use higher-quality (but slower) transparency
  when multisampling,

  1.0/1.1:  pfGStateMode (gstate, PFSTATE_TRANSPARENCY, 2);
  1.2/2.0:  pfGStateMode (gstate, PFSTATE_TRANSPARENCY, PFTR_HIGH_QUALITY);
                                                    aka PFTR_BLEND_ALPHA

  In 1.0/1.1 the BLEND_ALPHA token was not exposed, but just use '2'.
  Be sure to revisit this code when you port to 1.2, as the token has
  changed.

  See the pfTransparency(3pf) man page for more details.

------------------------------

Subject:   -36- Gangdraw and cursor loading
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  Loading the cursor with ganged swapbuffers (external swapready
  wire) hangs graphics. Workaround: don't load the cursor and use a
  full screen window when using ganged swapbuffers.

------------------------------

Subject:   -37- Frame control on low- and mid-range machines
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  Frame control on low- and mid-range machines: Currently, the video
  clock (pfInitVClock, pfGetVClock, pfVClockSync) is supported only
  on systems with VGX, VGXT, RealityEngine, RealityEngine2, Elan, XS,
  Extreme, and Impact graphics hardware. On other systems,
  pfVClockSync returns immediately. Because libpf normally uses
  pfVClockSync for frame rate control, frame control is not rigorous
  on other platforms.

------------------------------

Subject:   -38- Timing on pre-1992 platforms
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  Several libpf functions require high-resolution timing information.
  On most recent machines (Indy, Indigo, Indigo2, 4D/35 and Onyx) and
  PowerSeries or Crimson machines with IO3 boards, IRIS Performer
  uses special hardware counters with sub-microsecond resolution.
  (The IO3 board was standard on Crimson and later 4D/300 and 4D/400
  machines. You can check for it with the hinv(1M) command.)

  On older platforms, for example, those with IO2 boards, the
  time-of-day clock is used, which, by default, has a 10 ms
  resolution. This resolution is inadequate for many libpf functions,
  including animation sequences (pfSequence), graphics load
  computation (pfChanStress), and the display of accurate channel
  statistics (pfDrawChanStats). On these machines, you may want to
  enable fast timers using systune(1M) to set the fasthz variable.
  See the man page for timers for more information. Frame rate
  control is poor on machines that lack both a fast clock and the
  video clock used by pfVClockSync.

------------------------------

Subject:   -39- 2.0 Warnings from ld when building on IRIX 6.2
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  When building executables on IRIX 6.2 and linking directly using ld
  rather than implicitly via CC, an alarming number of warnings about
  tables that are defined in multiple .so's may be printed. These are
  harmless but the appropriate compiler option to disable the warning
  has not yet been identified.  The problem does not occur when
  linking with CC, which is identical in function and serves as an
  effective workaround.

------------------------------

Subject:   -40- 2.0 Bug OpenGL functions missing when building static
                executables
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  When building static OpenGL executables in IRIX 5.3 installed it
  may be necessary to specify the "-ignore_unresolved" option to ld
  since not all OpenGL extensions used in Performer are available on
  all platforms and OS versions.  You may see warnings for the
  unresolved symbols of OpenGL extensions that are not present on the
  current system, but the executable will still successfully link.

------------------------------

Subject:   -41- 2.0 Bug Z buffer problems when moving windows on 5.3
                EXtreme
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  When moving a window on Extreme graphics under IRIX 5.3, in some
  clear modes the Z-buffer may not be updated properly until a full
  czclear() operation is performed.

------------------------------

Subject:   -42- 2.0 Bug Use of more than 512 simultaneous textures
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  When more than 512 textures are used in either IRIS GL or OpenGL
  the hardware and or host-side software may become confused and in
  some cases, may falter completely and terminate the application.
  This is a graphics library limitation.

------------------------------

Subject:   -43- 2.0 Bug IRIS GL on dual-head systems
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  IRIS GL based Performer executables encounter difficulties when
  executing on dual-head Indigo systems.  This problem is not present
  in OpenGL applications.

