Ubuntu Manpage: icetStrategy -- set the strategy used to composite images.

Provided by: paraview_5.0.1+dfsg1-4_amd64

NAME

       icetStrategy -- set the strategy used to composite images.

Synopsis

       #include <IceT.h>

       void icetStrategy(   IceTEnum   strategy  );

Description

The IceT API comes packaged with several algorithms for compositing images. The algorithm to use is
determined by selecting a strategy. The strategy is selected with icetStrategy. A strategy must be
selected before icetDrawFrame, icetCompositeImage, or icetGLDrawFrame is called.

A strategy is chosen from one of the following provided enumerated values:

ICET_STRATEGY_SEQUENTIAL
Basically applies a ``traditional'' single tile composition (such as binary swap) to each tile in
the order they were defined. Because each process must take part in the composition of each tile
regardless of whether they draw into it, this strategy is usually inefficient when compositing for
more than one tile, but is recommended for the single tile case because it bypasses some of the
communication necessary for the other multi-tile strategies.

ICET_STRATEGY_DIRECT
As each process renders an image for a tile, that image is sent directly to the process that will
display that tile. This usually results in a few processes receiving and processing the majority
of the data, and is therefore usually an inefficient strategy.

ICET_STRATEGY_SPLIT
Like ICET_STRATEGY_DIRECT, except that the tiles are split up, and each process is assigned a
piece of a tile in such a way that each process receives and handles about the same amount of
data. This strategy is often very efficient, but due to the large amount of messages passed, it
has not proven to be very scalable or robust.

ICET_STRATEGY_REDUCE
A two phase algorithm. In the first phase, tile images are redistributed such that each process
has one image for one tile. In the second phase, a ``traditional'' single tile composition is
performed for each tile. Since each process contains an image for only one tile, all these
compositions may happen simultaneously. This is a well rounded strategy that seems to perform well
in a wide variety of multi-tile applications. (However, in the special case where only one tile is
defined, the sequential strategy is probably better.)

ICET_STRATEGY_VTREE
An extension to the binary tree algorithm for image composition. Sets up a ``virtual''
composition tree for each tile image. Processes that belong to multiple trees (because they render
to more than one tile) are allowed to float between trees. This strategy is not quite as well load
balanced as ICET_STRATEGY_REDUCE or ICET_STRATEGY_SPLIT, but has very well behaved network
communication.

Not all of the strategies support ordered image composition. ICET_STRATEGY_SEQUENTIAL,
ICET_STRATEGY_DIRECT, and ICET_STRATEGY_REDUCE do support ordered image composition. ICET_STRATEGY_SPLIT
and ICET_STRATEGY_VTREE do not support ordered image composition and will ignore ICET_ORDERED_COMPOSITE
if it is enabled.

Some of the strategies, namely ICET_STRATEGY_SEQUENTIAL and ICET_STRATEGY_REDUCE, use a sub-strategy that
composites the image for a single tile. This single image strategy can also be specified with
icetSingleImageStrategy.

Errors

       ICET_INVALID_ENUM
               The strategy argument does not represent a valid strategy.

Warnings

       None.

Bugs

       None known.

Copyright

       Copyright (C)2003 Sandia Corporation

       Under  the  terms  of  Contract  DE-AC04-94AL85000  with  Sandia Corporation, the U.S. Government retains
       certain rights in this software.

       This source code is released under the New BSD License.