void boinc_init_graphics();
at the start and
void boinc_finish_graphics();
prior to exiting.
The main application thread is called the worker thread.
boinc_init_graphics() creates a second thread,
called the graphics thread.
The two threads communicate through application-defined
shared memory structures.
Typically these structures contain information about the computation,
which is used to generate graphics.
The worker must initialize the shared data structure
before calling boinc_init_graphics().
Graphical applications must supply the following functions:
bool app_graphics_render(int xs, ys, double time_of_day);
This will be called periodically in the graphics thread.
It should generate the current graphic.
xs and ys are the X and Y sizes of the window,
and time_of_day is the relative time in seconds.
The function should return true if it actually drew anything.
It can refer to the user name, CPU time etc. obtained from
boinc_get_init_data().
Applications that don't do graphics must also supply a
dummy app_graphics_render() to link with the API.
void app_graphics_init();
This is called in the graphics thread when a window is created.
It must make any calls needed to initialize graphics in the window.
void app_graphics_resize(int x, int y);
Called when the window size changes.
void app_graphics_reread_prefs();
This is called, in the graphics thread, whenever
the user's project preferences change.
It can call
boinc_parse_init_data_file();
boinc_get_init_data(APP_INIT_DATA&);
to get the new preferences.
The following global variables control frame rate:
boinc_max_fps is an upper bound on the number of frames per second (default 30).
boinc_max_gfx_cpu_frac is an upper bound on the fraction of CPU time used for graphics (default 0.5).
Several graphics-related classes were developed for SETI@home/BOINC. They may be of general utility.