------------------------------

Subject:   -44- 2.0 Bug Resizing of pfPipeWindows in MP X apps
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  Dynamic resizing of pfPipeWindows when multi-processed and using X
  windows (IRIS GLX or OpenGL/X) when an alternate framebuffer
  configuration window is selected (such as the fill statistics
  window in OpenGL/X perfly) can cause channel viewports to be
  confused when the alternate framebuffer configuration window is
  de-selected (such as disabling the fill statistics in perfly when
  running with X windows).

------------------------------

Subject:   -45- 2.0 Bug Applying frustums transformed by
                pfOrthoXformFrust
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  pfApplyFrust() does not properly apply a frustum which has been
  transformed with pfOrthoXformFrust().  Instead, the canonical
  frustum whose eye is at the origin and is looking down the +Y axis,
  is applied.

------------------------------

Subject:   -46- 2.0 Bug pfFlatten with pfCycleBuffer attribute arrays
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  pfFlatten() is broken for pfGeoSets with pfCycleBuffer attribute
  arrays. A core dump is likely.

------------------------------

Subject:   -47- 2.0 Bug Sorting lights with pfChanBinSort()
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  The PFSTATE_LIGHTS sorting key for the PFSORT_BY_STATE mode of
  pfChanBinSort() is not yet implemented.

------------------------------

Subject:   -48- 2.0 Bug OpenGL disables back material modes
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  Although Performer supports it, OpenGL does not support different
  material color modes for front and back materials. When Performer
  encounters this case, it disables the material color mode for the
  back material.

------------------------------

Subject:   -49- 2.0 Bug CPU statistics in IRIX 6
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  Statistics: The PFSTATSHW_CPU pfStats statistics class for
  accumulation of statistics on CPU usage are not yet implemented for
  IRIX6 operation (64bit or 32bit).

------------------------------

Subject:   -50- 2.0 Bug pfdLoadFile_flt FLT loader in IRIX 6
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  The FLT loader under 64bit operation may core dump.

------------------------------

Subject:   -51- 2.0 Bug hello sample program in IRIX 6
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  The src/pguide/libpf/C/hello sample program may core dump under
  64bit operation.

------------------------------

Subject:   -52- 2.0 Bug Forked X input handing in IRIX 6.2
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  On beta versions of 6.2 some problems were experienced with
  handling X input in an additional forked process.  For this reason,
  the perfly sample application has a conditional compilation
  construct to use the non-forked X input handling option of the
  libpfutil X input handling utilities when compiled under IRIX6. You
  may find this to not be necessary.

------------------------------

Subject:   -53- 2.0 Bug Intersections with pfBillboard nodes
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  Intersection testing of line segments (pfNodeIsectSegs) against
  geometry in pfBillboard nodes is not yet implemented; only the
  bounding sphere of the entire pfBillboard is available.

------------------------------

Subject:   -54- 2.0 Bug Channel fade LOD attributes & mixed gfx configs
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  Channel fade LOD attributes are set in the application process. The
  existence of multisample, required for fade LOD, is tested at the
  time that the attributes are set with pfChanLODAttr. This test for
  multisample uses the application process window system connection
  (pfOpenWSConnection) or else the DISPLAY environment variable to
  select a screen for determining graphics configuration, instead of
  testing the current window of the pfChannel. In a multipipe
  environment where one graphics pipeline has multisample and one
  does not, the application process needs to have a window system
  connection or DISPLAY that points to the pipeline with multisample,
  in which case the non-multisample pfChannels will try to use fade
  LOD. In a multi-window environment, windows without multisample on
  a system with multisample will try to use fade LOD.

------------------------------

Subject:   -55- 2.0 Bug libpfui C API incomplete
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  Libpfui has both a C API and a C++ API. The C API is actually
  wrappers around the C++ API and is not complete.

