Interactive volume visualization on a heterogeneous message-passing multicomputer

ABSTRACT

This paper describes VOL2, an interactive general-purpose volume renderer based on ray casting and implemented on Pixel-Planes 5, a distributed-memory, message-passing multicomputer. VOL2 is a pipelined renderer using image-space task parallelism and object-space data partitioning. We describe the parallelization and load balancing techniques used in order to achieve interactive response and near-real-time frame rates. We also present a number of applications for our system and derive some general conclusions about operation of image-order rendering algorithms on message-passing multicomputers.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.7 Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism
          Subjects: Raytracing

Additional Classification:
  F. Theory of Computation
  F.1 COMPUTATION BY ABSTRACT DEVICES
      F.1.2 Modes of Computation
          Subjects: Parallelism and concurrency

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.1 Hardware architecture
          Subjects: Graphics processors
      I.3.5 Computational Geometry and Object Modeling
          Subjects: Curve, surface, solid, and object representations

General Terms:
Algorithms, Performance