Interactive, animated 3D widgets

Abstract

If 3D applications become large, hierarchical networks of geometric objects lead to messy specifications. Furthermore, if time- and event-dependencies are merged with geometric modeling, complex animations and interactions cannot be modeled independently and hierarchically since their specifications are dispersed throughout the static scene description. We present an object-oriented architecture for interactive, animated 3D widgets which reduces the complexity of building 3D applications. 3D widgets encapsulate geometry and behavior into high-level building blocks based on two types of directed acyclic graphs, geometry graphs and behavior graphs. 3D widgets construct internal geometry graphs and behavior graphs, and perform operations on these graphs through high-level interfaces which hide details and raise the level of abstraction. 3D widgets define object ports which are used to link together different 3D widgets. A visual language for 3D widgets allows the developer the interactive construction of 3D applications.