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NAME

       SoSeparator -

       The SoSeparator class is a state-preserving group node.

       Subgraphs parented by SoSeparator nodes will not affect the state, as they push and pop the traversal
       state before and after traversal of its children.

SYNOPSIS

       #include <Inventor/nodes/SoSeparator.h>

       Inherits SoGroup.

       Inherited by SoAnnotation, SoGeoSeparator, SoLocateHighlight, SoSelection, and SoShadowGroup.

   Public Types
       enum CacheEnabled { OFF, ON, AUTO }

   Public Member Functions
       virtual SoType getTypeId (void) const
           Returns the type identification of an object derived from a class inheriting SoBase. This is used for
           run-time type checking and 'downward' casting.
       SoSeparator (void)
       SoSeparator (const int nchildren)
       virtual void doAction (SoAction *action)
       virtual void GLRender (SoGLRenderAction *action)
       virtual void GLRenderBelowPath (SoGLRenderAction *action)
       virtual void GLRenderInPath (SoGLRenderAction *action)
       virtual void GLRenderOffPath (SoGLRenderAction *action)
       virtual void callback (SoCallbackAction *action)
       virtual void getBoundingBox (SoGetBoundingBoxAction *action)
       virtual void getMatrix (SoGetMatrixAction *action)
       virtual void handleEvent (SoHandleEventAction *action)
       virtual void rayPick (SoRayPickAction *action)
       virtual void search (SoSearchAction *action)
       virtual void getPrimitiveCount (SoGetPrimitiveCountAction *action)
       virtual void audioRender (SoAudioRenderAction *action)
       virtual void notify (SoNotList *nl)
       virtual SbBool affectsState (void) const

   Static Public Member Functions
       static SoType getClassTypeId (void)
       static void initClass (void)
       static void setNumRenderCaches (const int howmany)
       static int getNumRenderCaches (void)

   Public Attributes
       SoSFEnum renderCaching
       SoSFEnum boundingBoxCaching
       SoSFEnum renderCulling
       SoSFEnum pickCulling

   Protected Member Functions
       virtual const SoFieldData * getFieldData (void) const
       virtual ~SoSeparator ()
       virtual SbBool cullTest (SoState *state)
       virtual SbBool cullTest (SoGLRenderAction *action, int &cullresults)
       virtual SbBool readInstance (SoInput *in, unsigned short flags)

   Static Protected Member Functions
       static const SoFieldData ** getFieldDataPtr (void)

   Additional Inherited Members

Detailed Description

       The SoSeparator class is a state-preserving group node.

       Subgraphs parented by SoSeparator nodes will not affect the state, as they push and pop the traversal
       state before and after traversal of its children.

       SoSeparator nodes also provides options for traversal optimalization through the use of caching.

       FILE FORMAT/DEFAULTS:

       Separator {
           renderCaching AUTO
           boundingBoxCaching AUTO
           renderCulling AUTO
           pickCulling AUTO
       }

       See Also:
           SoTransformSeparator

Member Enumeration Documentation

   enum SoSeparator::CacheEnabled
       Enumeration of flags for the fields deciding which optimalizations to do in SoSeparator nodes. There are
       two types of settings available: caching policies or culling policies. See doumentation of fields.

       Enumerator

       OFF    No caching.

       ON     Always try to cache state.

       AUTO   Use heuristics to try to figure out the optimal caching policy.

Constructor & Destructor Documentation

   SoSeparator::SoSeparator (void)
       Default constructor.

   SoSeparator::SoSeparator (const intnchildren)
       Constructor.

       The  argument  should  be  the approximate number of children which is expected to be inserted below this
       node. The number need not be exact, as it is only used as a hint for better memory resource allocation.

   SoSeparator::~SoSeparator () [protected],  [virtual]
       Destructor. Frees resources used to implement caches.

