In the domain of large-scale visualization instruments, hybrid reality environments (HREs) are a recent innovation that combines the best-in-class capabilities of immersive environments, with the best-in-class capabilities of ultra-high-resolution display walls. HREs create a seamless 2D/3D environment that supports both information-rich analysis as well as virtual reality simulation exploration at a resolution matching human visual acuity. Co-located research groups in HREs tend to work on a variety of tasks during a research session (sometimes in parallel), and these tasks require 2D data views, 3D views, linking between them and the ability to bring in (or hide) data quickly as needed. In this paper we present Omegalib, a software framework that facilitates application development on HREs. Omegalib is designed to support dynamic reconfigurability of the display environment, so that areas of the display can be interactively allocated to 2D or 3D workspaces as needed. Compared to existing frameworks and toolkits, Omegalib makes it possible to have multiple immersive applications running on a cluster-controlled display system, have different input sources dynamically routed to applications, and have rendering results optionally redirected to a distributed compositing manager. Omegalib supports pluggable front-ends, to simplify the integration of third-party libraries like OpenGL, OpenSceneGraph, and the Visualization Toolkit (VTK). We present examples of applications developed with Omegalib for the 74-megapixel, 72-tile CAVE2™ system, and show how a Hybrid Reality Environment proved effective in supporting work for a co-located research group in the environmental sciences.

This video describes the CAVE2 Hybrid Reality Environment developed by the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). CAVE2 is a near-seamless flat-panel-based, surround-screen immersive system that can simultaneously display both 2D and 3D information, providing more flexibility for mixed media applications and more opportunities for groups of researchers to work together with large heterogeneous datasets [1]. CAVE2 is a cylindrical system of 24 feet in diameter and 8 feet tall, and consists of 72 near-seamless, off-axis-optimized passive-stereo LCD panels, creating a 320-degree panoramic environment for displaying information at 37 Megapixels (in stereoscopic 3D) or 74 Megapixels in 2D and at a horizontal visual acuity of 20/20 [2]. Custom LCD panels with shifted polarizers were built so the images in the top and bottom rows of LCDs are optimized for vertical off-center viewing, allowing viewers to come closer to the displays while minimizing ghosting. EVL's Omegalib middleware supports fully immersive OpenGL, OpenSceneGraph and VTK applications, as well as EVL's SAGE middleware to achieve a hybrid 2D/3D environment. CAVE2 also supports CalVR (developed at the Calit2 Qualcomm Institute at University of California, San Diego), Electro (by Robert Kooima, currently at Louisiana State University) and Google Earth.