| This dissertation presents an integrated virtual reality environment for use in a variety of science and engineering applications called the CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment. The main contribution of this dissertation is the design of a performance-based hardware- and application-independent development environment for rapid prototyping of CAVE applications. The software architecture designed for CAVE application development and its implementation as the CAVE Library is described, as well as the CAVE Simulator, another development tool derived from the CAVE software architecture.; Approaches to increase the usability of virtual environments by incorporating High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) resources are also presented. A detailed description of the applications of the HPCC techniques is covered with a case study: VIBE, a virtual biomolecular environment.; At last, an analysis of the performance of the CAVE Library and its integration in an HPCC environment is presented. Bottlenecks and critical program sections are identified and a series of recommendations and future directions are provided. |
