Within the visual simulation industry, most image generators have a proprietary interface that is labor intensive to integrate. As a result, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent integrating IG's into various Modeling and Simulation programs. In addition, while most IG's do share common controlling attributes, they do not share a common interface, meaning that there is no mechanism for capitalizing on previous investments. In response to these problems, the Common Image Generator Interface (CIGI) standard was developed by collecting these common attributes together into a generic interface that is capable of being standardized throughout the industry.
The Standard
CIGI is an open standards interface designed to promote a common way for a host device to communicate with an image generator (IG).
CIGI is a data packaging protocol, so it does not depend upon a specific physical medium of communication or on a transport protocol. Any suitable physical medium may be used, including Ethernet, Token Ring, optical fiber, and shared memory, but the transport protocol(s) being used should depend upon performance and what is appropriate to the communications hardware.
Presagis CIGI Support
Presagis Lyra supports CIGI v2.0 and v3.1. This COTS image generator application based on Vega Prime was one of the first to adopt this standard to ensure rapid and simple deployment in various simulation architectures. The entire STAGE family of products also handles CIGI in their communications with IG's.