Interactive texture-based volume rendering for large data sets

To employ direct volume rendering, TRex uses parallel graphics hardware, software-based compositing, and high-performance I/O to provide near-interactive display rates for time-varying, terabyte-sized data sets. We present a scalable, pipelined approach for rendering data sets too large for a single graphics card. To do so, we take advantage of multiple hardware rendering units and parallel software compositing. The goals of TRex, our system for interactive volume rendering of large data sets, are to provide near-interactive display rates for time-varying, terabyte-sized uniformly sampled data sets and provide a low-latency platform for volume visualization in immersive environments. We consider 5 frames per second (fps) to be near-interactive rates for normal viewing environments and immersive environments to have a lower bound frame rate of l0 fps. Using TRex for virtual reality environments requires low latency - around 50 ms per frame or 100 ms per view update or stereo pair. To achieve lower latency renderings, we either render smaller portions of the volume on more graphics pipes or subsample the volume to render fewer samples per frame by each graphics pipe. Unstructured data sets must be resampled to appropriately leverage the 3D texture volume rendering method     

Fast rendering of relativistic objects

This paper presents a number of simple techniques that allow very fast rendering of multiple independently moving objects under the conditions of special relativity, as well as a brief tutorial in the theory of special relativity for non-experts. In addition to geometric rendering, a simplified lighting model is presented, which allows the apparent colour changes of objects to be observed, along with changes in the apparent direction of illumination. The geometric rendering can be summarized as a two-stage process. In the first, the Lorentz contraction is applied to each object in the observer's reference frame, and in the second the apparent visual position is found for every object. Once the visual geometry is found, the coloration of each object is handled, with a traditional graphics engine such as a z-buffer performing the final rendering. Rendering speeds in excess of 30,000 polygons a second were obtained on a 133 MHz Silicon Graphics Indigo2 workstation. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fast simulation and rendering techniques for fluid objects

Movies with actions and light effects of fluid objects are aesthetically pleasing and interesting. Until now, the calculation costs of simulation and rendering of fluid objects have been very high. Using a modern PC system and appropriate methods, we achieved a time of 10-20 seconds per frame for this application. Our system uses a full Navier-Stokes equation solver with uniform Eulerian mesh, marching cube isosurface techniques, Catmull-Clark subdivision surface techniques, ray tracing techniques on each vertex and conventional polygon base rendering by HW accelerator. In this paper, we describe the components of our system and the reasons for choosing them. By measuring CPU times of each process for some movie scenes of fluid objects, we evaluate this system. We consider what factors are important for creating movies of fluid objects with short TAT.     

A versatile optical model for hybrid rendering of volume data

In volume rendering, most optical models currently in use are based on the assumptions that a volumetric object is a collection of particles and that the macro behavior of particles, when they interact with light rays, can be predicted based on the behavior of each individual particle. However, such models are not capable of characterizing the collective optical effect of a collection of particles which dominates the appearance of the boundaries of dense objects. In this paper, we propose a generalized optical model that combines particle elements and surface elements together to characterize both the behavior of individual particles and the collective effect of particles. The framework based on a new model provides a more powerful and flexible tool for hybrid rendering of isosurfaces and transparent clouds of particles in a single scene. It also provides a more rational basis for shading, so the problem of normal-based shading in homogeneous regions encountered in conventional volume rendering can be easily avoided. The model can be seen as an extension to the classical model. It can be implemented easily, and most of the advanced numerical estimation methods previously developed specifically for the particle-based optical model, such as preintegration, can be applied to the new model to achieve high-quality rendering results.     

RIVA: a versatile parallel rendering system for interactivescientific visualization

JPL's Remote Interactive Visualization and Analysis System (RIVA) is described in detail. The RIVA system integrates workstation graphics, massively parallel computing technology, and gigabit communication networks to provide a flexible interactive environment for scientific data perusal, analysis, and visualization, RIVA's kernel is a highly scalable parallel perspective renderer tailored especially for the demands of large datasets beyond the sensible reach of workstations. Early experience with using RIVA to interactively explore and process multivariate, multiresolution datasets is reported; several examples using data from a variety of remote sensing instruments are discussed in detail and the results shown. Particular attention is placed on describing the algorithmic details of RIVA's parallel renderer kernel, with emphasis on the key aspects of achieving the algorithm's overall scalability. The paper summarizes the performance achieved for machine sizes up to more than 500 nodes and for initial input image/terrain bases in the 2 Gbyte range     

Fast rendering of massive textured terrain data

This paper proposes a framework based on tile-pyramid model and linear quadtree tile-index, which enables the real-time rendering of out-of-core terrain data sets while guaranteeing geometric and texture accuracy. The Digital Elevation Model pyramid and the orthophoto pyramid are created in advance and the quadtree is used for constructing tile-index and managing data tiles. To achieve real-time loading of terrain dataset, the view frustum culling technology and the target-tiles searching algorithm based on resolution-testing and the tile-request prediction mechanism are used. While rendering the terrain tiles, the dynamic bintree triangulation is used. Experimental results show that based on the current personal computer, this framework can achieve good performance for real-time rendering of massive terrain dataset whose size is unlimited.     

