Texture-based visualization of unsteady 3D flow by real-time advection and volumetric illumination

This paper presents an interactive technique for the dense texture-based visualization of unsteady 3D flow, taking into account issues of computational efficiency and visual perception. High efficiency is achieved by a 3D graphics processing unit (GPU)-based texture advection mechanism that implements logical 3D grid structures by physical memory in the form of 2D textures. This approach results in fast read and write access to physical memory, independent of GPU architecture. Slice-based direct volume rendering is used for the final display. We investigate two alternative methods for the volumetric illumination of the result of texture advection: First, gradient-based illumination that employs a real-time computation of gradients, and, second, line-based lighting based on illumination in codimension 2. In addition to the Phong model, perception-guided rendering methods are considered, such as cool/warm shading, halo rendering, or color-based depth cueing. The problems of clutter and occlusion are addressed by supporting a volumetric importance function that enhances features of the flow and reduces visual complexity in less interesting regions. GPU implementation aspects, performance measurements, and a discussion of results are included to demonstrate our visualization approach.     

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.     

Tabu search algorithm combined with global perturbation for packing arbitrary sized circles into a circular container

It is important for the rapid visualization of large scale forest scene to dynamically simplify and recombine model data. In order to preserve the geometric features and visual perception of tree model, this paper presents a real-time information recombination method of complex 3D tree model based on visual perception. This method adopts visual attention model and the visual characteristic of tree structures, and then uses geometry-based and image-based methods to simplify tree models and construct a hybrid representation model. The hybrid representation model reflects the visual perception features of 3D tree models that can embody topological semantics in dynamic simulation. In addition, this method automatically extracts the representation information of 3D tree model based on visual perception, and recombines model information in real time according to the dynamic viewpoint of virtual scene. Finally, this method is applied in the simplification of different tree models, and it is compared with the existing tree model simplification methods. Experimental results show that this method can not only preserve better visual perception for 3D tree models, but also effectively decrease the geometric data of forest scene, and improve the rendering efficiency of forest scene.     

Visualization of vector fields using seed LIC and volume rendering

Line integral convolution (LIC) is a powerful texture-based technique for visualizing vector fields. Due to the high computational expense of generating 3D textures and the difficulties of effectively displaying the result, LIC has most commonly been used to depict vector fields in 2D or over a surface in 3D. We propose new methods for more effective volume visualization of three-dimensional vector fields using LIC: 1) we present a fast method for computing volume LIC textures that exploits the sparsity of the input texture. 2) We propose the use of a shading technique, called limb darkening, to reveal the depth relations among the field lines. The shading effect is obtained simply by using appropriate transfer functions and, therefore, avoids using expensive shading techniques. 3) We demonstrate how two-field visualization techniques can be used to enhance the visual information describing a vector field. The volume LIC textures are rendered using texture-based rendering techniques, which allows interactive exploration of a vector field.     

Abstract representations for interactive visualization of virtual 3D city models

Virtual 3D city models increasingly cover whole city areas; hence, the perception of complex urban structures becomes increasingly difficult. Using abstract visualization, complexity of these models can be hidden where its visibility is unnecessary, while important features are maintained and highlighted for better comprehension and communication. We present a technique to automatically generalize a given virtual 3D city model consisting of building models, an infrastructure network and optional land coverage data; this technique creates several representations of increasing levels of abstraction. Using the infrastructure network, our technique groups building models and replaces them with cell blocks, while preserving local landmarks. By computing a landmark hierarchy, we reduce the set of initial landmarks in a spatially balanced manner for use in higher levels of abstraction. In four application examples, we demonstrate smooth visualization of transitions between precomputed representations; dynamic landmark highlighting according to virtual camera distance; an implementation of a cognitively enhanced route representation, and generalization lenses to combine precomputed representations in focus + context visualization.     

Efficient implementation of real-time view-dependent multiresolution meshing

In this paper, we present an efficient (topology preserving) multiresolution meshing framework for interactive level-of-detail (LOD) generation and rendering of large triangle meshes. More specifically, the presented approach, called FastMesh, provides view-dependent LOD generation and real-time mesh simplification that minimizes visual artifacts. Multiresolution triangle mesh representations are an important tool for reducing triangle mesh complexity in interactive rendering environments. Ideally, for interactive visualization, a triangle mesh is simplified to the maximal tolerated visible error and, thus, mesh simplification is view-dependent. This paper introduces an efficient hierarchical multiresolution triangulation framework based on a half-edge triangle mesh data structure and presents optimized implementations of several view-dependent or visual mesh simplification heuristics within that framework. Despite being optimized for performance, these error heuristics provide conservative error bounds. The presented framework is highly efficient both in space and time cost and needs only a fraction of the time required for rendering to perform the error calculations and dynamic mesh updates.     

Flow charts: visualization of vector fields on arbitrary surfaces

We introduce a novel flow visualization method called Flow Charts, which uses a texture atlas approach for the visualization of flows defined over curved surfaces. In this scheme the surface and its associated flow are segmented into overlapping patches which are then parameterized and packed in the texture domain. This scheme allows accurate particle advection across multiple charts in the texture domain, providing a flexible framework that supports various flow visualization techniques. The use of surface parameterization enables flow visualization techniques requiring the global view of the surface over long time spans, such as Unsteady Flow LIC (UFLIC), particle-based Unsteady Flow Advection-Convolution (UFAC), or dye advection. It also prevents visual artifacts normally associated with view-dependent methods. Represented as textures, Flow Charts can be naturally integrated into GPU flow visualization techniques for interactive performance.     

Adaptive graphics

This article presents the idea of a unifying framework that allows visual representations of information to be customized and mixed together into new ones. The net result is a fine-grained approach to representing data, better suited to accessing and rendering it over networks. Although the focus is on geometric models and 3D shape representations, many issues discussed are relevant to network-based visualization in general.     

Free-viewpoint video relighting from multi-view sequence under general illumination

We proposed an approach to create plausible free-viewpoint relighting video using multi-view cameras array under general illumination. Given the multi-view video dataset recorded using a set of industrial cameras under general uncontrolled and unknown illumination, we first reconstruct 3D model of the captured target using existing multi-view stereo approach. Using the coarse geometry reconstruction, we estimate the spatially varying surface reflectance in the spherical harmonics domain considering the spatial and temporal coherence. With the estimated geometry and reflectance, the 3D target is relit to the novel illumination with the environment map of the target environment. Relit performance is enhanced using a flow- and quotient-based transfer strategy to achieve detailed and plausible performance relighting. Finally, the free-viewpoint video is generated using a view-dependent rendering strategy. Experimental results on various dataset show that our approach enables plausible free-view relighting, and opens up a path towards relightable free-viewpoint video using less complex acquisition setups.     

Quick-VDR: out-of-core view-dependent rendering of gigantic models

We present a novel approach for interactive view-dependent rendering of massive models. Our algorithm combines view-dependent simplification, occlusion culling, and out-of-core rendering. We represent the model as a clustered hierarchy of progressive meshes (CHPM). We use the cluster hierarchy for coarse-grained selective refinement and progressive meshes for fine-grained local refinement. We present an out-of-core algorithm for computation of a CHPM that includes cluster decomposition, hierarchy generation, and simplification. We introduce novel cluster dependencies in the preprocess to generate crack-free, drastic simplifications at runtime. The clusters are used for LOD selection, occlusion culling, and out-of-core rendering. We add a frame of latency to the rendering pipeline to fetch newly visible clusters from the disk and avoid stalls. The CHPM reduces the refinement cost of view-dependent rendering by more than an order of magnitude as compared to a vertex hierarchy. We have implemented our algorithm on a desktop PC. We can render massive CAD, isosurface, and scanned models, consisting of tens or a few hundred million triangles at 15-35 frames per second with little loss in image quality.     

Visualizing dynamic geosciences phenomena using an octree-based view-dependent LOD strategy within virtual globes

