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Item Enhancing the Interactive Visualization of Procedurally Encoded Multifield Data with Ellipsoidal Basis Functions(The Eurographics Association and Blackwell Publishing, Inc, 2006) Jang, Yun; Botchen, Ralf P.; Lauser, Andreas; Ebert, David S.; Gaither, Kelly P.; Ertl, ThomasFunctional approximation of scattered data is a popular technique for compactly representing various types of datasets in computer graphics, including surface, volume, and vector datasets. Typically, sums of Gaussians or similar radial basis functions are used in the functional approximation and PC graphics hardware is used to quickly evaluate and render these datasets. Previously, researchers presented techniques for spatially-limited spherical Gaussian radial basis function encoding and visualization of volumetric scalar, vector, and multifield datasets. While truncated radially symmetric basis functions are quick to evaluate and simple for encoding optimization, they are not the most appropriate choice for data that is not radially symmetric and are especially problematic for representing linear, planar, and many non-spherical structures. Therefore, we have developed a volumetric approximation and visualization system using ellipsoidal Gaussian functions which provides greater compression, and visually more accurate encodings of volumetric scattered datasets. In this paper, we extend previous work to use ellipsoidal Gaussians as basis functions, create a rendering system to adapt these basis functions to graphics hardware rendering, and evaluate the encoding effectiveness and performance for both spherical Gaussians and ellipsoidal Gaussians.Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACMCCS): I.3.3 [Computer Graphics]: Scientific Visualization, Ellipsoidal Basis Functions, Functional Approximation, Texture AdvectionItem A Multiscale Approach to Integrated Volume Segmentation and Rendering(Blackwell Publishers Ltd and the Eurographics Association, 1997) Westermann, Rudiger; Ertl, ThomasA number of techniques have been proposed for rendering volumetric scalar data sets. Techniques have also been proposed for analyzing the three dimensional information contents of the underlying domain, but traditionally the data analysis part is left as a post-processing step which only involves the rendered two dimensional images. In this paper, we describe a visualization method for scalar volume data which integrates explicit knowledge of the underlying domain into the rendering process. The key of this approach lies in a hierarchical description of the discrete signal, which is decomposed into a sequence of multiscale representations. We describe a technique for the analysis of structures within the data. This allows for the segmentation and classification of the relevant features and can be used to improve their visual sensation. We also address the problem of accelerating the final rendering pass by integrating the extracted object space information into the ray traversal process.Item Visual Analysis of Two‐Phase Flow Displacement Processes in Porous Media(© 2022 Eurographics ‐ The European Association for Computer Graphics and John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2022) Frey, Steffen; Scheller, Stefan; Karadimitriou, Nikolaos; Lee, Dongwon; Reina, Guido; Steeb, Holger; Ertl, Thomas; Hauser, Helwig and Alliez, PierreWe developed a new visualization approach to gain a better understanding of the displacement of one fluid phase by another in porous media. This is based on a recent experimental parameter study with varying capillary numbers and viscosity ratios. We analyse the temporal evolution of characteristic values in this two‐phase flow scenario and discuss how to directly compare experiments across different temporal scales. To enable spatio‐temporal analysis, we introduce a new abstract visual representation showing which paths through the porous medium were occupied and for how long. These transport networks allow to assess the impact of different acting forces and they are designed to yield expressive comparability and linking to the experimental parameter space both supported by additional visual cues. This joint work of porous media experts and visualization researchers yields new insights regarding two‐phase flow on the microscale, and our visualization approach contributes towards the overarching goal of the domain scientists to characterize porous media flow based on capillary numbers and viscosity ratios.Item GPU-Based Nonlinear Ray Tracing(The Eurographics Association and Blackwell Publishing, Inc, 2004) Weiskopf, Daniel; Schafhitzel, Tobias; Ertl, ThomasIn this paper, we present a mapping of nonlinear ray tracing to the GPU which avoids any data transfer back to main memory. The rendering process consists of the following parts: ray setup according to the camera parameters, ray integration, ray-object intersection, and local illumination. Bent rays are approximated by polygonal lines that are represented by textures. Ray integration is based on an iterative numerical solution of ordinary differential equations whose initial values are determined during ray setup. To improve the rendering performance, we propose acceleration techniques such as early ray termination and adaptive ray integration. Finally, we discuss a variety of applications that range from the visualization of dynamical systems to the general relativistic visualization in astrophysics and the rendering of the continuous refraction in media with varying density.Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.3 [Computer Graphics]: Picture/Image Generation I.3.7 [Computer Graphics]: Three-Dimensional Graphics and RealismItem Interactive High-Quality Visualization of Higher-Order Finite Elements(The Eurographics Association and Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2010) Ueffinger, Markus; Frey, Steffen; Ertl, ThomasHigher-order finite element methods have emerged as an important discretization scheme for simulation. They are increasingly used in contemporary numerical solvers, generating a new class of data that must be analyzed by scientists and engineers. Currently available visualization tools for this type of data are either batch oriented or limited to certain cell types and polynomial degrees. Other approaches approximate higher-order data by resampling resulting in trade-offs in interactivity and quality. To overcome these limitations, we have developed a distributed visualization system which allows for interactive exploration of non-conforming unstructured grids, resulting from space-time discontinuous Galerkin simulations, in which each cell has its own higher-order polynomial solution. Our system employs GPU-based raycasting for direct volume rendering of complex grids which feature non-convex, curvilinear cells with varying polynomial degree. Frequency-based adaptive sampling accounts for the high variations along rays. For distribution across a GPU cluster, the initial object-space partitioning is determined by cell characteristics like the polynomial degree and is adapted at runtime by a load balancing mechanism. The performance and utility of our system is evaluated for different aeroacoustic simulations involving the propagation of shock fronts.Item Coherent Culling and Shading for Large Molecular Dynamics Visualization(The Eurographics Association and Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2010) Grottel, Sebastian; Reina, Guido; Dachsbacher, Carsten; Ertl, Thomas; G. Melancon, T. Munzner, and D. WeiskopfMolecular dynamics simulations are a principal tool for studying molecular systems. Such simulations are used to investigate molecular structure, dynamics, and thermodynamical properties, as well as a replacement for, or complement to, costly and dangerous experiments. With the increasing availability of computational power the resulting data sets are becoming increasingly larger, and benchmarks indicate that the interactive visualization on desktop computers poses a challenge when rendering substantially more than millions of glyphs. Trading visual quality for rendering performance is a common approach when interactivity has to be guaranteed. In this paper we address both problems and present a method for high-quality visualization of massive molecular dynamics data sets. We employ several optimization strategies on different levels of granularity, such as data quantization, data caching in video memory, and a two-level occlusion culling strategy: coarse culling via hardware occlusion queries and a vertex-level culling using maximum depth mipmaps. To ensure optimal image quality we employ GPU raycasting and deferred shading with smooth normal vector generation. We demonstrate that our method allows us to interactively render data sets containing tens of millions of high-quality glyphs.Item Progressive Iso-Surface Extraction from Hierarchical 3D Meshes(Blackwell Publishers Ltd and the Eurographics Association, 1998) Grosso, Roberto; Ertl, ThomasA multiresolution data decomposition offers a fundamental framework supporting compression, progressive transmission, and level-of-detail (LOD) control for large two or three dimensional data sets discretized on complex meshes. In this paper we extend a previously presented algorithm for 3D mesh reduction for volume data based on multilevel finite element approximations in two ways. First, we present efficient data structures which allow to incrementally construct approximations of the volume data at lower or higher resolutions at interactive rates. An abstract description of the mesh hierarchy in terms of a coarse base mesh and a set of integer records offers a high compression potential which is essential for an efficient storage and a progressive network transmission. Based on this mesh hierarchy we then develop a new progressive iso-surface extraction algorithm. For a given iso-value, the corresponding iso-surface can be computed at different levels of resolution. Changing to a higher or coarser resolution will update the surface only in those regions where the volume data is being refined or coarsened. Our