Skip to main content
Log in

Proximity clouds — an acceleration technique for 3D grid traversal

  • Published:
The Visual Computer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper we present a new method for the acceleration of ray traversal through a regular 3D grid. A distance transformation is precomputed and mapped onto the empty grid space. A ray traversing the empty space is assisted by the distance values which permit it to perform long skips along the ray direction. We show that the City-Block metric simplifies the preprocessing with no penalty at the traversal phase. Different schemes are discussed and the trade-off between the preprocessing time and the speed-up is analyzed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Amanatides J, Woo A (1987) A fast voxel traversal algorithm for ray tracing. Proc EUROGRAPHICS '87, pp 3–9

  • Arvo J, Kirk D (1987) Fast ray tracing by ray classification. Comput Graphics (Proc SIGGRAPH '87) 21: 55–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Arvo, J, Kirk D (1989) A survey of ray tracing acceleration techniques. In: Glassner AS (ed) An Introduction to Ray Tracing. Academic, London San Diego, pp 201–262

    Google Scholar 

  • Avila R, Sobierajski L, Kaufman A (1992) Towards a comprehensive volume visualization system. Proc Visualization '92, pp 13–20

  • Borgefors G (1986) Distance transformations in digital images. Comput Vision Graph Image Processing 34: 344–371

    Google Scholar 

  • Cleary JG, Wyvill G (1988) Analysis of an algorithm for fast ray tracing using uniform space subdivision. The Visual Computer 4: 65–83

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, D, Kaufman A (1991) 3D discrete lines: voxelization algorithms and connectivity control. Technical Report TR. 91.05.09, Computer Science, SUNY at Stony Brook, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, D, Sheffer Z (1993) Proximity, clouds — an acceleration technique for 3D grid traversal. Technical Report FC 93-01, Math & Computer Science, Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva

    Google Scholar 

  • Devillers O (1989) The macro-regions: an efficient space subdivision structure for ray tracing. Proc EUROGRAPHICS '89, pp 27–38

  • Fujimoto A, Tanaka, T, Iwata K (1986) ARTS: accelerated raytracing system. IEEE Comput Graph Appl 6: 16–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Glassner AS (1984) Space subdivision for fast ray tracing. IEEE Comput Graph Appl 4: 15–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Jansen FW (1986) Data structures for ray tracing. In: Kessener LRA, Peters FJ, van Lierop MLP (eds) Data structures for raster graphics Springer, Netherlands, pp 57–73

    Google Scholar 

  • Jevans D, Wyvill B (1989) Adaptive voxel subdivision for ray tracing. Proc Graphics Interface '89, pp 164–172

  • Kay TL, Kajiya JT (1986) Ray tracing complex scenes. Comput Graphics 14: 110–116

    Google Scholar 

  • Kunii TL, Wyvill G (1985) A simple but systematic CSG system Proc Graphics Interface '85

  • Rubin SM, Whitted T (1980) A 3-dimensional representation for fast rendering of complex scences. Comput Graphics 14(3): 110–116

    Google Scholar 

  • Samet H (1989) Implementing ray tracing with octrees and neighbor finding. Comput and Graph 13: 445–460

    Google Scholar 

  • Sung K (1991) A DDA octree traversal algorithm for ray tracing. Proc EUROGRAPHICS '91, pp 73–85

  • Yagel R, Cohen D, Kaufman A (1992) Discrete ray tracing. IEEE Comput Graph Appl 12: 19–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Zuiderveld KZ, Koning AHJ, Viergever MA (1992) Acceleration of ray casting using 3D distance transforms. Visualization in biomedical computing, pp 324–335

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel Cohen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cohen, D., Sheffer, Z. Proximity clouds — an acceleration technique for 3D grid traversal. The Visual Computer 11, 27–38 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01900697

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01900697

Key words

Navigation