Browsing by Subject "Direct volume rendering"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

Open Access
Adaptive decomposition and remapping algorithms for object-space-parallel direct volume rendering of unstructured grids
(Academic Press, 2007-01) Aykanat, Cevdet; Cambazoglu, B. B.; Findik, F.; Kurc, T.
Object space (OS) parallelization of an efficient direct volume rendering algorithm for unstructured grids on distributed-memory architectures is investigated. The adaptive OS decomposition problem is modeled as a graph partitioning (GP) problem using an efficient and highly accurate estimation scheme for view-dependent node and edge weighting. In the proposed model, minimizing the cutsize corresponds to minimizing the parallelization overhead due to the data communication and redundant computation/storage while maintaining the GP balance constraint corresponds to maintaining the computational load balance in parallel rendering. A GP-based, view-independent cell clustering scheme is introduced to induce more tractable view-dependent computational graphs for successive visualizations. As another contribution, a graph-theoretical remapping model is proposed as a solution to the general remapping problem and is used in minimization of the cell-data migration overhead. The remapping tool RM-MeTiS is developed by modifying the GP tool MeTiS and is used in partitioning the remapping graphs. Experiments are conducted using benchmark datasets on a 28-node PC cluster to evaluate the performance of the proposed models. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Open Access
BilKristal 4.0: A tool for crystal parameters extraction and defect quantification
(Elsevier, 2015) Okuyan, E.; Okuyan, C.
In this paper, we present a revised version of BilKristal 3.0 tool. Raycast screenshot functionality is added to provide improved visual analysis. We added atomic distance analysis functionality to assess crystalline defects. We improved visualization capabilities by adding high level cut function definitions. Discovered bugs are fixed and small performance optimizations are made. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Open Access
Comparison of image space subdivision algorithms for parallel volume rendering
(1995) Tanin, Egemen
In many scientific applications, results are presented as unstructured volumetric data sets. Direct Volume Rendering (DVR) is a powerful way of visualizing these volumetric data sets. However, it involves intensive computations. In addition, most of the volumetric data sets also require huge memories. Hence, DVR is a good candidate for parallelization on distributed memory multicomputers. Also most of the engineering simulations are done on multicomputers. Therefore, visualization of these results on the same architectures where simulations are done avoids the overhead of transporting large amount of data. In order to visualize unstructured volumetric data sets, the underlying algorithms should resolve the point location and the view sort problems of the 3D grid points. In this thesis, these problems are solved by using the well-known Scanline Z-Buffer algorithm. Three image space subdivision algorithms, namely horizontal, rectangular, and recursive subdivisions, are utilized to distribute the computations evenly among the processors in the rendering phase. The main parallel algorithm uses Raycasting approach of DVR to visualize the data sets, which is also an image space method. Therefore, the divisions are made in order to obtain a set of sub-images. Static task decomposition is used where each processor is assigned to a single sub-image. The load balance among the processors is achieved by defining the overall work load with in a sub-image by using the milestone operations done in the Scanline Z-Buffer algorithm. The algorithms are developed in a way that they can handle any kind of polygonal, volumetric, and etc. data set where the underlying architecture is also kept flexible in many aspects for the sake of generality and portability. The experimental performance evaluation of the horizontal, rectangular, and recursive subdivision algorithms on an IBM-SP2 system are presented and discussed in a comparative way.
Open Access
Comparison of two image-space subdivision algorithms for direct volume rendering on distributed-memory multicomputers
(Springer, 1995-08) Tanin, Egemen; Kurç, Tahsin M.; Aykanat, Cevdet; Özgüç, Bülent
Direct Volume Rendering (DVR) is a powerful technique for visualizing volumetric data sets. However, it involves intensive computations. In addition, most of the volumetric data sets consist of large number of 3D sampling points. Therefore, visualization of such data sets also requires large computer memory space. Hence, DVR is a good candidate for parallelization on distributed-memory multicomputers. In this work, image-space parallelization of Raycasting based DVR for unstructured grids on distributed-memory multicomputers is presented and discussed. In order to visualize unstructured volumetric datasets where grid points of the dataset are irregularly distributed over the 3D space, the underlying algorithms should resolve the point location and view sort problems of the 3D grid points. In this paper, these problems are solved using a Scanline Z-buffer based algorithm. Two image space subdivision heuristics, namely horizontal and recursive rectangular subdivision heuristics, are utilized to distribute the computations evenly among the processors in the rendering phase. The horizontal subdivision algorithm divides the image space into horizontal bands composed of consecutive scanlines. In the recursive subdivision algorithm, the image space is divided into rectangular subregions recursively. The experimental performance evaluation of the horizontal and recursive subdivision algorithms on an IBM SP2 system are presented and discussed. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1996.