------------------------------

Subject:   -56- 2.0 Bug libpfdb pfdLoadFile_dxf incomplete
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  The DXF loader does not fully support the format.

------------------------------

Subject:   -57- 2.0 Bug libpfdb pfdLoadFile_sgo incomplete
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  The SGO loader does not support triangle strips

------------------------------

Subject:   -58- 2.0 Bug IRIS GL perfly on Indy
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  The background of the GUI panel is influenced by the loaded
  database.  Additionally, fill statistics are not supported on Indy
  under IRIS GL and will cause flashing and error messages to
  stderr.

------------------------------

Subject:   -59- 2.0 Bug pguide/libpf/C/pipewin sample program
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  The overlay text is only drawn in IRIS GL and does not get properly
  redrawn when the window size is changed.

------------------------------

Subject:   -60- 2.0 Bug pguide/libpf/C/lpstate sample program
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  The lpstate.c example for demonstrating pfLPointStates uses
  sophisticated texturing capabilities that may not yet work on the
  IMPACT, Extreme, or Indy graphics platforms.

------------------------------

Subject:   -61- 2.0 Bug pfInitClock() and Video Rate on 250MHz IMPACT
Date: 12 Dec 95 00:00:01 EST

  The clock period determined by pfInitClock() on 250MHz IMPACT
  systems is apparently inconsistent with the true clock period.  It
  seems that the actual clock period is that of a 200MHz system.
  Consequently, pfGetTime() will return a time that is .8 (200/250)
  that of the true time.  

  Among other things, this invalidates the calculations done by
  Performer to determine the current video rate.

  As a workaround, you can specify an alternate clock period with the
  PFCLOCKPERIOD environment variable.  If set, PFCLOCKPERIOD
  specifies the clock period, in picoseconds, to be used by
  pfInitClock().  For proper behavior on 250MHz IMPACT systems, use
  40000 for the period.

------------------------------

Subject:   -62- 1.2 Bug Billboard normals and intersections
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  During rendering, pfBillboard normals are not affected by the
  transformation applied to make the geometry follow the eye.
  Intersection testing of line segments (pfSegsIsectNode) against the
  pfGeoSet's geometry and bounding box are not yet implemented; only
  the bounding sphere of the entire pfBillboard is available.

------------------------------

Subject:   -63- 1.2 Bug Incompatibility with IRIX 6.1 XFS
Date: 20 Nov 95 00:00:01 EST

  Performer 1.2 contains a bug that prevents the use of an IRIX 6.1
  XFS filesystem (the replacement for the older EFS) for Performer
  shared memory and semaphores.  There are a number of workarounds:

	1) Use an EFS root filesystem

	2) set PFTMPDIR to an EFS file system

	3) reorder the device types in the kernel configuration
	files and build a new kernel.

  This problem is fixed in Performer 2.0.

------------------------------

Subject:   -64- 1.2 Bug Billboards with multiple pfGeoSets
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  Using pfBillboards with more than one pfGeoSet sometimes causes a
  segmentation violation during the first cull traversal.  Workaround:
  use only a single pfGeoSet per pfBillboard at some cost in
  performance.

------------------------------

Subject:   -65- 1.2 Bug Flattening transformation hierarchies
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  pfFlatten does not work properly on pfGeodes that share pfGeoSets
  with other pfGeodes.

------------------------------

Subject:   -66- 1.2 libpf Bug Hang on Exit, 5.2 VGX
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  On VGXT running 5.2, calling pfExit when the phase is PFPHASE_LOCK or
  PFPHASE_FLOAT can leave an inactive window and DRAW process.
  Workaround: switch to PFPHASE_FLOAT or PFPHASE_FREE before exiting or
  kill -9 <pid> afterwards.

------------------------------

Subject:   -67- 1.2 libpf Cull with overlapped draw latency
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  When running PFPHASE_LIMIT or PFPHASE_FREE, the draw can start late
  resulting in higher latency.

