Preface In the spirit of open source,the OSGQSG is available for no charge as a PDF file. However,you can contribute to the OSG community by purchasing a full-color softbound copy.To place an online order for a copy of this book,visit the Lulu.com Web site and search for OpenSceneGraph. http://www.lulu.com Proceeds from sales of bound copies fund ongoing documentation revisions to ensure that the manual is always up-to-date. Regardless of whether you download this book for free,or purchase a bound copy,your feedback on the book is essential in ensuring this documentation remains current and useful.Please post your comments to the osg-users email list.See the Appendix,Where to Go From Here,for information on the osg-users email list. For information about new revisions to the book,visit the Open.SceneGraph Ouick Start Guide Web site: http://www.openscenegraph.org/osgwiki/pmwiki.php/ Documentation/QuickStartGuide This URL contains the most up-to-date information on obtaining the latest revision, downloading the book's example source code,and information on related publications. Target Audience This is a short book,and making it short was not an easy task.The scope is limited to a very narrow set of useful OSG functionality,and-just as importantly-the book targets a specific set of readers. This book is intended for software developers who are new to OSG and considering using it in their application.This book doesn't preclude a particular genre of application software,but provides information that will be useful to the visualization and simulation markets,which traditionally have been OSG's strength. OSG is a C++API,so it is assumed that you have some knowledge of C++.In particular, you should be familiar with C++features,such as public and private access,virtual functions,memory allocation,class derivation,and constructors and destructors.OSG makes extensive use of the standard template library (STL),so you should be familiar with STL constructs,especially list,vector,and map.Some familiarity with design patterns as implemented in C++is useful,but is not required. You should be familiar and comfortable working with data structures,such as trees and lists. If you are considering using OSG in your application,you are probably familiar with 3D graphics.For this book,you should be familiar with OpenGL,the standard cross-platform low-level 3D graphics API.You should know about different coordinate spaces at the conceptual level,and should be comfortable specifying three-dimensional Cartesian coordinates as geometric vertex data.You should know that texture mapping essentiallyvi Preface In the spirit of open source, the OSGQSG is available for no charge as a PDF file. However, you can contribute to the OSG community by purchasing a full-color softbound copy. To place an online order for a copy of this book, visit the Lulu.com Web site and search for OpenSceneGraph. http://www.lulu.com Proceeds from sales of bound copies fund ongoing documentation revisions to ensure that the manual is always up-to-date. Regardless of whether you download this book for free, or purchase a bound copy, your feedback on the book is essential in ensuring this documentation remains current and useful. Please post your comments to the osg-users email list. See the Appendix, Where to Go From Here, for information on the osg-users email list. For information about new revisions to the book, visit the OpenSceneGraph Quick Start Guide Web site: http://www.openscenegraph.org/osgwiki/pmwiki.php/ Documentation/QuickStartGuide This URL contains the most up-to-date information on obtaining the latest revision, downloading the book’s example source code, and information on related publications. Target Audience This is a short book, and making it short was not an easy task. The scope is limited to a very narrow set of useful OSG functionality, and—just as importantly—the book targets a specific set of readers. This book is intended for software developers who are new to OSG and considering using it in their application. This book doesn’t preclude a particular genre of application software, but provides information that will be useful to the visualization and simulation markets, which traditionally have been OSG’s strength. OSG is a C++ API, so it is assumed that you have some knowledge of C++. In particular, you should be familiar with C++ features, such as public and private access, virtual functions, memory allocation, class derivation, and constructors and destructors. OSG makes extensive use of the standard template library (STL), so you should be familiar with STL constructs, especially list, vector, and map. Some familiarity with design patterns as implemented in C++ is useful, but is not required. You should be familiar and comfortable working with data structures, such as trees and lists. If you are considering using OSG in your application, you are probably familiar with 3D graphics. For this book, you should be familiar with OpenGL, the standard cross-platform low-level 3D graphics API. You should know about different coordinate spaces at the conceptual level, and should be comfortable specifying three-dimensional Cartesian coordinates as geometric vertex data. You should know that texture mapping essentially