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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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