Image-based rendering of intersecting surfaces for dynamic comparative visualization

Nested or intersecting surfaces are proven techniques for visualizing shape differences between static 3D objects (Weigle and Taylor II, IEEE Visualization, Proceedings, pp. 503–510, 2005). In this paper we present an image-based formulation for these techniques that extends their use to dynamic scenarios, in which surfaces can be manipulated or even deformed interactively. The formulation is based on our new layered rendering pipeline, a generic image-based approach for rendering nested surfaces based on depth peeling and deferred shading.     

虚拟环境漫游系统绘制优化技术的集成框架

In the walkthrough of virtual environments, the number of polygons consisting the virtualenvironments often far exceeds the rendering capacity of graphics pipeline with interactive frame rates.One solution is to reduce the number of primitives before they are sent into the graphics pipeline by ex-ploiting various optimal rendering techniques. Since no single such technique can achieve satisfactoryframe rate, frameworks for integrating several optimal rendering techniques are needed to solve theproblem. In this paper ,some frameworks and the data structures needed by them are discussed in detail.And one kind of proposed framework suitable for PC is presented 1in this paper.     

基于纹理的增强型3D流场绘制

提出一种基于纹理的增强型3D矢量场可视化算法,可显著地改善传统纹理法的绘制质量.首先通过对3D纹理的线性卷积运算生成具有空间相关性的卷积纹理;然后对卷积纹理进行高通滤波,以增加流面内流线之间强度的对比;最后通过体绘制方式展示3D卷积纹理.借助权重区域,该算法可以显示用户感兴趣区域或特征区域,避免卷积数据过多引起的紊乱及相互遮挡.     

Line art illustrations of parametric and implicit forms

A technique is presented for line art rendering of scenes composed of freeform surfaces. The line art that is created for parametric surfaces is practically intrinsic and is globally invariant to changes in the surface parameterization. This method is equally applicable for line art rendering of implicit forms, creating a unified line art rendering method for both parametric and implicit forms. This added flexibility exposes a new horizon of special, parameterization independent, line art effects. Moreover, the production of the line art illustrations can be combined with traditional rendering techniques such as transparency and texture mapping. Examples that demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed approach are presented for both the parametric and implicit forms     

协同分布式图形硬件的混合并行体绘制

由于一般的共享存储并行机缺乏图形硬件,其上产生的3维科学计算数据,无法采用硬件加速的并行体绘制来就地进行数据可视化。为此基于本地并行机和分布式图形工作站,给出了一种混合并行绘制模型。该模型的工作原理是先将源数据存留在并行机,然后通过并行机的多处理器发布远程绘制命令流,进而通过操控工作站的图形硬件完成绘制;后期图像合成在并行机上执行,以发挥共享存储通信优势。通过负载平衡优化,并行绘制流水线有效实现了绘制、合成与显示的重叠。实验结果显示,该方法能以1024×1024图像分辨率,交互绘制并行机上的大规模数据场。     

Illustrative stream surfaces

Stream surfaces are an intuitive approach to represent 3D vector fields. In many cases, however, they are challenging objects to visualize and to understand, due to a high degree of self-occlusion. Despite the need for adequate rendering methods, little work has been done so far in this important research area. In this paper, we present an illustrative rendering strategy for stream surfaces. In our approach, we apply various rendering techniques, which are inspired by the traditional flow illustrations drawn by Dallmann and Abraham \& Shaw in the early 1980s. Among these techniques are contour lines and halftoning to show the overall surface shape. Flow direction as well as singularities on the stream surface are depicted by illustrative surface streamlines. ;To go beyond reproducing static text book images, we provide several interaction features, such as movable cuts and slabs allowing an interactive exploration of the flow and insights into subjacent structures, e.g., the inner windings of vortex breakdown bubbles. These methods take only the parameterized stream surface as input, require no further preprocessing, and can be freely combined by the user. We explain the design, GPU-implementation, and combination of the different illustrative rendering and interaction methods and demonstrate the potential of our approach by applying it to stream surfaces from various flow simulations. ;     

Hardware‐Assisted Projected Tetrahedra

We present a flexible and highly efficient hardware‐assisted volume renderer grounded on the original Projected Tetrahedra (PT) algorithm. Unlike recent similar approaches, our method is exclusively based on the rasterization of simple geometric primitives and takes full advantage of graphics hardware. Both vertex and geometry shaders are used to compute the tetrahedral projection, while the volume ray integral is evaluated in a fragment shader; hence, volume rendering is performed entirely on the GPU within a single pass through the pipeline. We apply a CUDA‐based visibility ordering achieving rendering and sorting performance of over 6 M Tet/s for unstructured datasets. Furthermore, as each tetrahedron is processed independently, we employ a data‐parallel solution which is neither bound by GPU memory size nor does it rely on auxiliary volume information. In addition, iso‐surfaces can be readily extracted during the rendering process, and time‐varying data are handled without extra burden.     