Geoscientists build dynamic models to simulate various natural phenomena for a better understanding of our planet. Interactive visualizations of these geoscience models and their outputs through virtual globes on the Internet can help the public understand the dynamic phenomena related to the Earth more intuitively. However, challenges arise when the volume of four-dimensional data (4D), 3D in space plus time, is huge for rendering. Datasets loaded from geographically distributed data servers require synchronization between ingesting and rendering data. Also the visualization capability of display clients varies significantly in such an online visualization environment; some may not have high-end graphic cards. To enhance the efficiency of visualizing dynamic volumetric data in virtual globes, this paper proposes a systematic framework, in which an octree-based multiresolution data structure is implemented to organize time series 3D geospatial data to be used in virtual globe environments. This framework includes a view-dependent continuous level of detail (LOD) strategy formulated as a synchronized part of the virtual globe rendering process. Through the octree-based data retrieval process, the LOD strategy enables the rendering of the 4D simulation at a consistent and acceptable frame rate. To demonstrate the capabilities of this framework, data of a simulated dust storm event are rendered in World Wind, an open source virtual globe. The rendering performances with and without the octree-based LOD strategy are compared. The experimental results show that using the proposed data structure and processing strategy significantly enhances the visualization performance when rendering dynamic geospatial phenomena in virtual globes.     

4D Model Flow: Precomputed Appearance Alignment for Real‐time 4D Video Interpolation

We introduce the concept of 4D model flow for the precomputed alignment of dynamic surface appearance across 4D video sequences of different motions reconstructed from multi‐view video. Precomputed 4D model flow allows the efficient parametrization of surface appearance from the captured videos, which enables efficient real‐time rendering of interpolated 4D video sequences whilst accurately reproducing visual dynamics, even when using a coarse underlying geometry. We estimate the 4D model flow using an image‐based approach that is guided by available geometry proxies. We propose a novel representation in surface texture space for efficient storage and online parametric interpolation of dynamic appearance. Our 4D model flow overcomes previous requirements for computationally expensive online optical flow computation for data‐driven alignment of dynamic surface appearance by precomputing the appearance alignment. This leads to an efficient rendering technique that enables the online interpolation between 4D videos in real time, from arbitrary viewpoints and with visual quality comparable to the state of the art.     

基于线积分卷积算法的并行实现方法

线积分卷积（LIC）是矢量场可视化中一个强有力的工具。但其计算量过大、耗时过多,影响了它的应用。根据LIC算法的特点,提出了LIC算法的并行实现方法。由于流线跟踪和卷积计算的独立性,只需把输出图像以像素点为单位平均分配给各处理器节点进行计算。从进程之间没有通信,仅当从进程开始计算前和计算结束后,在主进程与从进程之间有数据传递,通信开销很小。最后应用MPI在Linux集群环境下实现了该算法,实验结果表明,该方法具有较高的并行度和加速比。     

Noiseless GPU rendering of isotropic BRDF surfaces

Illumination at a surface point is formulated as an integral of a BRDF using the incident radiance over the hemisphere domain. A popular method to compute the integral is Monte Carlo integration, in which the surface illumination is computed as the sum of the integrand evaluated with stochastically sampled rays. Although its simple nature is practically attractive, it incurs the serious drawback of noise artifacts due to estimator variance. In this paper, we propose a novel noiseless Monte Carlo rendering algorithm running in real time on a GPU. The main contribution is a novel importance sampling scheme, which constructs spatially continuous sample rays over a surface. For each evenly spaced polar angle of the eye ray, denoted by θ, incident rays are sampled with a PDF (probability density function) derived from a target BRDF lobe. We develop a force-based update method to create a sequence of consistent ray sets along θ’s. Finally, corresponding rays in the sequence of ray sets are linearly connected to form a continuous ray curve, referred to as a sample thread. When rendering, illumination at a surface point is computed with rays, each of which is given as a point on a sample thread. Because a thread provides a sample ray that continuously varies on a surface, the random variance of the illumination, causing visual noise during the Monte Carlo rendering process, is eliminated. A thread set is precomputed for each BRDF to free the GPU from the burden of sampling during real-time rendering. According to extensive experiments, approximately 100 threads are sufficient for most measured BRDFs with acceptable rendering quality for interactive applications.     

Interactive 3D visualization for wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks open up a new realm of ubiquitous computing applications based on distributed large-scale data collection by embedded sensor nodes that are wirelessly connected and seamlessly integrated within the environment. 3D visualization of sensory data is a challenging issue, however, due to the large number of sensors used in typical deployments, continuous data streams, and constantly varying network topology. This paper describes a practical approach for interactive 3D visualization of wireless sensor network data. A regular 3D grid is reconstructed using scattered sensor data points and used to generate view-dependent 2D slices that are consequently rendered with commodity graphics hardware leading to smooth visualization over space and time. Furthermore, the use of efficient space partitioning data structures and the independent processing of sensor data points facilitates interactive rendering for large number of sensors while accommodating constantly changing network topology. The practical value of the proposed method is demonstrated and results obtained for visualizing time-varying temperature distributions in an urban area are presented.     