------------------------------

Subject:   -68- 1.2 libpf Cull with overlapped draw hang
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  When running PFPHASE_LIMIT or PFPHASE_FREE, with processes locked and
  non-degrading priorities, it is possible to lock out the X server and
  hang the system.

------------------------------

Subject:   -69- 1.2 libpf Transparency Sorting
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  When the PFCULL_SORT mode of pfChanTravMode is set, transparent
  objects are drawn after all opaque geometry.  However, transparent
  objects are not sorted back to front among themselves, so visual
  anomalies can result when using blended transparency.  Workaround:
  use multisample transparency (PFTR_MS_ALPHA), if available.

------------------------------

Subject:   -70- 1.2 libpf Multiple EarthSky fog
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  When using multiple pipes which share pfEarthSky fog set by
  pfESkyFog, the fog may appear to change densities and flash.
  Workaround: to guarantee that pfClearChan is not called
  simultaneously by more than one pipe.  This may be accomplished with
  a hardware spin lock (see usnewlock)

------------------------------

Subject:   -71- 1.2 libpf Bug Limit Phase
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  The PFPHASE_LIMIT mode of pfPhase only works when the draw stage is
  configured as a separate process.  For example, the PFMP_APP_CULLDRAW
  mode to pfMultiprocess specifies that the cull and draw stages are
  combined into a single process and so will not be affected by a LIMIT
  phase.

------------------------------

Subject:   -72- 1.2 libpr Highlighting when using wireframe
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  Using highlighting when in wireframe mode can cause random,
  flickering, or otherwise misbehaved polygons.

------------------------------

Subject:   -73- 1.2 libpf APPCULLDRAW does not honor LIMIT/FLOAT/LOCK
                phases
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  When in PFMP_APPCULLDRAW mode, both FREE_RUN and LIMIT act the same;
  as do FLOAT and LOCK.

------------------------------

Subject:   -74- 1.2 libpf Phase toggling overlapped cull and draw
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  When running in the PFMP_CULLoDRAW multiprocessing mode, changing the
  phase from PFPHASE_LOCK or PFPHASE_FLOAT to PFPHASE_FREE_RUN or
  PFPHASE_LIMIT can cause the application to deadlock.

  In perfly, rapidly toggling the phase when running with the
  PFMP_CULLoDRAW multiprocessing model ("perfly -m 65540" or "perfly -m
  65542") can cause the application to hang.

  Workaround: toggle only once every few frames or not at all.

------------------------------

Subject:   -75- 1.2 libpf pfDataPool warning on exit
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  A warning similar to the following sometimes occurs when a sample
  program exits: "Performer Warning (2):  pfReleaseDPool() Could not
  unlink arena shared memory /usr/tmp/pfUtilDataPool11638.pfdpool."
  This warning is harmless and can be ignored.

------------------------------

Subject:   -76- 1.2 libpf Multi-channel stats warning messages
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  When a multi-channel libpf application enables libpr pfStats modes
  (such as graphics statistics -- PFSTATS_GFX) in multiple channels at
  the same time, warning messages are printed every frame.  The
  calculated statistics will be correct.  To stop the stream of warning
  messages, raise the pfNotifyLevel in the program or set the
  enviornment variable PFNFYLEVEL to a value smaller than 2.

------------------------------

Subject:   -77- 1.2 libpf Video warnings on Indy when multiprocessed
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  When an application on an Indy is forced to run the APP and DRAW in
  separate processes, e.g.  pfMultiprocess(PFMP_APP_CULLDRAW),
  pfGetVideoRate warnings are printed when process timing stats are
  on.  To stop the stream of warning messages, raise the pfNotifyLevel
  in the program or set the enviornment variable PFNFYLEVEL to a value
  smaller than 2.