Ray tracing voxel data via biquadratic local surface interpolation

Various shaded hidden-surface display techniques have been used to render voxel data. In this paper, an approach to using general ray tracing for the rendering of voxel data is presented. Central to this approach is the interpolation of a surface with respect to the volume of a given voxel and its neighbors. Nine columns (of three voxel volumes each) provide sufficient constraints on the integral of a biquadratic function over the column's base to solve its specific coefficients. The use of these locally interpolated surfaces to define a scene to be ray traced is investigated.     

Analysis of Sample Correlations for Monte Carlo Rendering

Modern physically based rendering techniques critically depend on approximating integrals of high dimensional functions representing radiant light energy. Monte Carlo based integrators are the choice for complex scenes and effects. These integrators work by sampling the integrand at sample point locations. The distribution of these sample points determines convergence rates and noise in the final renderings. The characteristics of such distributions can be uniquely represented in terms of correlations of sampling point locations. Hence, it is essential to study these correlations to understand and adapt sample distributions for low error in integral approximation. In this work, we aim at providing a comprehensive and accessible overview of the techniques developed over the last decades to analyze such correlations, relate them to error in integrators, and understand when and how to use existing sampling algorithms for effective rendering workflows.     

Decoupled Shading for Real‐time Heterogeneous Volume Illumination

Existing real‐time volume rendering techniques which support global illumination are limited in modeling distinct realistic appearances for classified volume data, which is a desired capability in many fields of study for illustration and education. Directly extending the emission‐absorption volume integral with heterogeneous material shading becomes unaffordable for real‐time applications because the high‐frequency view‐dependent global lighting needs to be evaluated per sample along the volume integral. In this paper, we present a decoupled shading algorithm for multi‐material volume rendering that separates global incident lighting evaluation from per‐sample material shading under multiple light sources. We show how the incident lighting calculation can be optimized through a sparse volume integration method. The quality, performance and usefulness of our new multi‐material volume rendering method is demonstrated through several examples.     

基于LOD控制与内外存调度的大型三维点云数据绘制

通过结合基于视点的细节层次（level-of-detail,LOD）控制技术和内外存调度的数据控制策略,实现大型三维点云数据在一般配置PC机上的实时交互浏览．首先将输入点云分为大小相等的若干块。然后对每块数据分别建立误差控制下的多分辨率数据结构,并进行内外存分配．在交互绘制中,通过用户视点来确定当前的感兴趣区域,以控制模型表面的细节层次分布．该算法不但可以实现大型点云数据的实时交互绘制,而且可有效地提高一般点云数据绘制时的内存使用效率．     

Capturing the dance of the earth: PolarGlobe: Real-time scientific visualization of vector field data to support climate science

This paper introduces a streamline visualization technique that empowers PolarGlobe, an interactive, virtual globe-based, multi-dimensional scientific visualization tool to facilitate the observation and visual inspection of changes in the climate in real time. Specifically, this technique achieves effective visualization of vector-based earth science data through an automated data processing pipeline which integrates novel strategies including random seeding, finer-granularity parallelization and real-time rendering. The random seeding strategy allows for a vivid visual effect and an interactive framerate regardless of the spatial resolution in the raw dataset. The visualization algorithm is designed to be naturally parallelizable by partitioning the rendering tasks of unsteady vector field into multiple subtasks such that high-performance rendering can be realized. The platform is capable of taking either irregular or regular gridded data as input, and through the proposed data (re)projection pipeline, an automatic transformation of spatially enabled scientific data from the original data projection to the 3D globe-based virtual space is achieved. A series of experiments was conducted to identify the best configuration of rendering parameters to achieve the optimal rendering performance and visual effect. The results demonstrated the scalability and capability of the proposed PolarGlobe system to visualize big and unsteady vector flow data across different spatial and temporal scales. PolarGlobe implements former Vice President Al Gore's vision of a digital earth that enables scientists and citizens across the world to interactively study our planet. We expect the methods and techniques presented in this work to contribute significantly to both the scientific visualization and climate science communities.     

基于OpenGL的等角插补明暗处理的软件实现

等角插补明暗处理具有Phong明暗处理的视觉效果,而且具有较Phong明暗处理更快的渲染效率,基于标准图形渲染管道,用Ｃ语言实现了OpenGL渲染管道的硬件计算部分,同时用Ｃ语言实现了等角插补明暗处理,并给出了实验结果。该方法的实现可为渲染算法的研究和实现提供参考。     

可微绘制技术研究进展

可微绘制技术是当前虚拟现实、计算机图形学与计算机视觉领域研究的热点,其目标是改造计算机图形学中以光栅化或光线跟踪算法为主的真实感绘制流程,支持梯度信息回传以计算由输出图像的变化导致的输入几何、材质属性变化,通过与优化及深度学习技术等相结合支持从数据中学习绘制模型和逆向推理,是可微学习技术在计算机图形学绘制技术中的应用的具体体现,在增强/虚拟现实内容生成、三维重建、表观采集建模和逆向光学设计等领域中有广泛的应用前景。本文对可微绘制当前的发展状况进行调研,重点对该技术在真实感绘制、3维重建和表观采集建模中的研究和应用情况进行综述,并对可微绘制技术发展趋势进行展望,以期推动可微技术在学术界和产业界的进一步发展。     

