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A Distributed Data Implementation of the Perspective Shear-Warp Volume Rendering Algorithm for Visualisation of Large Astronomical Cubes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2013

Brett Beeson ,
David G. Barnes  and
Paul D. Bourke
Brett Beeson
Affiliation:
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, PO Box 218, Hawthorn, Australia, 3122
David G. Barnes
Affiliation:
School of Physics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia, 3010. barnesd@unimelb.edu.au
Paul D. Bourke
Affiliation:
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, PO Box 218, Hawthorn, Australia, 3122
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Abstract

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We describe the first distributed data implementation of the perspective shear-warp volume rendering algorithm and explore its applications to large astronomical data cubes and simulation realisations. Our system distributes sub-volumes of 3-dimensional images to leaf nodes of a Beowulf-class cluster, where the rendering takes place. Junction nodes composite the sub-volume renderings together and pass the combined images upwards for further compositing or display. We demonstrate that our system out-performs other software solutions and can render a 'worst-case' 512 × 512 × 512 data volume in less than four seconds using 16 rendering and 15 compositing nodes. Our system also performs very well compared with much more expensive hardware systems. With appropriate commodity hardware, such as Swinburne's Virtual Reality Theatre or a 3Dlabs Wildcat graphics card, stereoscopic display is possible.

Keywords

methods: data analysistechniques: image processingsurveys
Type
Research Article
Information
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , 2003 , pp. 300 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 2003

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