Abstract
A parallel algorithm for volume visualization is presented which supports viewing of volume data from arbitrary directions. The parallelization is done by a multiple macro pipeline, because interactivity of the visualization process is the driving goal. An implementation on a distributed memory processor (nCUBE) with 64 nodes is shown, where the volume data set is cut into slices and distributed to the node processors. The processing power of this multiprocessor allows near interactive frame update rates for volumes of moderate size (128x128x128 voxels). Results of this implementation with special respect to speedup and scalability are discussed and further enhancements are proposed.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
R. Drebin, L. Carpenter, P. Hanrahan: Volume Rendering. Computer Graphics, Vol. 22, No. 4, 1988, pp.65–74
C. Upson: The V-Buffer Visible Volume Rendering. Computer Graphics, Vol. 22, No. 4, 1990, pp.59–64
R. Bakalash, A. Kaufman, R. Pacheco, H. Pfister: An Extended Volume Visualization System for Arbitrary Parallel Projection. Seventh Workshop on Graphics Hardware, Eurographics Technical Report Series, EG92 HW, 1992, pp.64–69
L. Westover: Interactive Volume Rendering. In: Proceedings of the Chapel Hill Workshop on Volume Visualization, Chapel Hill, NC, May 1989, pp.9–16
B. Corrie, P. Mackerras: Parallel Volume Rendering and Data Coherence on the Fujitsu AP1000. Technical Report TR-CS-92-11, Australian National University, August 1992 (available via ftp)
J. Challinger: Parallel Volume Rendering on a Shared Memory Multiprocessor. Technical Report UCSC-CRL-91-23, Board of Studies in Computer and Information Sciences, University of California at Santa Cruz, March 1992
K.H. Höhne, R. Bernstein: Shading 3D-Images from CT Using Gray-Level Gradients. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Vol. MI-5, No. 1, March 1986
L. Westover: Footprint Evaluation for Volume Rendering. Computer Graphics, Vol.24, No.4, 1990, pp.367–376
M. Levoy: Display of Surfaces from Volume Data. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Vol. 8, No. 3, 1988, pp. 29–37
K.H. Höhne, M. Bomans, A. Pommert, M. Riemer, U. Tiede, G. Wiebecke: Rendering Tomographic Voluma Data: Adequacy of Methods for Different Modalities and Organs. In: K.H. Höhne, H. Fuchs, S.M. Pizer (eds.): 3D Imaging in Medicine, Algorithms, Systems, Applications. Springer Verlag Press, 1990
M. P. Garrity: Raytracing Irregular Volume Data. Comuter Graphics, ACM, Vol.24, No.5, 1990, pp.35–40
T.S. Yoo, U. Neumann, H. Fuchs, St.M. Pizer, T. Cullip, J. Rhoades, R. Whitaker: Direct Visualization of Volume Data. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, IEEE, 1992, pp.63–71
nCUBE 2 Programmer's Guide. nCUBE Corp., California
nCUBE 2 Programmer's Reference Manual. nCUBE Corp, California
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Spalt, A. (1993). A pipeline algorithm for interactive volume visualization. In: Volkert, J. (eds) Parallel Computation. ACPC 1993. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 734. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57314-3_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57314-3_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-57314-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48055-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive