Open Inventor, originally IRIS Inventor, is a C++ object-oriented retained mode 3D graphics toolkit designed by SGI to provide a higher layer of programming for OpenGL. Its main goals are better programmer convenience and efficiency. Open Inventor exists as both proprietary software and free and open-source software, subject to the requirements of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), version 2.1. Around 1988–1989, Wei Yen asked Rikk Carey to lead the IRIS Inventor project. Their goal was to create a toolkit that made developing 3D graphics applications easier to do. The strategy was based on the premise that people were not developing enough 3D applications with IRIS GL because it was too time-consuming to do so with the low-level interface provided by IRIS GL. If 3D programming were made easier, through the use of an object oriented API, then more people would create 3D applications and SGI would benefit. Therefore, the credo was always “ease of use” before “performance”, and soon the tagline “3D programming for humans” was being used widely. More information...
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