Dynamic Shader Generation for GPU-Based Multi-Volume Ray Casting

Author

Rößler, Friedemann ; Botchen, Ralf P. ; Ertl, Thomas

Author_Institution

Univ. Stuttgart, Stuttgart

Volume

28

Issue

5

fYear

2008

Firstpage

66

Lastpage

77

Abstract

Direct volume rendering has become a powerful, widely-used technique for visualizing 3D volumetric data in many fields. Real-time performance for rendering multiple intersecting volumetric objects requires the speed and flexibility of modern GPUs. This requirement has restricted programming of the necessary shaders to GPU experts only. A visualization system that dynamically generates GPU shaders for multi-volume ray casting from a user-definable abstract render graph overcomes this limitation.

Keywords

computer graphic equipment; data visualisation; graph theory; ray tracing; rendering (computer graphics); 3D volumetric data visualization; GPU-based multivolume ray casting; direct volume rendering; dynamic shader generation; multiple intersecting volumetric object rendering; user-definable abstract render graph; Casting; Data analysis; Data visualization; Graphics; Hardware; Image sampling; Layout; Pixel; Rendering (computer graphics); Transfer functions; GPU-based rendering; dynamic shader generation; medical visualization; multi-volume rendering; ray casting; volume illustration; volume visualization; Algorithms; Computer Graphics; Computer Simulation; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; Imaging, Three-Dimensional; Models, Theoretical; User-Computer Interface;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computer Graphics and Applications, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0272-1716

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MCG.2008.96

Filename

4607317