Coherent multiresolution isosurface ray tracing

Authors:
Aaron M. Knoll;Ingo Wald;Charles D. Hansen
Affiliations:
University of Utah, Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, 84112, Salt Lake City, UT, USA;University of Utah, Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, 84112, Salt Lake City, UT, USA;University of Utah, Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, 84112, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Venue:
The Visual Computer: International Journal of Computer Graphics
Year:
2009

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Journal of Visualization

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Abstract

We implement and evaluate a fast ray tracing method for rendering large structured volumes. Input data is losslessly compressed into an octree, enabling residency in CPU main memory. We cast packets of coherent rays through a min/max acceleration structure within the octree, employing a slice-based technique to amortize the higher cost of compressed data access. By employing a multiresolution level of detail (LOD) scheme in conjunction with packets, coherent ray tracing can efficiently render inherently incoherent scenes of complex data. We achieve higher performance with lesser footprint than previous isosurface ray tracers, and deliver large frame buffers, smooth gradient normals and shadows at relatively lesser cost. In this context, we weigh the strengths of coherent ray tracing against those of the conventional single-ray approach, and present a system that visualizes large volumes at full data resolution on commodity computers.