approach allows to interactively visualize very large scalar fields like medical data sets, whereas the conventional algorithms would have required at least an order of magnitude more resources.Item Topology-Preserving lambda_2-based Vortex Core Line Detection for Flow Visualization(The Eurographics Association and Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2008) Schafhitzel, Tobias; Vollrath, Joachim E.; Gois, Joao P.; Weiskopf, Daniel; Castelo, Antonio; Ertl, Thomas; A. Vilanova, A. Telea, G. Scheuermann, and T. MoellerWe propose a novel vortex core line extraction method based on the lambda_2 vortex region criterion in order to improve the detection of vortex features for 3D flow visualization. The core line is defined as a curve that connects lambda_2 minima restricted to planes that are perpendicular to the core line. The basic algorithm consists of the following stages: (1) lambda_2 field construction and isosurface extraction; (2) computation of the curve skeleton of the lambda_2 isosurface to build an initial prediction for the core line; (3) correction of the locations of the prediction by searching for lambda_2 minima on planes perpendicular to the core line. In particular, we consider the topology of the vortex core lines, guaranteeing the same topology as the initial curve skeleton. Furthermore, we propose a geometry-guided definition of vortex bifurcation, which represents the split of one core line into two parts. Finally, we introduce a user-guided approach in order to narrow down vortical regions taking into account the graph of lambda_2 along the computed vortex core line. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method by comparing our results to previous core line detection methods with both simulated and experimental data; in particular, we show robustness of our method for noise-affected data.Item Visual Abstractions of Solvent Pathlines near Protein Cavities(The Eurographics Association and Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2008) Bidmon, Katrin; Grottel, Sebastian; Bös, Fabian; Pleiss, Jürgen; Ertl, Thomas; A. Vilanova, A. Telea, G. Scheuermann, and T. MoellerWater is known to play a crucial role in protein structure, flexibility and activity. The use of molecular dynamics simulations allows detailed studies of complex protein-solvent interactions. Cluster analysis and density-based approaches have been successfully used for the identification and analysis of conserved water molecules and hydration patterns of proteins. However, appropriate tools for analysing long-time molecular dynamics simulations with respect to tracking and visualising the paths of solvent molecules are lacking. Our method focuses on visualising the solvent paths entering and leaving cavities of the protein and allows to study the route and dynamics of the exchange of tightly bound internal water molecules with the bulk solvent. The proposed visualisation also represents dynamic properties such as direction and velocity in the solvent. Especially, by clustering similar pathlines with respect to designated properties the visualisation can be abstracted to represent the principal paths of solvent molecules through the cavities. Its application in the analysis of long-time scale molecular dynamics simulations not only confirmed conjectures based on previous manual observations made by chance, but also led to novel insights into the dynamical and structural role of water molecules and its interplay with protein structure.Item Interactive Visualization with Programmable Graphics Hardware(Blackwell Publishers, Inc and the Eurographics Association, 2002) Ertl, ThomasOne of the main scientific goals of visualization is the development of algorithms and appropriate data models which facilitate interactive visual analysis and direct manipulation of the increasingly large data sets which result from simulations running on massive parallel computer systems, from measurements employing fast high-resolution sensors, or from large databases and hierarchical information spaces.This task can only be achieved with the optimization of all stages of the visualization pipeline: filtering, compression, and feature extraction of the raw data sets, adaptive visualization mappings which allow the users to choose between speed and accuracy, and exploiting new graphics hardware features for fast and high-quality rendering. The recent introduction of advanced programmability in widely available graphics hardware has already led to impressive progress in the area of volume visualization. However, besides the acceleration of the final rendering, flexible graphics hardware is increasingly being used also for the mapping and filtering stages of the visualization pipeline, thus giving rise to new levels of interactivity in visualization applications. The talk will present recent results of applying programmable graphics hardware in various visualization algorithms covering volume data, flow data, terrains, NPR rendering, and distributed and remote applications.
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