Fast inverse offset computation using polygon rendering hardware

Mold and die parts are usually fabricated using 3-axis numerically controlled milling machines with ball-end, flat-end or round-end cutters. The cutter location (CL) surface representing a trajectory surface of the cutter's reference point when the cutter is slid over a part is important for preventing the gouging problem. This surface is equivalent to the inverse offset shape of the part, which is the top surface of the swept volume of the inverse cutter moving around the part surface. The author proposes a fast computation method of the inverse offset shape of a polyhedral part using the hidden-surface elimination mechanism of the polygon rendering hardware. In this method, the CL surface is obtained by simply rendering the component objects of the swept volume. An experimental program is implemented and demonstrated.     

Fast rendering of foveated volumes in wavelet-based representation

A foveated volume can be viewed as a blending of multiple regions, each with a different level of resolution. It can be efficiently represented in the wavelet domain by retaining a small number of wavelet coefficients. We exploit the arrangement of those wavelet coefficients to achieve fast volume rendering. The running time is O(n²+m), where n is the width of the rendered image, and m is the number of wavelet coefficients retained for the foveated volume. Our algorithm consists of two phases. The first phase is a fast reconstruction of the super-voxels from the wavelet coefficients, and the second phase renders the super-voxels by carefully tracking rays with different thickness in the super-voxels. No expensive preprocessing on the wavelet coefficients is required. Hence, it is possible to interactively modify different viewing parameters like the transfer functions. A potential application of our algorithm is in remote visualization of large volume data-sets.     

基于GPU的医学图像快速面绘制

提出了一种医学图像快速面绘制的方法,该方法将新一代图形处理器GeForce 8800的特性和MC（Marching Cubes）算法相结合。利用几何着色器的数据批处理能力在每个立方体中提取等值面并生成三角形带;在片段着色器上采用Phong光照模型对生成三角形渲染显示。建模和显示过程均在GPU上完成,对CPU的依赖低。实验表明,在保证绘制效果的前提下,该方法可在通用PC平台上实现大小为512×512×400的CT数据的实时建模,有很好的实用价值。     

发带头发模型的快速渲染及发型控制

为了解决虚拟人头发仿真中由于头发数量巨大导致的实时渲染难、发型单一的问题,提出了一种改进的、可实现多种发型的发带头发模型仿真方法。对基于NURBS曲面的头发模型定位控制点时,采用悬梁臂模型表现出头发自然下垂的状态。对传统的Phong光照模型,提出一种快速精确计算反射方向的改进方法,并考虑头发纹理和Phong明暗处理的相互作用。此外,提出一种新颖的发型设计方法,即通过对alpha纹理的控制和对纹理映射施加扰动函数实现不同头发长短和弯曲的造型。实验结果表明,新的方法能快速实现具有高逼真度的虚拟人头发仿真,且支持多种发型。     

Fast vector quantization for efficient rendering of compressed point-clouds

We present a point-cloud compression algorithm that allows fast parallel decompression on the GPU suitable for interactive applications. The algorithm is based on vector quantization of an atlas of height-fields that have been sampled over primitive shapes which approximate the geometry. We introduce novel vector quantization acceleration techniques to facilitate fast compression as well. We achieve bitrates of less than four bits per normal-equipped point. Our method enables hole-free level-of-detail point rendering. We also show that using only up to two bits per point, high-quality renderings can still be obtained if normals are estimated in image-space. Even lower bitrates are obtained for storage on disk if arithmetic coding is used.     

室内座椅线框图识别

针对座椅识别归类问题提出一种由单幅线框图生成三维座椅模型的方法。首先对大量座椅的形态和结构进行学习和归纳,根据座椅在固定观察视点下的线框图,提取出能抽象表达座椅的基本图元集合,如线段、四边形和椭圆形等;然后依据集合中元素的个数和相对位置关系确定椅子的造型特征;最后通过WebGL和PHP技术实现网页上的室内座椅线框图识别系统。实验结果表明,系统可以识别出1 164类座椅线框图,识别正确率为88.72%,具有一定容错率,并能在识别的基础上从数据库中选取对应的三维模型在网页中进行绘制和渲染。     

快速3维坐标变换的绘制算法

目的 基于深度图的绘制(DIBR)是一种新型的虚拟视点生成技术,在诸多方面得到了广泛的应用。然而,该技术还不能满足实时性的绘制需求。为了在保证绘制质量不下降的前提下,尽可能地提高绘制速度,提出了一种高效的3D-Warping(3维坐标变换)算法。方法 主要在以下3个方面进行了改进:1)引入了深度—视差映射表技术,避免了重复地进行视差求取操作。2)对深度平坦的像素块进行基于块的3D-Warping,减少了映射的次数。对深度非平坦像素块中的像素点采取传统的基于像素点的3D-Warping,保证了映射的准确性。3)针对两种不同的3D-Warping方式,分别提出了相应的插值算法。在水平方向上,改进的像素插值算法对紧邻插值和Splatting(散射)插值算法进行了折中,只在映射像素点与待插值像素点很近的情况下才进行紧邻插值,否则进行Splatting插值;在深度方向上,它对Z-Buffer(深度缓存)技术进行了改进,舍弃了与前景物体太远的映射像素点,而对其他映射像素点按深度值进行加权操作。结果 实验结果表明,与标准绘制方案的整像素精度相比,绘制时间平均节省了72.05%;与标准绘制方案的半像素精度相比,PSNR平均提高了0.355dB,SSIM平均提高了0.00115。结论 改进算法非常适用于水平设置相机系统的DIBR技术中的整像素精度绘制,对包含大量深度平坦区域的视频序列效果明显,不但能够提高绘制的速度,而且可以有效地改善绘制的客观质量。     

脑血管体绘制的快速表意式增强

利用3维可视化技术重构脑血管模型,获取脑血管及其相关组织的立体结构,对于辅助诊断脑血管疾病具有重要意义.鉴于脑血管位置的特殊性、形态的复杂性及灰度信息的多变性,要求重构技术能够清晰还原其空间结构.基于CUDA(computed unified device architecture)的光线投射体绘制,引入深度和轮廓宽度等因子,采用基于曲率的轮廓增强、基于深度的边界增强以及基于立体显示和颜色融合的深度线索提示等表意式技术,实时重构高质量3维血管模型,生动展现脑血管的3维结构信息,如深度、梯度、观察方向等.实验结果表明,本文方法的有效性,在精确显示脑血管结构的同时能够增强体绘制效果.     

Fast generation of spherical slicing surfaces for irregular volume rendering

An efficient algorithm for generating a set of concentric spherical slicing surfaces for volume rendering of irregular volume datasets is presented. Our original algorithm, which approximates volume rendering by accumulating concentric spherical slicing surfaces from back to front, generates these surfaces by means of a conventional isosurface generation algorithm. However, this causes a performance bottleneck. To solve the problem, we propose a proliferous generation of slicing surfaces from seed cells, which are automatically determined according to the extremum points of the values of distances from a viewing point. A benchmark test shows that this approach can improve the performance significantly. In addition, we compare this algorithm with a raycasting algorithm that we proposed previously, and discuss a criterion for selecting which one to use for maximizing the performance     

面向数控加工仿真的实体差集快速绘制方法

为了提升数控加工仿真速度,提出一种实体差集快速绘制方法。通过对参与运算的实体进行空间分割,实现基于图元的绘制,达到降低问题规模,快速生成实体布尔差绘制图像的目的。通过对视景体进行相应分割,减少绘制序列中刀具扫描体数目和基本图元的重复绘制,提升绘制效率。同时,子视口的数据在绘制过程中具有独立性,便于子视口内的图像的并行生成。实验验证了该方法能达到数控加工仿真的实时绘制,并对该算法中的各个参数进行了分析和试验验证,给出了几个工业零部件的加工仿真结果。     

多面体线框模型的表面识别技术

提出一种综合利用线框模型几何信息和拓扑信息的表面识别算法。首先利用平行投影法将3维线框模型投影到2维平面上,隐藏被遮挡边和悬边悬链;然后在可见投影边线图中,根据各个顶点的关联边序列,按照顺时针最小转角原则搜索最小回路;最后根据Moebius规则和二流形体的性质,及时删除不是表面投影的非法回路和图中的完备边,并调整回路的方向,使其均指向体外。通过各类典型立体的表面识别实验表明,算法具有广泛的立体适应能力和较高的效率。     

利用小波进行基于形状和纹理的图像分类

提出一种基于小波的形状和纹理联合特征的图像分类方法。先对图像进行二维小波变换以得到边缘图像，再提取边缘图像的7个边界不变矩组成图像的形状特征向量；在实验中，发现大多数情况下，图像背景的干扰信息大于其对分类的贡献，因此对图像去除其背景，然后在灰度共现矩阵的基础上，计算5个二次统计量作为其纹理特征；最后联合形状和边缘特征向量，并对其进行高斯归一化，用SVM进行分类。结果表明，该方法具有明显的优越性和较强的实用性。     

自适应多特征融合的真实感地形快速绘制

针对真实地形可视化中数字高程模型(DEM)数据结构复杂且绘制速度不佳的问题,提出一种基于自适应多特征融合的真实感地形快速绘制方法.引入地形高程熵,对真实的DEM高程数据进行特征提取以生成地形总体框架;利用随机中点位移分形算法并根据地形特征优化分形参数来增加地形高频细节;计算视点与地形之间的距离阈值,并对应于层次细节(LOD)等级,以实现地形自适应的调度,再根据不确定性判定因子对地形特征进行更新.最后对本文算法进行并行处理,充分利用图形处理单元(GPU)技术对地形进行加速绘制.实验结果表明,该方法生成的地形具有较高逼真度和较好实时性.