Scene Graph

A scene graph is a general data structure commonly used by vector-based graphics editing applications and modern computer games. Examples of such programs include Acrobat 3D, Adobe Illustrator, AutoCAD, CorelDRAW, OpenSceneGraph, OpenSG, VRML97, and X3D.

The scene graph is a structure that arranges the logical and often (but not necessarily) spatial representation of a graphical scene. The definition of a scene graph is fuzzy because programmers who implement scene graphs in applications — and, in particular, the games industry — take the basic principles and adapt these to suit particular applications. This means there is no consensus as to what a scene graph should be.

A scene graph is a collection of nodes in a graph or tree structure. A node may have many children but often only a single parent, with the effect of a parent applied to all its child nodes; an operation performed on a group automatically propagates its effect to all of its members. In many programs, associating a geometrical transformation matrix (see also transformation and matrix) at each group level and concatenating such matrices together is an efficient and natural way to process such operations. A common feature, for instance, is the ability to group related shapes/objects into a compound object that can then be moved, transformed, selected, etc. as easily as a single object.

It also happens that in some scene graphs, a node can have a relation to any node including itself, or at least an extension that refers to another node (for instance Pixar's PhotoRealistic RenderMan because of its usage of Reyes rendering algorithm, or Adobe Systems's Acrobat 3D for advanced interactive manipulation).