New Middleware Tool For Rendering Trees

Interactive Data Visualization (IDV) is showcasing a new middleware tool used for creating, editing, and rendering trees, called SpeedTreeRT. SpeedTreeRT is a C/C++ API designed to provide access to SpeedTree data for interactive, real-time applications. SpeedTreeRT parses the “.spt” files created with SpeedTreeCAD (a stand-alone Windows application) and delivers all tree data to a calling application via its API. SpeedTreeRT ships with an SDK that contains examples of how to render SpeedTrees in common rendering environments such as DirectX, OpenGL, and NetImmerse. IDV claims that SpeedTreeRT offers several advantages over traditional 3D tree-rendering techniques (i.e., static meshes):

Automatic levels of detail (LOD) generation.

Solutions for applying wind to the trees in real time.

Efficient data organization for popular rendering systems (e.g., OpenGL vertex arrays and DirectX). A new demo written in OpenGL can be found on the IDV web site, which shows special effects like dynamic shadows and adjustable wind effects. Pricing information was not provided.