A scene graph is a general data structure commonly used by vector-based graphics editing applications and modern computer games, which arranges the logical and often (but not necessarily) spatial representation of a graphical scene.
Scene graphs are data structures used to hierarchically organize and manage the contents of spatially oriented scene data.A scene graph is a collection of nodes in a graph or tree structure. A tree node (in the overall tree structure of the scene graph) may have many children but often only a single parent, with the effect of a parent applied to all its child nodes; an operation performed on a group automatically propagates its effect to all of its members. In many programs, associating a geometrical transformation matrix (see also transformation and matrix) at each group level and concatenating such matrices together is an efficient and natural way to process such operations. A common feature, for instance, is the ability to group related shapes/objects into a compound object that can then be moved, transformed, selected, etc. as easily as a single object.
Examples of such programs include Acrobat 3D, Adobe Illustrator, AutoCAD, CorelDRAW, OpenSceneGraph, OpenSG, VRML97, X3D, Hoops and Open Inventor.
