Internal and external scene graphs: a new approach for flexible distributed render engines

Render engines or render APIs are a core part of each virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) environment as well as 3D games. Most existing approaches either focus on rendering speed for high frame rates or on the presentation of advanced visual features. However, no approach exists to integrate scene descriptions based on multiple file formats without converting and thereby partly destroying the native scene format. In this paper we will present our approach of internal and external scene graphs for realizing render engines. We will show how this approach overcomes existing limitations, while still providing decent frame rates and rendering features. By using internal scene graphs for rendering, we use external scene graphs to store format or application specific information, preserving its native structure and content.