Editing Scene graph (section)

{{Short description|Form of data structure}}
[[File:Architecture of OpenSceneGraph.jpg|thumb|300px|Architecture of ''OpenSceneGraph'', an open-source 3D graphics [[API]] supporting feature-rich and widely adopted scene graph implementation.]]
A '''scene graph''' is a general [[data structure]] commonly used by [[vector graphics|vector-based graphics editing]] applications and modern computer games, which arranges the logical and often spatial representation of a graphical scene. It is a collection of [[Node (computer science)|nodes]] in a [[Graph (data structure)|graph]] or [[Tree (data structure)|tree]] structure. A tree node may have many children but 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 (mathematics)|transformation]] and [[matrix (math)|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 and objects into a compound object that can then be manipulated as easily as a single object.