A self-distributing software environment for immersive multiprojector displays

In multiprojector displays which surround users with high-resolution images, a PC-Cluster is often used for realistic and real-time image generation. However, it is quite troublesome to develop applications which support parallel processing on the PC-Cluster. It is also difficult to acquire enough rendering performance because of the limited bandwidth of the PC-Cluster. Therefore, we aim to achieve affordable and accessible software environments for the multiprojector displays. In this paper, we describe a self-distributing software environment for inheriting existent game engines which provide basic functions of realizing virtual environments. This environment achieves minimum data communication based on a master–slave model. The communication mechanism is automatically applied to target applications by intercepting APIs. Hence, we can directly exploit high capability of the existing game engines on the multiprojector displays. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 38(2): 1–9, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (). DOI 10.1002sscj.20705