Member Function Documentation

   SoType SoSeparator::getTypeId (void) const [virtual]
       Returns the type identification of an object derived from a class inheriting SoBase.  This  is  used  for
       run-time type checking and 'downward' casting. Usage example:

       void foo(SoNode * node)
       {
         if (node->getTypeId() == SoFile::getClassTypeId()) {
           SoFile * filenode = (SoFile *)node;  // safe downward cast, knows the type
         }
       }

       For  application programmers wanting to extend the library with new nodes, engines, nodekits, draggers or
       others: this method needs to be overridden in all subclasses. This is typically done as part  of  setting
       up  the  full  type  system for extension classes, which is usually accomplished by using the pre-defined
       macros   available   through   for   instance    Inventor/nodes/SoSubNode.h    (SO_NODE_INIT_CLASS    and
       SO_NODE_CONSTRUCTOR for node classes), Inventor/engines/SoSubEngine.h (for engine classes) and so on.

       For more information on writing Coin extensions, see the class documentation of the toplevel superclasses
       for the various class groups.

       Reimplemented from SoGroup.

       Reimplemented    in    SoExtSelection,    SoSelection,    SoWWWAnchor,   SoGeoSeparator,   SoShadowGroup,
       SoLocateHighlight, and SoAnnotation.

   const SoFieldData * SoSeparator::getFieldData (void) const [protected],  [virtual]
       Returns a pointer to the class-wide field data storage  object  for  this  instance.  If  no  fields  are
       present, returns NULL.

       Reimplemented from SoGroup.

       Reimplemented    in    SoExtSelection,    SoSelection,    SoWWWAnchor,   SoGeoSeparator,   SoShadowGroup,
       SoLocateHighlight, and SoAnnotation.

   void SoSeparator::doAction (SoAction *action) [virtual]
       This function performs the typical operation of a node for any action.

       Reimplemented from SoGroup.

   void SoSeparator::GLRender (SoGLRenderAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for the SoGLRenderAction.

       This is called during rendering traversals. Nodes influencing the rendering state in any way or who wants
       to throw geometry primitives at OpenGL overrides this method.

       Reimplemented from SoGroup.

       Reimplemented in SoAnnotation.

   void SoSeparator::GLRenderBelowPath (SoGLRenderAction *action) [virtual]
       SGI Open Inventor v2.1 obsoleted support for SoGLRenderAction::addMethod(). Instead, GLRender() might  be
       called  directly,  and  to  optimize traversal, the SoSeparator node calls GLRenderBelowPath whenever the
       path code is BELOW_PATH or NO_PATH (path code is guaranteed not to change). To be compatible  with  SGI's
       Inventor (and thereby also TGS') we have chosen to follow their implementation in this respect.

       SoSeparator::GLRenderBelowPath()  do  not  traverse its children using SoChildList::traverse(), but calls
       GLRenderBelowPath() directly for all its children.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoExtSelection, SoShadowGroup, SoLocateHighlight, SoGeoSeparator, and SoAnnotation.

   void SoSeparator::GLRenderInPath (SoGLRenderAction *action) [virtual]
       Implements the SoAction::IN_PATH traversal method for the rendering action.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoShadowGroup, SoLocateHighlight, SoGeoSeparator, and SoAnnotation.

   void SoSeparator::GLRenderOffPath (SoGLRenderAction *action) [virtual]
       Implements the SoAction::OFF_PATH traversal method for the rendering action.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoAnnotation.

   void SoSeparator::callback (SoCallbackAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for SoCallbackAction.

       Simply updates the state according to how the node behaves for the  render  action,  so  the  application
       programmer can use the SoCallbackAction for extracting information about the scene graph.

       Reimplemented from SoGroup.

       Reimplemented in SoGeoSeparator.

   void SoSeparator::getBoundingBox (SoGetBoundingBoxAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for the SoGetBoundingBoxAction.

       Calculates  bounding  box  and  center  coordinates  for  node  and  modifies the values of the action to
       encompass the bounding box for this node and to shift the center point for the scene more towards the one
       for this node.

       Nodes influencing how geometry nodes calculates their bounding box also overrides this method  to  change
       the relevant state variables.

       Reimplemented from SoGroup.

       Reimplemented in SoGeoSeparator.

   void SoSeparator::getMatrix (SoGetMatrixAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for SoGetMatrixAction.

       Updates action by accumulating with the transformation matrix of this node (if any).

       Reimplemented from SoGroup.

       Reimplemented in SoGeoSeparator.

   void SoSeparator::handleEvent (SoHandleEventAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for SoHandleEventAction.

