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Time and Space Optimal Data Parallel Volume Rendering Using Permutation Warping

✍ Scribed by Craig M. Wittenbrink; Arun K. Somani


Publisher
Elsevier Science
Year
1997
Tongue
English
Weight
708 KB
Volume
46
Category
Article
ISSN
0743-7315

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✦ Synopsis


In this paper we present a data parallel volume rendering algorithm that possesses numerous advantages over prior published solutions. Volume rendering is a three-dimensional graphics rendering algorithm that computes views of sampled medical and simulation data, but has been much slower than other graphics algorithms because of the data set sizes and the computational complexity. Our algorithm uses permutation warping to achieve linear speedup (run time is O(S/P) for P processors when P = O(S/log S) for S = n 3 samples), linear storage (O(S)) for large data sets, arbitrary view directions, and high-quality filters. We derived a new processor permutation assignment of five passes (our prior known solution was eight passes), and a new parallel compositing technique that is essential for scaling linearly on machines that have more processors than view rays to process (P > n 2 ). We show a speedup of 15.7 for a 16k processor over a 1k processor MasPar MP-1 (16 is linear) and two frames/second with a 128 3 volume and trilinear view reconstruction. In addition, we demonstrate volume sizes of 256 3 , constant run time over angles 5 to 75 • , filter quality comparisons, and communication congestion of just 19 to 29%.