Revisiting the Scene-Graph-as-Bus Concept: Inter-networking Heterogeneous Applications Using glTF Fragments

Abstract

While there are now many examples of successful collaborative mixed reality applications, each application uses its own custom networking framework and applications rarely inter-operate. To enable much larger-scale distributed systems, we will need inter-networking protocols that allow heterogeneous applications to exchange data. We demonstrate a proof of concept implementation that revisits the concept of using a scene-graph as a bus. That is, sharing low-level geometry and rendering information, rather than high-level semantic events. Our networking protocol uses glTF fragments and edits to express scene changes. We use the proof of concept to explore the potential to inter-network very different applications that are based on different underlying graphics engine technology.