Scientific visualization systems such as AVS or Explorer offer sufficient functionality for relatively static graphics needs but they are not very useful for dynamic real-time graphics-for example, those required in virtual reality environments. Features of MOVIE such as interpretive multithreading, object orientation and rapid prototyping are crucial in building such advanced interfaces, where the high-quality graphics support must be tightly coupled with high-performance computing and with the high-level-language-based development tools.
We are currently in the design and implementation process of the custom three-dimensional graphics model in MovieScript which will be fully portable across various platforms such as PHIGS, PEX, and GL and which will make full use of the functionality available in these protocols. The low-level component of this model is structurally similar to the Motif interface described above, that is, it is based on parametric modules implemented as primitive types with attribute-value input arrays. As in the Motif case, the purpose of this layer is to provide portable low-level interpreted interfaces to the appropriate C libraries and to facilitate further high-level design of derived types in the rapid prototyping mode. The initial design ideas and the current implementation status of this work is described in [Faigle:92b], [Faigle:92c], and [Furmanski:93a].