Open Source Software

At Infiscape, we utilize open source software every day at all levels of our business ranging from running our servers to performing daily tasks on the desktop. Most importantly, we utilize and extend open source software in the real-time visualization software tools and applications that we write. This allows us to reduce our costs to customers, and it gives us an opportunity to contribute commercial-grade enhancements back to open source projects. We believe in open source software and are committed to furthering the use of open source software in all aspects of computing.

Infiscape is involved in the development of some powerful open source projects critical for creating high-quality, state-of-the-art visualization software. We make use of these tools in creating software solutions for customers and for in-house product development, and we contribute to the projects in a variety of ways.

VR Juggler is a collection of technologies which provide the tools necessary for advanced VR application development in C++ or Python. VR Juggler allows a user to run an application on almost any VR system without modification. In so doing, VR Juggler provides a virtual platform for virtual reality application development.

Some of the founders of Infiscape have been involved with VR Juggler since its inception, and we have continued that tradition by bringing VR Juggler into the world of commercial software. Since founding Infiscape, we have been working to refine and improve VR Juggler to meet the needs of production environments, and we were instrumental in the VR Juggler 2.0 release. Furthermore, we provide the following services related to VR Juggler:

OpenSG is a portable scenegraph system to create realtime graphics programs, e.g. for virtual reality applications. It is developed following Open Source (LGPL) principles and can be used freely. It runs on IRIX, Windows, and Linux and is based on OpenGL.

The capabilities built into OpenSG for scalable clustering are well suited to modern uses of visualization hardware based on collections of many computers working in concert to render high-resolution, high-fidelity real-time graphics. As specialists in clustering for virtual reality, we at Infiscape know the value of software that makes clustering easier. For that reason, we make extensive use of OpenSG to produce high performance cluster-capable immersive software. Through our use of OpenSG, we are able to work with the OpenSG developers to improve and extend the software so that all users of OpenSG can benefit.

ODE is an open source, high performance library for simulating rigid body dynamics. It is fully featured, stable, mature, and platform-independent with an easy-to-use C/C++ API. It has advanced joint types and integrated collision detection with friction. ODE is useful for simulating vehicles, objects in virtual reality environments, and virtual creatures. It is currently used in many computer games, 3D authoring tools, and simulation tools.

Effectie use of a physics simulations in virtual reality applications has a dramatic impact on the realism of the virtual world. ODE allows us to deliver virtual reality software that is both compelling and useful, thereby ensuring that customers get maximum benefits from the advanced software that we develop and sell.