------------------------------

Subject:   -78- 1.2 stats Frame statistics for lightpoints
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  pfFrameStats for visible uni-directional and bi-directional
  pfLightPoint nodes and points are incorrect.  These statistics are
  part of the pfFrameStats database statistics (PFFSTATS_DB) and these
  specific counts are incorrect.  However, the counts for total number
  of visible pfLightPoint nodes and points are correct, and so are the
  counts for Omni-directional pfLightPoint nodes and points.  However,
  these numbers are only counted when PFFSTATS_CULL are enabled.

------------------------------

Subject:   -79- 1.2 stats Pixel fill statistics under 4.0.5 on
                RealityEngine
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  Under 4.0.5, fill statistics do not work when multisampling.
  Workaround: turn off multisampling.

------------------------------

Subject:   -80- 1.2 libpr Directional pfLightPoints
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  Specifying a pfLightPoint node as PFLP_UNIDIRECTIONAL or
  PFLP_BIDIRECTIONAL can cause a core dump in pfLightPoint::cull.
  Workaround: set the color of the first light point with
  pfLPointColor(lp, 0, color) before calling pfLPointShape.

------------------------------

Subject:   -81- 1.2 libpfutil pfuCollide is jerky
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  The collision model jerks and bounces when you keep hitting
  something.

------------------------------

Subject:   -82- 1.2 libpfutil pfuSaveImage broken
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  The image file generated by pfuSaveImage is bogus.

------------------------------

Subject:   -83- 1.2 libpfsgi pfLoadDxf loader is incomplete
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  The DXF loader does not fully support the format.

------------------------------

Subject:   -84- 1.2 libpfsgi pfLoadIv loader is incomplete
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  The IRIS Inventor loader reads a subset of the IRIS Inventor 1.0
  format.

------------------------------

Subject:   -85- 1.2 GLX Overlay text with GLX on 4.0.5
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  In the sample programs (e.g. perfly) on some platforms, sometimes
  drawing messages (pfuDrawMessageCI) to the overlay planes in GLX mode
  doesn't work under 4.0.5.  Workaround: use only in GL mode (e.g. do
  not use "perfly -x") or upgrade to IRIX 5.2.

------------------------------

Subject:   -86- 1.2 GLX Toggling antialiasing with GLX on 4.0.5
                RealityEngine
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  Toggling antialiasing in the sample programs running in GLX mode on a
  4.0.5 RealityEngine apparently confuses the graphics pipe and causes
  wild texturing.  Workaround: use only in GL mode (e.g. do not use
  "perfly -x") or upgrade to IRIX 5.2.

------------------------------

Subject:   -87- 1.2 GLX Toggling antialiasing with GLX on any
                RealityEngine
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  When antialiasing is toggled with the GUI in GLX mode, the GL window
  changes.  As each texture textures first comes into view, it is
  downloaded to the graphics hardware.  Occasional pauses will be seen
  until all textures are reloaded in the graphics hardware.  This can
  be avoided by redownloading all textures (pfuDownloadTexList).

------------------------------

Subject:   -88- 1.2 GLX on 4.0.5 Indigo, sample programs hang on
                startup.
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  Some sample programs will hang on startup if in GLX mode.
  Workaround:  start up only in GL mode (e.g. do not use "perfly -x")
  or upgrade to IRIX 5.2.

------------------------------

Subject:   -89- 1.2 samples smallfly drive models broken
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  Toggling the drive-model button in smallfly can cause unexpected
  results.

------------------------------

Subject:   -90- 1.2 samples pickfly drops core under abuse
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  When aggressively navigating the hierarchy, the number of pfSCSes in
  the scene graph can exceed the maximum libpf traversal depth of 64.

------------------------------

Subject:   -91- 1.2 samples detail example broken on 4.0.5
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  The example program sample/pguide/libpf/progs/detail.c doesn't run
  properly under 4.0.5.  Workaround: upgrade to 5.2.

------------------------------

Subject:   -92- 1.2 friends Belvis makefile requires pmake
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  The makefile for the belvis demo in the Computer Arts and Development
  section requires the pmake utility.  Workaround: install
  dev.sw.make.

