DirectViz allows you to take advantage of ray-tracing without any change in application source code. Unlike most other extensions, it is not necessary to explicitly initialize the extension, i.e., it is not necessary to call the init () method prior to using DirectViz. However, the application must be based on SoXt / SoWin SoWin / SoQt classes, and more specifically it must use viewers derived from SoXtFullViewer , SoWinFullViewer SoWinFullViewer , or SoQtFullViewer .

	Only one viewer at a time can use DirectViz and ray-traced rendering.

DirectViz can be started either interactively from an Open Inventor viewer or via the programming interface. Once DirectViz is activated, a dialog box is optionally displayed to allow the user to control some useful settings.

By default, DirectViz uses the environement texture:

$(OIVHOME)/data/DirectViz/textures/skyEnv.jpg

as the default environment when none is specified. To modify the default environment texture set the SoPreference variable DIRECTVIZ_DEFAULT_ENV_TEXTURE to the desired texture file.

To unset the default environment texture set this variable to 0.