Abstract: A controlling device 110 that splits a 3D scene 131 into 3D sub-scenes, each including a sub-volume 133 of the 3D scene 131, and distributes the 3D sub-scenes to multiple rendering devices 120. Each rendering device 120 independently determines a 2D sub-image 141 responsive to its 3D sub-scene and a rendering viewpoint 132. The 2D sub-images 141 are composited using a back-to-front partial ordering with respect to the rendering viewpoint 132.

Abstract: A system embodying the invention includes a controlling device 110 and a set of rendering devices 120, with the effect that the controlling device 110 can distribute a set of objects to the rendering devices 120. Each rendering device 120 computes a (2D) image in response to the objects assigned to it, including computing multiple overlapping images and using a graphics processor 119 to blend those images into a resultant image. To interface with the graphics processor, each rendering device 120 spoofs the ?-value with a pixel feature other than opacity (opacity is expected by the graphics processor 119), with the effect that the graphics processor 119 delivers useful ?-values, while still delivering correct color values, for each pixel. This has the effect that the resultant images include transparency information sufficient to combine them using transparency blending.