       Inspects the event data from action, and processes it if it is something which this node should react to.

       Nodes influencing relevant state variables for how event handling is done also overrides this method.

       Reimplemented from SoGroup.

       Reimplemented in SoExtSelection, SoSelection, SoWWWAnchor, and SoLocateHighlight.

   void SoSeparator::rayPick (SoRayPickAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for SoRayPickAction.

       Checks the ray specification of the action and tests for intersection with the data of the node.

       Nodes influencing relevant state variables for how picking is done also overrides this method.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoGeoSeparator.

   void SoSeparator::search (SoSearchAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for SoSearchAction.

       Compares  the  search  criteria  from  the  action  to  see if this node is a match. Searching is done by
       matching up all criteria set up in the SoSearchAction -- if any of the requested criteria is a miss,  the
       search is not deemed successful for the node.

       See Also:
           SoSearchAction

       Reimplemented from SoGroup.

   void SoSeparator::getPrimitiveCount (SoGetPrimitiveCountAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for the SoGetPrimitiveCountAction.

       Calculates  the  number of triangle, line segment and point primitives for the node and adds these to the
       counters of the action.

       Nodes influencing how geometry nodes calculates their primitive  count  also  overrides  this  method  to
       change the relevant state variables.

       Reimplemented from SoGroup.

       Reimplemented in SoGeoSeparator.

   void SoSeparator::audioRender (SoAudioRenderAction *action) [virtual]
       Action method for SoAudioRenderAction.

       Does common processing for SoAudioRenderAction action instances.

       Reimplemented from SoGroup.

   void SoSeparator::notify (SoNotList *l) [virtual]
       Notifies all auditors for this instance when changes are made.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

       Reimplemented in SoShadowGroup.

   void SoSeparator::setNumRenderCaches (const inthowmany) [static]
       Set the maximum number of caches that SoSeparator nodes may allocate for render caching.

       This  is  a global value which will be used for all SoSeparator nodes, but the value indicate the maximum
       number per SoSeparator node.

       More caches might give better performance, but will use more memory. The built-in default value is 2.

       The  value  can  also  be  changed  globally  by  setting  the   host   system's   environment   variable
       IV_SEPARATOR_MAX_CACHES to the wanted number. This is primarily meant as an aid during debugging, to make
       it  easy  to turn off rendercaching completely (by setting 'IV_SEPARATOR_MAX_CACHES=0') without having to
       change any application code.

   int SoSeparator::getNumRenderCaches (void) [static]
       Returns maximum number of caches SoSeparator nodes are allowed to use for render caching.

       See Also:
           setNumRenderCaches()

   SbBool SoSeparator::affectsState (void) const [virtual]
       Returns TRUE if the node could have any effect on the state during traversal.

       If it returns FALSE, no data in the traversal-state will change from the pre-traversal state to the post-
       traversal state. The SoSeparator node will for instance return FALSE, as it pushes  and  pops  the  state
       before and after traversal of its children. All SoShape nodes will also return FALSE, as just pushing out
       geometry data to the rendering engine won't affect the actual rendering state.

       The default method returns TRUE, on a 'better safe than sorry' philosophy.

       Reimplemented from SoNode.

   SbBool SoSeparator::cullTest (SoState *state) [protected],  [virtual]
       Internal  method  which  do  view  frustum  culling.  For  now,  view frustum culling is performed if the
       renderCulling field is AUTO or ON, and the bounding box cache is valid.

       Returns TRUE if this separator is outside view frustum, FALSE if inside.

   SbBool SoSeparator::readInstance (SoInput *in, unsigned shortflags) [protected],  [virtual]
       This method is mainly intended for internal use during file import operations.

       It reads a definition of an instance from the input stream in. The input stream state points to the start
       of a serialized / persistant representation of an instance of this class type.

       TRUE or FALSE is returned, depending on if the instantiation and configuration of the new object of  this
       class  type  went  ok  or  not. The import process should be robust and handle corrupted input streams by
       returning FALSE.

       flags is used internally during binary import when reading user extension nodes, group nodes or engines.

       Reimplemented from SoGroup.

Member Data Documentation

   SoSFEnum SoSeparator::renderCaching
       Policy for caching of rendering instructions for faster execution. This will  typically  use  the  OpenGL
       displaylist mechanism.

