Particle animation and rendering using data parallel computation

  • Authors:
  • Karl Sims

  • Affiliations:
  • Optomystic, 725 N. Highland, Hollywood, CA and Thinking Machines Corporation, 245 First Street, Cambridge, MA

  • Venue:
  • SIGGRAPH '90 Proceedings of the 17th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques
  • Year:
  • 1990

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Abstract

Techniques are presented that are used to animate and render particle systems with the Connection Machine CM-2, a data parallel supercomputer. A particle behavior language provides an animator with levels of control from kinematic spline motions to physically based simulations. A parallel particle rendering system allows particles of different shapes, sizes, colors and transparencies to be rendered with antialiasing, hidden surfaces, and motion-blur. One virtual processor is assigned to each primitive data element: one to each particle, and during the rendering process, one to each pixel-sized particle fragment, and to each pixel. These tools are used to model dynamic phenomena such as wind, snow, water, and fire.