Open Access
Direct volume rendering of unstructured tetrahedral meshes using CUDA and OpenMP
(2014) Okuyan, E.; Güdükbay, Uğur
Direct volume visualization is an important method in many areas, including computational fluid dynamics and medicine. Achieving interactive rates for direct volume rendering of large unstructured volumetric grids is a challenging problem, but parallelizing direct volume rendering algorithms can help achieve this goal. Using Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA), we propose a GPU-based volume rendering algorithm that itself is based on a cell projection-based ray-casting algorithm designed for CPU implementations. We also propose a multicore parallelized version of the cell-projection algorithm using OpenMP. In both algorithms, we favor image quality over rendering speed. Our algorithm has a low memory footprint, allowing us to render large datasets. Our algorithm supports progressive rendering. Wecompared the GPU implementation with the serial and multicore implementations.We observed significant speed-ups that, together with progressive rendering, enables reaching interactive rates for large datasets. © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013.
Open Access
Dynamic view-dependent visualization of unstructured tetrahedral volumetric meshes
(Springer, 2012) Okuyan, E.; Güdükbay, Uğur; Işler, V.
Visualization of large volumetric datasets has always been an important problem. Due to the high computational requirements of volume-rendering techniques, achieving interactive rates is a real challenge. We present a selective refinement scheme that dynamically refines the mesh according to the camera parameters. This scheme automatically determines the impact of different parts of the mesh on the output image and refines the mesh accordingly, without needing any user input. The view-dependent refinement scheme uses a progressive mesh representation that is based on an edge collapse-based tetrahedral mesh simplification algorithm. We tested our view-dependent refinement framework on an existing state-of-theart volume renderer. Thanks to low overhead dynamic view-dependent refinement, we achieve interactive frame rates for rendering common datasets at decent image resolutions. © 2012 The Visualization Society of Japan.
Open Access
Hypergraph-partitioning-based remapping models for image-space-parallel direct volume rendering of unstructured grids
(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2007-07) Cambazoglu, B. B.; Aykanat, Cevdet
In this work, image-space-parallel direct volume rendering (DVR) of unstructured grids is investigated for distributed-memory architectures. A hypergraph-partitioning-based model is proposed for the adaptive screen partitioning problem in this context. The proposed model aims to balance the rendering loads of processors while trying to minimize the amount of data replication. In the parallel DVR framework we adopted, each data primitive is statically owned by its home processor, which is responsible from replicating its primitives on other processors. Two appropriate remapping models are proposed by enhancing the above model for use within this framework. These two remapping models aim to minimize the total volume of communication in data replication while balancing the rendering loads of processors. Based on the proposed models, a parallel DVR algorithm is developed. The experiments conducted on a PC cluster show that the proposed remapping models achieve better speedup values compared to the remapping models previously suggested for image-space-parallel DVR. © 2007 IEEE.
Open Access
MaterialVis: material visualization tool using direct volume and surface rendering techniques
(Elsevier Inc., 2014) Okuyan, E.; Güdükbay, Uğur; Bulutay, C.; Heinig, Karl-Heinz
Visualization of the materials is an indispensable part of their structural analysis. We developed a visualization tool for amorphous as well as crystalline structures, called MaterialVis. Unlike the existing tools, MaterialVis represents material structures as a volume and a surface manifold, in addition to plain atomic coordinates. Both amorphous and crystalline structures exhibit topological features as well as various defects. MaterialVis provides a wide range of functionality to visualize such topological structures and crystal defects interactively. Direct volume rendering techniques are used to visualize the volumetric features of materials, such as crystal defects, which are responsible for the distinct fingerprints of a specific sample. In addition, the tool provides surface visualization to extract hidden topological features within the material. Together with the rich set of parameters and options to control the visualization, MaterialVis allows users to visualize various aspects of materials very efficiently as generated by modern analytical techniques such as the Atom Probe Tomography.