Scene Graphs

Overview

A scene graph is a data structure commonly used to represent hierarchical relationships between transformations applied to a set of objects in a three-dimensional scene. It finds applications in a variety of acceleration and rendering algorithms. A scene graph could also be used to organize visual attributes, bounding volumes, and animations as a hierarchy in a collection of objects. In the most general form, any scene related information that can be organized in a hierarchical fashion can be stored in a scene graph. It also provides a convenient way of representing logical groups of objects formed using their spatial positions or attributes. In this chapter, we will outline the fundamental properties of scene graphs, look at some of the implementation aspects and consider a few applications.