The display channels are projected onto a number of large surfaces, creating an immersive visual effect for the viewer. With much investment in application architecture, behavior, specialized visualization methods and data interfaces, a need was recognized to develop a framework that would enable these applications to use immersive environments without substantial re-writes. Most immersive display systems have evolved from University research projects in Virtual Reality. Only recently have systems become available in the commercial market. As a result, there is very little commercial software available to support these environments.
Most applications are monolithic applications, designed for a specific set of users.
This library grew out of developments of the CAVE VR system. The CAVElib software provides an API for management of scene content, update, and interactive devices. The physical configuration detail, such as wall projection angles and channel assignment, is managed through an external configuration file. Due to the origins of the software, these two configurations have strongly influenced the software design of CAVElib. The CAVElib system is oriented to device control, and exposes parallel thread execution models to the application programmer, significantly more complex than the framework approach taken in this paper.