Diverse is a common name for a collection of API functions and the support software
developed at Virginia Tech. The complete list of people who contributed to Diverse can be found at
Source Forge. Diverse consists of
three major components, DPF, DGL and DTK. DPF is an interface library to OpenGL Performer, while DGL
bypasses Performer to perform rendering directly using OpenGL. Both packages can be used to generate
3D objects. DTK is the Diverse Toolkit, and is used by both the DPF and DGL packages to interact with
local and networked input/output devices.
Diverse is an open-source, cross platform package. Its greatest strength is the
support for the CAVE and HMD (head mounted display) devices. Currently, 3D rendering using Diverse is
done using Diversifly, however, the options available with Diversifly are very limited. Diversifly is
a post-processing visualization tool - the user must generate a 3D geometry of interest, save it in an
appropriate polygonal format and load it into Diversifly. Full translation and rotation of the data is
then possible, however, the user cannot change the visualized geometry. For instance, it is not possible
to load in a data grid and generate contour levels from the loaded data. The video shows how Diversifly
can be used to load a post-processed data into the CAVE. The geometry seen in the video was generated
using capVTE and was exported as an .IV file.
capVTE currently only runs on desktop computers. However, a modification of the DGL
package will be used to port VTK to the CAVE. This CAVE version of capVTE will also use the DTK package
to interact with the wand and the tracking headset. The network protocol will however remain the same
between the desktop and the CAVE version, allowing multiple labs to collaborate without needing any specific
visualization hardware.