QuickDraw 3D RAVE

Inside Macintosh:

QuickDraw 3D RAVE
This chapter describes the QuickDraw 3D Renderer Acceleration Virtual Engine (RAVE), the part of the Macintosh system software that controls 3D drawing engines (also known as 3D drivers). As explained more fully below, a drawing engine is software that supports the low-level rasterization operations required for interactive 3D rendering. To achieve interactive performance, a drawing engine is often associated with some hardware device designed specifically to accelerate the 3D rasterization process.
QuickDraw 3D RAVE is used internally by QuickDraw 3D, the 3D graphics library from Apple Computer, Inc. that you can use to create, configure, render, and interact with models of three-dimensional objects. For most 3D drawing and interaction, you should use the high-level application programming interfaces provided by QuickDraw 3D. In some cases, however, you might need to use the low-level services provided by QuickDraw 3D RAVE. You can use QuickDraw 3D RAVE if

you are writing a specialized application (such as a game-development framework) that needs to take advantage of Apple's optimized software rasterizers and any available 3D acceleration hardware
you are writing interactive software (such as a game or other entertainment software) that requires the extremely fast 3D rendering that can be achieved with a very low-level, lightweight graphics library
you are developing 3D acceleration hardware or software that is to be accessed by any applications rendering 3D images

To use this chapter, you should already be familiar with QuickDraw 3D, described in 3D Graphics Programming With QuickDraw 3D. You should also be familiar with low-level 3D rendering algorithms. The bibliography (page BI-171) lists a number of standard 3D reference books that document those algorithms.
This chapter begins by describing the basic capabilities of QuickDraw 3D RAVE. Then it shows how to use some of those capabilities to find the available drawing engines, select and configure a drawing engine, and use that drawing engine to draw 3D images. The section "Writing a Drawing Engine," beginning on page 1-23, shows how to add a new drawing engine to those already available for use by QuickDraw 3D RAVE. You need to read this section only if you are developing custom 3D acceleration hardware or software.
The section "QuickDraw 3D RAVE Reference," beginning on page 1-34, provides a complete reference to the constants, data structures, and functions provided by QuickDraw 3D RAVE.

IMPORTANT
QuickDraw 3D RAVE is used by the interactive renderer supplied as part of QuickDraw 3D version 1.0. However, the features described here that provide compatibility with OpenGL^TM are not supported by that renderer and are subject to change in future versions of QuickDraw 3D RAVE.

Availability: Click below to obtain QuickDraw 3D RAVE in any of the following formats.

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>© Apple Computer, Inc.
28 AUG 1996