It is now commonplace for services that were originally centralized on a single computer to be distributed across a network of computers. For example, disk access, windowing interfaces, interactive terminal sessions, database manipulation, and printing are all routinely done via network services.
Distributing computer services makes it possible to amortize expensive hardware resources among multiple, concurrent users. An entire work group, for instance, can share a single laser printer. Every user benefits from access to high-quality printing, while the associated hardware and maintenance costs are spread among all the users. This same principle can be applied to expensive, high-end graphics hardware subsystems.
This paper describes the GLR network service providing access to high-speed, high-quality 3D rendering and imaging that amortizes the cost of expensive, high-end graphics hardware among multiple users. Underlying the system is OpenGL's GLX protocol and a novel use of the X Window System's client-side window manager capability to implement a scheduling policy for frame buffer access.
Section 2 justifies the need for an OpenGL-based network-extensible render service and describes a model for sharing high-end graphics hardware for such a service. Section 3 describes related work. Section 4 describes the GLR programming interface, the means to implement GLR, and scenarios for GLR's use. Section 5 discusses issues for further investigation, including proposed OpenGL extensions to better support GLR. Section 6 concludes.