------------------------------

Subject:   -93- 1.2 friends Toon has bad models and textures
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  Some of the textures are mixed up in toon town.

------------------------------

Subject:   -94- 1.2 docs pfuGetGLXWin wrong on reference page
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  The prototype in the man page should read: "extern void
  pfuGetGLXWin(pfPipe *_pipe, pfuGLXWindow *_glxWin);" pfuGetGLXWin
  copies the active GLX windows (normal and overlay) for the specified
  pipe into the provided pfuGLXWindow structure.  The active windows
  change when a different GLX visual is requested.

------------------------------

Subject:   -95- 1.2 docs pfuLockDownApp gives the incorrect location
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  pfuLockDownApp gives the incorrect location for the procsetup.c
  example: The correct location for this example is:

     /usr/src/Performer/src/pguide/libpfutil/progs/procsetup.c

  Additionally, the reference page should mention the example

     /usr/src/Performer/src/pguide/libpf/progs/bench.c

------------------------------

Subject:   -96- 1.1 Bug with FP underflow
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  The cull process could encounter an FP underflow that could
  periodically affect cull performance.

------------------------------

Subject:   -97- 1.1 Bug with Multipipe Onyx
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  There is a bug in the 1.1 multipipe code. The symptom is a core dump
  and an error like:

     Performer Fatal (4):pfFree() pointer 0x9c9350 not from pfMalloc

  The workaround is to do the following after you've created a channel
  with pfNewChan:

     ((long**)chan)[3] = NULL;

  This workaround MUST NOT BE USED in Performer 1.2 applications.

------------------------------

Subject:   -98- 1.1 Bug Installing on Indy or Indigo2 XL
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  The problems are related to the way that Performer recognizes the
  graphics hardware in the machine.  Since the Indy was introduced
  after Performer 1.1 released, Performer is unable to match the
  graphics type (NEWPORT) with the hardware types it knows.  This
  effects both the installation and run-time applications.

  /usr/lib/libpr.a, /usr/lib/libpr-g.a, /usr/src/Performer/demo/perfly,
  and /usr/src/Performer/src/perfly/Makefile are machine-tagged in inst
  as platform-specific and will not be installed by default.

  WORKAROUND:  You must remove IRIS Performer 1.1 from your machine and
  re-install, explicitly defining the graphics hardware type.  LIGHT
  (Entry) graphics is the closest approximation to NEWPORT.

          % su
          # versions remove performer_eoe
          # versions remove performer_dev
          # inst -f <pathname> -m GFXBOARD=LIGHT

------------------------------

Subject:   -99- 1.1 Bug Unable to determine Indy graphics type
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  Performer 1.1 applications on Indy display the message: "unable to
  determine graphics type -1.  Default: VENICE"

  WORKAROUND:  The above message means that Performer was unable to
  match NEWPORT graphics to a known graphics type, and has defaulted to
  VENICE (RealityEngine).  This could cause some anomalous behavior in
  your application.  There is no specific workaround at this time.

------------------------------

Subject:  -100- 1.1 Bug perfly cannot find libpf.so on Indy running 5.1
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  /usr/src/Performer/demo/perfly fails with the error message:
  "perfly: rld: Fatal Error: cannot find soname 'libpf.so'"

  WORKAROUND:  You must recompile perfly from the source code provided
  in /usr/src/Performer/src/perfly.

------------------------------

Subject:  -101- 1.1 Bug perfly FP error messages in 5.0.1
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  perfly prints the following error message(s) several times each
  frame:

      "Performer Info:FP division by zero"
      "Performer Info:FP infinity minus infinity"

  WORKAROUND:  This is caused by a bug in IRIS GL and is not a fatal
  error.  Run perfly with the "-n 2" option to disable these (and any
  other) informational messages.

