ANARI: A 3-D Rendering API Standard

Area of Science:

• Computer Graphics
• Software Engineering

Background:

• Historically, visualization applications embedded custom renderers, increasing development costs.
• Advancements in hardware and rendering algorithms have made custom renderer maintenance complex and expensive.
• This complexity creates a barrier for applications to adopt the latest rendering technologies.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce the Application Native Rendering Interface (ANARI) API.
• Address the challenges of rising costs and complexity in visualization renderer development.
• Enable visualization applications to leverage state-of-the-art rendering capabilities.

Main Methods:

• ANARI provides a high-level, visualization-oriented API.
• It abstracts low-level rendering algorithms and hardware acceleration.
• Offers efficient access to diverse ANARI implementations.

Main Results:

• ANARI enables visualization applications to utilize advanced rendering techniques.
• It supports state-of-the-art rendering across diverse hardware platforms and engines.
• Reduces the effort and cost associated with renderer development.

Conclusions:

• ANARI simplifies access to advanced 3-D rendering for visualization applications.
• It lowers barriers to adopting new rendering methods and hardware.
• Facilitates the integration of cutting-edge visualization capabilities.