Reality Lab was a

3D computer graphics 3D computer graphics, sometimes called Computer-generated imagery, CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional Computer-generated imagery, computer graphics, are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian coor ...

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

created by RenderMorphics to provide a standardized interface for writing games. It was one of the main contenders in the realtime 3D middleware marketplace at the time, alongside

Criterion Software Criterion Games is a British video game developer based in Guildford. Founded in January 1996 as a division of Criterion Software, it was owned by Canon Inc. until Criterion Software was sold to Electronic Arts in October 2004. Many of the stu ...

RenderWare RenderWare is a video game engine developed by British game developer Criterion Software. Overview Released in 1993, RenderWare was a 3D API and graphics rendering engine used in video games, Active Worlds, and some VRML browsers. RenderWar ...

and

Argonaut Software Argonaut Games is a British video game developer founded in 1982. It was known for the Super NES video game '' Star Fox'' and its supporting Super FX chip, and for '' Croc: Legend of the Gobbos'' and the ''Starglider'' series. The company was ...

BRender Argonaut Games is a British video game developer founded in 1982. It was known for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Super NES video game ''Star Fox (1993 video game), Star Fox'' and its supporting Super FX chip, and for ''Croc: Legend o ...

. Reality Lab was a

scene graph A scene graph is a general data structure commonly used by vector-based graphics editing applications and modern computer games, which arranges the logical and often spatial representation of a graphical scene. It is a collection of nodes in a g ...

API providing real-time rendering that would run with acceptable performance on

graphics card A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics accelerator, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or colloquially GPU) is a computer expansion card that generates a feed of graphics output to a displa ...

s or the host computer's

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor, or just processor, is the primary processor in a given computer. Its electronic circuitry executes instructions of a computer program, such as arithmetic, log ...

. Founded in 1992 by Servan Keondjian, Doug Rabson and Kate Seekings, RenderMorphics was purchased by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

in February 1995 and Reality Lab formed the basis for Direct3D. Microsoft's acquisition statement of RenderMorphics contained a description of Reality Lab: Architecturally Reality Lab was then separated into a low layer immediate mode API and layered upon it the original scene graph API which was afterwards called retained mode API.

Direct3D Direct3D is a graphics application programming interface (API) for Microsoft Windows. Part of DirectX, Direct3D is used to render three-dimensional graphics in applications where performance is important, such as games. Direct3D uses hardware ...

shipped for the first time in the

DirectX Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with "Direct" ...

2.0 SDK in June 1996.

References

* Covers the early years of

development within Microsoft, including the acquisition of RenderMorphics. DirectX {{graphics-software-stub

See also

References