Hellocube - A simple OpenGL Performer ( IRIS Performer ) application

OpenGL Performer is a visual simulation API which was earlier called IRIS Performer, and was only available on SGI IRIX platform, but has been released on Linux as part of SGI's LINUX strategy.

This means you can play around and build all those cool vis-sim fly-through apps on a lowly i86 machine running Linux eventhough it may not run as fast as they do on an SGI Infinite Reality machine :)

The Linux binary only demo version of OpenGL Performer 2.5 is now ( 2001 ) available for free download, This is the complete version, except it will display a powered by Performer logo on your application view.

Please check out Performer Basic Concepts for a very basic introduction to Performer concepts.

Also checkout HelloTeapot which is a modified version of Hellocube where we load a 3D Model file instead of creating the geometry.

Getting Performer for Linux ( mongoose )

Go to SGI's Performer for Linux Page to download and install Performer.

The FAQ has a list of all pre-requisites which will be met if you have a newer linux distribution. My Mandrake 8.1 distro had everything. Links to all the required subsystems are on the page, in case you miss something.

Hellocube simple Performer application

Hellocube is a simple "hello world" level application written in Performer C++ API as a beginners introduction to the API.

It initialises and configures Performer ( creates a rendering pipe and channel ), creates a scene and a camera which defines the view-point into the scane, puts lights, builds a cube from polygons, displays it as a wireframe and rotates it, by attaching it to a dynamic local coordinate system.

hellocube.cc

Compiling on Linux

g++ hellocube.cc -lpf -o hellocube


Note: Since Hellocube is a basic app, it only needs to link to -lpf, other applications like HelloTeapot will require linking -lpfdu -lpfutil etc.

Please check the SGI's Performer for Linux Page for updates and latest information.