       Default value is SoSeparator::AUTO.

       If  you  know  that  some  parts  of  your  scene will never change, rendering might happen faster if you
       explicitly set this field to SoSeparator::ON. If you on the other hand know that parts of the scene  will
       change a lot (like for every redraw), it will be beneficial to set this field to SoSeparator::OFF for the
       top-level separator node of this (sub)graph.

       Usually  the default setting of AUTO will handle any scene very well. The advantages that can be had from
       setting SoSeparator::renderCaching to ON are:

       • If you positively know that the geometry under the SoSeparator is static, you  get  the  cache  set  up
         right away.
       Otherwise,  the  code  in  Coin  will do a bit of testing and decide by some heuristics whether or not to
       enable it. That will make the rendering be a tiny bit slower right after start-up than with renderCaching
       set to ON.
       (The slow-down should hardly be noticable, though, so we  don't  advice  application  programmers  to  do
       this.)
       • For   many  of  the  shape  nodes  that  can  contain  many  basic  primitives,  like  e.g.  SoFaceSet,
         SoIndexedFaceSet, SoLineSet, etc etc, there is an internal threshold for how many primitives a node can
         contain before we don't do caching when SoSeparator::renderCaching is set to AUTO.
       The reason we do this is because OpenGL renderlists can potentially suck up a lot of memory resources  on
       the graphics card.
       But  if  you  know  that  it  will  be advantageous on your particular platform, you can override this by
       setting SoSeparator::renderCaching equal to ON.
       (We don't advice application programmers to do this either. A better solution in these cases would simply
       be to get in touch with SIM and describe the platform and the problem, and we could  integrate  a  proper
       fix into Coin.)
       There are good reasons for setting renderCaching to OFF, like when you know the geometry will be changing
       a lot. Still, Coin should work fairly well without even this optimization. (If renderCaching is AUTO over
       a  sub-graph  with  changing geometry or other cache smashing nodes, the caching heuristics will stop the
       SoSeparator node from trying to make caches -- at least after a few tries has been made and failed.)
       The short story about how auto-caching works is as follows:
       • For vertex-based shapes with fewer than 100 triangles and where the geometry is detected to  be  fairly
         static, caching is enabled.
       • For  shapes  with  more  than 1000 trangles, it is disabled, to avoid spending too much of the on-board
         graphics card's memory resources.
       • For shapes with between 100 and 1000 shapes, displaylist caching will be turned on  if  our  heuristics
         decides that the geometry can be considered static.
       The  maximum  threshold  (of  1000)  is  higher  when  doing remote rendering (as when rendering from one
       X11-based system to another).
       Disabling the displaylist caching takes precedence over enabling, so if you have an  SoSeparator  with  a
       shape  with  more than 1000 triangles and a shape with fewer than 100 triangles, caching will be disabled
       for the SoSeparator.
       It's possible to tune the limits using some environment variables:
       • COIN_AUTOCACHE_LOCAL_MIN can be used to change the enable-caching limit, while COIN_AUTOCACHE_LOCAL_MAX
         controls the disable-caching limit.
       • The   corresponding   variables   for    remote    rendering    are    COIN_AUTOCACHE_REMOTE_MIN    and
         COIN_AUTOCACHE_REMOTE_MAX.
   SoSFEnum SoSeparator::boundingBoxCaching
       Policy for caching bounding box calculations. Default value is SoSeparator::AUTO.
       See also documentation for SoSeparator::renderCaching.
   SoSFEnum SoSeparator::renderCulling
       Policy for doing viewport culling during rendering traversals. Default value is SoSeparator::AUTO.
       When  the  render culling is turned off for Coin, it will be left to be done for the underlying immediate
       mode rendering library. This will often be faster than doing culling from within Coin, so be  careful  to
       monitor the change in execution speed if setting this field to SoSeparator::ON.
       See also documentation for SoSeparator::renderCaching.
   SoSFEnum SoSeparator::pickCulling
       Policy for doing viewport culling during pick traversals. Default value is SoSeparator::AUTO.
       See documentation for SoSeparator::renderCulling.

Author

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Version 4.0.0a                                   Wed Feb 26 2014                                  SoSeparator(3)