------------------------------

Subject:  -102- 1.1 Bug Installation on IRIX 5.2 - missing prerequisites
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  When trying to install IRIS Performer 1.1 on a machine running IRIX
  5.2, you will get an error regarding a missing prerequisite,
  "dev.sw.libC".  This subsystem contained the C++ runtime library.  In
  5.2 it has been renamed to "c++_eoe.sw.lib".

  WORKAROUND:  'set rulesoverride on' from within inst.

------------------------------

Subject:  -103- 1.0/1.1 Bug intersections with pfSwitch'es
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  Intersections with pfSwitch'es whose value is PFSWITCH_OFF could
  cause a core dump.

------------------------------

Subject:  -104- 1.0/1.1 Bug with pfTexture()
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  On RealityEngine systems, EXTERNAL format was ignored.

------------------------------

Subject:  -105- 1.0/1.1 Bug with pfAntiAlias()
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  On RealityEngine systems, pfAntialias(PFAA_OFF) did not turn off
  multisampling.

------------------------------

Subject:  -106- 1.0/1.1 Bug with pfFlatten()
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  pfFlatten did not dirty bounding spheres of flattened nodes so they
  had improper bounds and would not cull correctly.

------------------------------

Subject:  -107- 1.0/1.1 Bug with pfSequences
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  pfSequences: PFSEQ_RESUME ignored children's display times and drew
  subsequent children for 1 frame only.

------------------------------

Subject:  -108- 1.0/1.1 Bug with pfClosestPtOnPlane()
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  pfClosestPtOnPlane returned wrong result.  Also, the man page had the
  wrong prototype.

------------------------------

Subject:  -109- 1.0/1.1 Bug on ELAN/XS with wireframe PFGS_QUADS
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  On EXPRESS Graphics platforms (XS, XS24, ELAN, etc), wireframe quads
  have a stray line from one vertex to "infinity" when displayed in
  wireframe mode.

------------------------------

Subject:  -110- 1.0/1.2-IRIX4 Bug Z buffer configuration on 4.0.5
                RealityEngine
Date: 8 Apr 94 00:00:01 EST

  Z buffer config on 4.0.5 RealityEngine: On some versions of IRIX
  4.0.5, mssize(4,24,1) (the default by pfAntiAlias) generates an
  unusable Z configuration.  For these machines, call mssize(4,32,1)
  followed by gconfig() in your pipe initialization routine and do not
  attempt to toggle antialiasing.

------------------------------

Subject:  -111- 1.0 Bug pfInit(): mmap failed for /dev/zero
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  This means that you tried to run a Performer 1.0 application (such
  as a 4.x version of perfly) on a machine running IRIX 5.x.  Virtual
  memory management is different in IRIX 5.x.  In order for your
  program to work properly you must:

     % setenv PFTMPDIR /usr/tmp

------------------------------

Subject:  -112- 1.0 Doc Bug in pfMakePolarSeg() man page
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  The man page for pfMakePolarSeg contradicts itself with respect to
  the meaning of azimuth and elevation. The correct paragraph should
  be:

	pfMakePolarSeg sets dst to the segment which starts at pos and
	has length length and points in the direction specified by azi
	and elev.  azi specifies the azimuth (or heading), which is the
	angle which the projection of the segment in the X-Y plane
	makes with the +Y axis.  elev specifies the elevation (or
	pitch), the angle with respect to the X-Y plane.  The positive
	Y axis is azi=0 and elev=0.  Azimuth follows the right hand
	rule about the +Z azis, e.g. -  +90 degrees is the -X axis.
	Similarly, elevation follows the right hand rule about the X
	axis, e.g. -  +90 degrees is the +Z axis.

  Note that in IRIS Performer 1.0, an azi and elev of 0.0 is equivalent
  to the +X axis while in 1.1, this has been changed to the +Y axis.

------------------------------

Subject:  -113- 1.0 Doc Bug in pfDispList() man page
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  The pfDispList man page says the size argument is in bytes; it should
  say words.