Line Integral Convolution for Real‐Time Illustration of Molecular Surface Shape and Salient Regions

We present a novel line drawing algorithm that illustrates surfaces in real‐time to convey their shape. We use line integral convolution (LIC) and employ ambient occlusion for illustrative surface rendering. Furthermore, our method depicts salient regions based on the illumination gradient. Our method works on animated surfaces in a frame‐coherent manner. Therefore, it yields an illustrative representation of time‐dependent surfaces as no preprocessing step is needed. In this paper, the method is used to highlight the structure of molecular surfaces and to illustrate important surface features like cavities, channels, and pockets. The benefit of our method was evaluated with domain experts. We also demonstrate the applicability of our method to medical visualization.     

Layered point clouds: a simple and efficient multiresolution structure for distributing and rendering gigantic point-sampled models

We recently introduced an efficient multiresolution structure for distributing and rendering very large point sampled models on consumer graphics platforms [1]. The structure is based on a hierarchy of precomputed object-space point clouds, that are combined coarse-to-fine at rendering time to locally adapt sample densities according to the projected size in the image. The progressive block based refinement nature of the rendering traversal exploits on-board caching and object based rendering APIs, hides out-of-core data access latency through speculative prefetching, and lends itself well to incorporate backface, view frustum, and occlusion culling, as well as compression and view-dependent progressive transmission. The resulting system allows rendering of complex out-of-core models at high frame rates (over 60 M rendered points/second), supports network streaming, and is fundamentally simple to implement. We demonstrate the efficiency of the approach on a number of very large models, stored on local disks or accessed through a consumer level broadband network, including a massive 234 M samples isosurface generated by a compressible turbulence simulation and a 167 M samples model of Michelangelo's St. Matthew. Many of the details of our framework were presented in a previous study. We here provide a more thorough exposition, but also significant new material, including the presentation of a higher quality bottom-up construction method and additional qualitative and quantitative results.     

A practical and fast rendering algorithm for dynamic scenes using adaptive shadow fields

Recently, a precomputed shadow fields method was proposed for achieving fast rendering of dynamic scenes under environment illumination and local light sources. This method can render shadows fast by precomputing the occlusion information at many sample points arranged on concentric shells around each object and combining multiple precomputed occlusion information rapidly in the rendering step. However, this method uses the same number of sample points on all shells, and cannot achieve real-time rendering due to the rendering computation rely on CPU rather than graphics hardware. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for decreasing the data size of shadow fields by reducing the amount of sample points without degrading the image quality. We reduce the number of sample points adaptively by considering the differences of the occlusion information between adjacent sample points. Additionally, we also achieve fast rendering under low-frequency illuminations by implementing shadow fields on graphics hardware.     

Illuminated 3D Scatterplots

In contrast to 2D scatterplots, the existing 3D variants have the advantage of showing one additional data dimension, but suffer from inadequate spatial and shape perception and therefore are not well suited to display structures of the underlying data. We improve shape perception by applying a new illumination technique to the pointcloud representation of 3D scatterplots. Points are classified as locally linear, planar, and volumetric structures—according to the eigenvalues of the inverse distance-weighted covariance matrix at each data element. Based on this classification, different lighting models are applied: codimension-2 illumination, surface illumination, and emissive volumetric illumination. Our technique lends itself to efficient GPU point rendering and can be combined with existing methods like semi-transparent rendering, halos, and depth or attribute based color coding. The user can interactively navigate in the dataset and manipulate the classification and other visualization parameters. We demonstrate our visualization technique by showing examples of multi-dimensional data and of generic pointcloud data.     

基于VolumeViz的地震数据三维可视化关键技术

随着三维可视化技术的应用领域越来越广泛,三维地震数据的信息量过多,三维可视化绘制的运算量过大,渲染速度过慢等问题成为制约地震数据三维可视化技术发展的桎梏.本文基于Open Inventor的扩展模块VolumeViz,通过三维地震数据存储格式的转换实现大量数据的存储,通过自动控制分辨率的方式减少运算量,最后建立场景数据库并渲染实现地震数据三维可视化.