extensions/RaDe-GS/SIBR_viewers/docs/pages/4_Architecture.dox

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@page architecture Architecture



This is a diagram describing the overall SIBR architecture:

@image html sibr_new_architecture.png "Architecture Diagram" width=700px



SIBR is built using layers.



@section Core



SIBR core module exposes internal libraries (system, graphics, assets, scene, raycaster, imgproc, view, renderer, video) which can be used to implement multiple IBR algorithms.



@subsection system

At the very low level, we have **core/system** that contains OS tools (e.g. filesystems), mathematical tools (e.g. vector operations), and standard tools (e.g. string operations). It also contains a configuration file (Config.hpp) that defines many useful macros/const.



In short:

- we use STL and C++11 (std::shared_ptr are heavily used)

- we use Boost Libraries to manage filesystems.

- we use Eigen for math tools. (Dev tips: Please use sibr::Vector<NumComp, Type> (e.g. sibr::Vector3f), because they define important flags.)



@subsection graphics

Next we expose **core/graphics** which contains graphics tools, such as images, meshes, textures, rendertargets, shaders,... We use OpenCV for managing images and image operations. Note that we wrapped OpenCV's cv::Mat in sibr::Image to control/check types statically. See sibr::Image class for details.



@subsection assets

The classes contained in **core/assets** represent basic resource files present in IBR datasets. These classes are useful for loading and reading different types of files found in a typical dataset.



@subsection scene

**core/scene** contains a full IBR dataset representation and storage, based on multiple components that form a "scene". A good example is sibr::BasicIBRScene, containing a default set of assets (cameras, images, proxies etc.) which can be initialized by means of a scene metadata file.



@subsection raycaster

The **core/raycaster** library provides raycasting and intersection test utilities, wrapping Intel Embree for fast ray/triangle tests.



@subsection imgproc

Basic image processing utilities cam be found in **core/imgproc**. For more complex tasks, you can use OpenCV algorithms as our Images are backed by OpenCV matrices.



@subsection video

You can load and save videos using the **core/video** module. It internally relies on ffmpeg.



@subsection view

The **core/view** library exposes tools for making viewer apps for live rendering and debugging of the algorithms. It define a basic view interface along with interactive camera modes, a multi-window management system,...



@subsection renderer

The classes in **core/renderer** library implements general rendering passes and functionalities required for many IBR applications. usually, when designing a View for a custom rendering algorithm, you will use multiple renderers, some customs and some out-of-the-box.



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