------------------------------

Subject:  -114- 1.0 Doc Bug in PFPG (simple.c)
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  The program simple.c in the IRIS Performer Programming Guide (PFPG)
  does not bind a light and draws a black image on Elan systems.  The
  corrected version, which creates and binds a light in the pipe
  initialization callback, is in /usr/src/Performer/src/pguide

------------------------------

Subject:  -115- 1.0 Bug in pfGetTime()
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  In 1.0, pfGetTime() would occasionally return bad values (off by
  4000+ seconds) on Indigo2 and machines without a fast counter, e.g.
  PowerSeries/IO2.

  There was no workaround.

------------------------------

Subject:  -116- 1.0 Bug in pfNodeBBox()
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  pfNodeBBox did not set the bounding box of a node.  A symptom was
  that the bounding boxes of the node would not change when modifying a
  parent pfDCS.

  The workaround was to OR the value 0x0010 into the mode, e.g.-

     pfNodeBBox(node, &bbox, PFN_BMODE_STATIC | 0x0010);

------------------------------

Subject:  -117- 1.0 Bug in pfInitGfx() with Z-buffer on RealityEngine
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  pfInitGfx on RealityEngines would call lsetdepth(0x0, 0x0),
  essentially disabling zbuffering.

  The workaround was to call lsetdepth explicitly after pfInitGfx, in
  the pipe initialization callback.

------------------------------

Subject:  -118- 1.0 Bug in libpfflt combineLODs()
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  combineLODs() in the MultiGen .flt converter (in file hier.c) did not
  set the LOD center of combined LODs.  This would result in strange
  LOD behavior for LODs which were not modelled about the origin.

  (The current OpenFlight loader, revision R14_2, correctly uses the
   center when combining LODs and can combine any number of sibling
   LOD's for improved efficiency.)

------------------------------

Subject:  -119- 1.0 Bug with two-sided material and pfMtlColorMode()
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  Applying a back-sided material which had a color mode
  (pfMtlColorMode), would set the GL lmcolor mode. Since IrisGL does
  not support lmcolor for back-sided materials, this could have caused
  front-sided materials to use an improper lmcolor mode.

------------------------------

Subject:  -120- 1.0 Bug in pfFilePath()
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  pfFilePath would exit with a FATAL error if it was called twice.

------------------------------

Subject:  -121- 1.0 Bug in pfGetCurGState()
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  pfGetCurGState returned a pfGeoState which was the top of the state
  stack rather than the most recently applied pfGeoState.

------------------------------

Subject:  -122- 1.0 Bug in pfGetCurState()
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  pfGetCurState returned a pfGeoState which was the top of the state
  stack rather than the current pfState.

------------------------------

Subject:  -123- 1.0 Bug with cloned scenes
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  pfClone()'ed scenes were not properly cleaned and did not properly
  propagate updates.  In particular, cloned pfSequences did not work.

------------------------------

Subject:  -124- 1.0 Bug intersections in collide.c
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  collide.c was shipped with a hardwired intersection mode which turned
  off intersection caching, substantially reducing intersection
  performance.

------------------------------

Subject:  -125- 1.0 Bug with flattened pfLightPoints
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  pfFlatten()'ed pfLightPoints were broken for multiprocessing modes
  when the application and cull processes were separate.

------------------------------

Subject:  -126- 1.0 Bug intersections with pfSequences
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  Intersections with pfSequences could sometimes turn them off
  (PFSEQ_STOP).

------------------------------

Subject:  -127- 1.0 Bug intersections with non-indexed quads
Date: 26 Oct 93 00:00:01 EST

  Intersection caching for non-indexed quads was broken and could case
  a core dump when intersection with pfGeoSets of this type.


------------------------------

End of sgi/faq/performer Digest
******************************
-- 
The SGI FAQ group <sgi-faq@viz.tamu.edu>   http://www-viz.tamu.edu/~sgi-faq/
Finger us for info on the SGI FAQs, or look in ftp://viz.tamu.edu/pub/sgi/.



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