Imaging vector fields using line integral convolution
SIGGRAPH '93 Proceedings of the 20th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques
Interactive visualization of 3D-vector fields using illuminated stream lines
Proceedings of the 7th conference on Visualization '96
Strategies for effectively visualizing 3D flow with volume LIC
VIS '97 Proceedings of the 8th conference on Visualization '97
The visualization toolkit (2nd ed.): an object-oriented approach to 3D graphics
The visualization toolkit (2nd ed.): an object-oriented approach to 3D graphics
Real-time techniques for 3D flow visualization
Proceedings of the conference on Visualization '98
Real-Time Rendering
FAST: a multi-processed environment for visualization of computational fluid dynamics
VIS '90 Proceedings of the 1st conference on Visualization '90
Strategies for interactive exploration of 3D flow using evenly-spaced illuminated streamlines
SCCG '03 Proceedings of the 19th spring conference on Computer graphics
Visualizing Whole-Brain DTI Tractography with GPU-based Tuboids and LoD Management
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
Two-Level Approach to Efficient Visualization of Protein Dynamics
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
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An effective means for flow visualization is the depiction of particle trajectories. When rendering large amounts of these pathlines, standard visualization techniques suffer from several weaknesses, ranging from ambiguous depth perception to high geometrical complexity and decreased interactivity. This paper addresses these problems by choosing a novel approach to pathline visualization in 3D space, which we call Virtual Tubelets. It employs billboarding techniques in combination with suitable textures to create the illusion of three-dimensional tubes, which efficiently depict the particles' trajectories, while still maintaining interactive frame rates. Certain issues concerning virtual environments and immersive displays with multiple projection screens are resolved by choosing an appropriate orientation for the billboards. The use of modern, programmable graphics hardware allows for an additional speed-up of the rendering process and a further improvement of the image quality. This results in a nearly perfect illusion of tubular geometry, including plausible intersections and consistent illumination with the rest of the scene. To prove the efficiency of our approach, rendering speed and visual quality of Virtual Tubelets and conventional, polygonal tube renderings are compared.