STEP Presentation

Besides the ray tracing technique, the radiosity method is another major approach for global illumination modeling in the field of computer graphics. Since this method needs a huge amount of storage space (both memory and disk) and a long pro-computation cycle, it is not suitable to implement it on conventional workstations, so therefore that supercomputers are necessary for such kind of graphics applications. However, some problems appeared due to the integration of supercomputers and workstations in a distributive computing environment, especially for graphics applications. The major problems are: - an availability of standard higher-level mechanism for building distributed application - transparent access to supercomputers without remote login or file transfer sessions - computation balance to make the best use of the performance of supercomputers and workstations - data transfer/storage strategy between supercomputers and workstations - conflict between interaction and response time for graphics application In this paper we suggest our solutions to the above mentioned problems based on the remote procedure call (RPC) and the client/server model, for the radiosity package implementation. After the introduction of the radiosity method, we concentrate on the principle, strategy and solution of the integration between supercomputers and workstations. We also convey some general issues related to distributed computing and present our experience of the implementation, such as the application protocol definition, error recovery, code debugging etc. The radiosity package has been implemented at ZGDV in Darmstadt in a network environment including a Multiflow TRACE 7/300 supercomputer and a lot of VAX and SUN workstations.