SGI Release Iris 2.3 for Linux

Thanks to Allan over at SGI for letting me know that SGI has just released IRIS Performer for Linux. It's version 2.3 and it's free for download. If you want the program or more information, they've IRIS page for Linux up and running.

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System Requirements

[balneary]

** Disk Space Requirements for IRIS Performer: Nearly 125 MB of disk space is required (30 MB temporarily and 95 MB permanently).
** Other Product Dependencies for IRIS Performer: To be functional, IRIS PerformerTM 2.3 requires that you have the following items installed on your Linux system:
* glibc 2.1.1
* XFree86 3.3.3.1
* Mesa
* Motif® installed

I wonder if there is any chance it will work with Lesstif.

Some of the reasons why Performer is a good thing.

[Doctor Bob]

I've seen quite a bit of confusion on /. about Performer, why it's a good thing, why is SGI so stupid / brilliant, etc. so I figured that I'd summarize some of the key points that are most important to me as a graphics guy who does a lot of graphics-newbie indoctrination. For true Performer-heads reading, remember that I'm being purposely "high level", so feel free to add detail that I'm glossing over.

Background: I'm an SGI hack from way back (not all the way back, but close) with lots of hours logged on everything except their most recent Origins and Onyx2's. I was migrating my IrisGL (OpenGL hadn't been invented yet) code from C to C++ when the original Performer 1.0 framework starting wandering out of the labs. Since then, it's much more OOD - OpenGL and C++ have greatly increased its usefulness without over "object"ing it.

Here are some of the things that Performer can give you quickly (i.e., not much more complex than Performer "Hello World"):

1. A shallow learning curve: from "Hello World" to something that looks impressive is a very quick process. For example, somebody hands you an arbitrary ".obj" (or whatever) object file and says "I want this in the virtual environment." You write less than ten lines of code to create a new object, point its geometry descriptor at the model (i.e., type in the filename) and recompile. Done. Of course, you haven't made it move yet; that's another line of code.
2. A framework for quickly assembling a visual simulation / application. Example: somebody hands you some 3D models and you want to make them fly around each other. Instantiate some objects, point their geometry descriptors at the model files, write some simple "move me around" code and you're done. No OpenGL, no worrying about clipping at the edge of the screen - it's already taken care of.
3. A platform independent framework - your Linux Performer code will compile on my Irix machine and, assuming 2.3 and 2.2 aren't too diverse, vice versa. Even more interesting, within the Irix world, a Performer app scales across the hardware spectrum. If there's a bunch of processors, it becomes a multiprocessor app at runtime. No recompiles between O2, Octane, IR, etc. Obviously, if your simulation includes big number crunching or huge graphics loads, it will have trouble fitting in a small box but at least it will run at all. I don't know how this translates to the Linux world - I don't have the hardware suite to do a good test....

[This is getting long so I'll wrap up.]

Why does Slashdot and the rest of the Linux crowd care? Well, the premier all-around computer graphics company is handing you their flagship visual simulation framework and saying, "we hope you have a good time." The marketability of Linux just went up by orders of magnitude - simple example in my field, it counters HP's arguments that they're a better buy for military simulations. "Gosh, you're more expensive than Linux / IRIX and not as powerful. Why exactly are you better?"

Why does SGI care? The one place they've always lost is marketing - in a word, they stink at it. They need the groundswell from the popular marketplace. So, be loud. If you try it and like it, say so. If you find things that you need or don't work, complain loudly and constructively.

Also: be quotable. Make sure that it's very obvious that you're a *nix-head running SGI software. Give them the ammunition and SGI will produce high-coolness useful power for all of us.