基于VTK的散乱点集三角网重建算法研究

散乱点数据在机械产品测量造型、地理信息系统等众多领域来说都较易得到。为使VTK可视化平台中的数据处理及面显示应用面更广,本文设计了基于平坦度的自适应增量的网格构造算法,将散乱点数据格式转换成VTK数据格式,从而利用VTK流水线机制进行面绘制。该算法实现了空间直接三角剖分,而且动态调整逼近误差。实验证明,该算法能
高效、可靠地生成贴近原始曲面的三角网格,并取得较理想的VTK绘制效果。该算法对于三角剖分问题和VTK可视化平台的数据处理具有一定的理论和实际意义。     

多视点成像的多边形模板法

该文提出一种对场景进行多视点成像的方法。该方法首先为场景中的多边形生成多边形模板，一个多边形模板，包括一条轮廓路径和一组纹条，而一个纹条是平行成像画的一个平面与多边形相交的直线段。由于纹条相对于不同视点的透视投影的变化是线性的，因此，绘制多边形时可以基于模板逐个纹条地处理，而不必按照传统的扫描转换方法逐个点地处理，绘制速度可以提高很多。同时，与视点无关的光照和纹理可以预先计算并保存在模板中，以便在成像时利用基于图像绘制的技术来生成高质量的图像。该方法中，视点可以放置在三维空间的任意位置，并且在场景漫游时可以根据视点位置自动地实现多分辨率绘制。     

Selective Visualization of Vector Fields

In this paper, we present an approach to selective vector field visualization. This selective visualization approach consists of three stages: selectdon creation, selection processing and selective visualization mapping. It is described how selected regions, called selections, can be represented and created, how selections can be processed and how they can be used in the visualization mapping. Combination of these techniques with a standard visualization pipeline improves the visualization process and offers new facilities for visualization. Examples of selective visualization of fluid flow datasets are provided.     

Illustrative Hybrid Visualization and Exploration of Anatomical and Functional Brain Data

Common practice in brain research and brain surgery involves the multi‐modal acquisition of brain anatomy and brain activation data. These highly complex three‐dimensional data have to be displayed simultaneously in order to convey spatial relationships. Unique challenges in information and interaction design have to be solved in order to keep the visualization sufficiently complete and uncluttered at the same time. The visualization method presented in this paper addresses these issues by using a hybrid combination of polygonal rendering of brain structures and direct volume rendering of activation data. Advanced rendering techniques including illustrative display styles and ambient occlusion calculations enhance the clarity of the visual output. The presented rendering pipeline produces real‐time frame rates and offers a high degree of configurability. Newly designed interaction and measurement tools are provided, which enable the user to explore the data at large, but also to inspect specific features closely. We demonstrate the system in the context of a cognitive neurosciences dataset. An initial informal evaluation shows that our visualization method is deemed useful for clinical research.     

Inverse Displacement Mapping

Inverse displacement mapping is a variant of displacement mapping which does not actually perturb the geometry of the surface being mapped. It is thus a true texture mapping technique which can be applied during rendering without breaking viewing pipeline discipline. The method works by first projecting probing rays into texture space and solving for a ray-texture intersection there. Shadows can also be determined by mapping a probe from the intersection point towards the light source into texture space and seeing if an intersection results. Our implementation uses as much knowledge about the base surface as possible to speed up the ray-surface intersection calculation. We have limited our treatment to spheres, cones, cylinders and planes, and our rendering method to ray casting, in order to contain the scope of this work up to the present. The inverse displacement mapping technique can, however, be applied more widely, for example as part of a full ray-tracer, and also as part of the rendering pipeline for a wider class of smooth surfaces.     

In situ ray tracing and computational steering for interactive blood flow simulation

Recent algorithm and hardware developments have significantly improved our capability to interactively visualise time-varying flow fields. However, when visualising very large dynamically varying datasets interactively there are still limitations in the scalability and efficiency of these methods. Here we present a rendering pipeline which employs an efficient in situ ray tracing technique to visualise flow fields as they are simulated. The ray casting approach is particularly well suited for the visualisation of large and sparse time-varying datasets, where it is capable of rendering fluid flow fields at high image resolutions and at interactive frame rates on a single multi-core processor using OpenMP. The parallel implementation of our in situ visualisation method relies on MPI, requires no specialised hardware support, and employs the same underlying spatial decomposition as the fluid simulator. The visualisation pipeline allows the user to operate on a commodity computer and explore the simulation output interactively. Our simulation environment incorporates numerous features that can be utilised in a wide variety of research contexts.