[TOC]

Introduction {#Introduction}

Welcome to Equalizer, the standard middleware to create and deploy parallel, scalable OpenGL applications. It enables applications to benefit from multiple graphics cards, processors and computers to scale the rendering performance, visual quality and display size. An Equalizer application runs unmodified on any visualization system, from a simple workstation to large scale graphics clusters, multi-GPU workstations and Virtual Reality installations.

The Equalizer Programming and User Guide covers the basics of Equalizer programming. The API documentation can be found on github.

As with any open source project, the available source code, in particular the shipped examples provide a reference for developing or porting applications.

Technical questions can be posted to the eq-dev Mailing List, or directly to [email protected].

Commercial support, custom software development and porting services are available from Eyescale. Please contact [email protected] for further information.

Features {#Features}

Equalizer provides the following major features to facilitate the development and deployment of scalable OpenGL applications. A detailed feature list can be found on the Equalizer website. The [change log](@ref Changelog) lists features, improvements and bug fixes introduced in each version.

• Runtime Configurability: An Equalizer application is configured automatically or manually at runtime and can be deployed on laptops, multi-GPU workstations and large-scale visualization clusters without recompilation.
• Runtime Scalability: An Equalizer application can benefit from multiple graphics cards, processors and computers to scale rendering performance, visual quality and display size.
• Distributed Execution: Equalizer applications can be written to support cluster-based execution. Equalizer uses the Collage network library, a cross-platform C++ library for building heterogenous, distributed applications.
• Support for Stereo and Immersive Environments: Equalizer supports stereo rendering head tracking, head-mounted displays and other advanced features for immersive Virtual Reality installations.
• Detailed @ref Changelog

Known Bugs {#Bugs}

Please refer to the github issue tracker for fixed and open bugs, and to report new bugs.

Building from source {#Building}

Equalizer is a cross-platform library, designed to run on any modern operating system, including all Unix variants and the Windows operating system. Equalizer requires at least OpenGL 1.1, but uses newer OpenGL features when available. Equalizer uses CMake to create a platform-specific build environment. The following platforms and build environments are tested:

• Linux: Ubuntu 14.04, RHEL 6.6 (Makefile, Ninja)
• Windows: 7 (Visual Studio 2012)
• Mac OS X: 10.8 (Makefile, Ninja)

Linux, Mac OS X {#Unix}

Remember to remove all traces of previously installed dependencies, as cmake will not check if they are new enough and the build will fail at the make stage:

rm -rf /usr/include/{eq,co,triply,seq,hwsd,pression,lunchbox}
rm -rf /usr/share/{Collage,hwsd,Pression,Lunchbox}
rm -rf /usr/lib/lib{triply*,Sequel*,Equalizer*,Collage*,hwsd*,Pression*,Lunchbox*}
rm -rf Equalizer

git clone https://github.com/Eyescale/Equalizer.git
mkdir Equalizer/build
cd Equalizer/build
cmake ..
make

Using "git pull" to update Equalizer later is not enough, as it does not update CMake/common. Use "git clean -ffdx" instead, or remove the Equalizer folder and do git clone again if needed.

Windows {#Windows}

If CMake and git are in PATH, run the following batch script to build using Visual Studio 2013:

build.bat

A note about BOOST + CMake on Windows

If your build fails with a Could NOT find Boost message, you may have a bad environment setup for Boost and CMake. To remedy this, CMake requires you to properly hint it to find your Boost distribution. Make sure you have the following variables set up:

1. BOOST_ROOT pointing to your Boost root directory.
2. BOOST_INCLUDEDIR pointing to your Boost includes (usually where BOOST_ROOT points to).
3. BOOST_LIBRARYDIR pointing to your Boost binary directory (lib32-msvc-12.0 for instance).
4. Boost_ADDITIONAL_VERSIONS having major, minor, and patch versions (separated by space).
5. (optional) Boost_USE_STATIC_LIBS set to ON if you want to statically link to Boost. (default is OFF)
6. (optional) Boost_USE_MULTITHREAD set to ON if you want to use Boost multi-threaded libraries. (default is ON)

An example set up would be (typed in Windows command prompt):

setx `BOOST_ROOT`                "F:\boost_1_57_0\"
setx `BOOST_INCLUDEDIR`          "F:\boost_1_57_0\"
setx `BOOST_LIBRARYDIR`          "F:\boost_1_57_0\lib32-msvc-12.0\"
setx `Boost_ADDITIONAL_VERSIONS` "1.57 1.57.0"
setx `Boost_USE_STATIC_LIBS`     "ON"
setx `Boost_USE_MULTITHREAD`     "ON"