Large-scale and high-resolution displays are increasingly being used for next-generation interactive 3D graphics applications, including large-scale data visualization, immersive virtual environments, and collaborative design. These systems must include a very high-performance and scalable 3D rendering subsystem in order to generate high-resolution images at real-time frame rates.

We are investigating how to build such a system using only inexpensive commodity components in a PC cluster. The main challenge is to develop scalable algorithms to partition and distribute rendering tasks effectively under the bandwidth, processing, and storage constraints of a distributed system. In this paper, we compare three different approaches that differ in the type of data transmitted from client to display servers: control, primitives, or pixels. For each approach, we describe our initial experiments with a working prototype system driving a multi-projector display wall with a PC cluster. We find that different approaches are suitable for different system architectures, with the best choice depending on the communication bandwidth, storage capacity, and processing power of the clients and display servers.

@article{Chen:2001:DDS,
   author = "Han Chen and Yuqun Chen and Adam Finkelstein and Thomas Funkhouser and
      Kai Li and Zhiyan Liu and Rudrajit Samanta and Grant Wallace",
   title = "Data distribution strategies for high-resolution displays",
   journal = "Computers & Graphics",
   year = "2001",
   month = oct,
   volume = "25",
   number = "5",
   pages = "811--818"
}