Real-Time Volume Rendering
Volume rendering is a key technology for the interpretation of the large amounts of 3D scalar data generated by acquisition devices such as biomedical scanners or by supercomputer simulations. Of particular importance for the exploration and understanding of the data are sub-second display rates and instantaneous visual feedback during the change of rendering parameters. To create the illusion of smooth dynamics, the image must be updated at true real-time rates.
Background & Objective: The main goal of our research is to develop hardware architectures for real-time volume rendering of high-resolution datasets. Our research has the following design objectives based on what we believe to be important features of a real-time volume rendering system: * Flexibility: The algorithm and hardware should be flexible enough to allow for the interactive change of parameters such as shading, data segmentation, and projection modes.
Technical Discussion: Current general-purpose systems fall short of achieving these goals. The high computational requirements of traditional computer graphics led to the development of special-purpose graphics engines, primarily for polygon rendering. Similarly, the special needs of volume rendering, where an image must be computed rapidly and repeatedly from a volume dataset, lends itself to the development of special-purpose volume rendering architectures. A dedicated accelerator, which separates volume rendering from general-purpose computing, seems to be best suited to provide real-time volume rendering on standard deskside or desktop computers. Finally, the choice of whether one adopts a general-purpose or a special-purpose solution to volume rendering depends upon the circumstances. If maximum flexibility is required, general-purpose appears to be the best way to proceed. However, an important feature of graphics accelerators is that they are integrated into a much larger environment where software can shape the form of input and output data, thereby providing the additional flexibility that is needed. A good example is the relationship between the needs of conventional computer graphics and special-purpose graphics hardware. Nobody would dispute the necessity for polygon graphics acceleration despite its obvious limitations. We are making the exact same argument for volume rendering architectures.
Technology Area: Graphics
Modification Date: September 14, 2007