high performance computing on graphics processing units: hgpu.org

We propose methods to accelerate texture-based volume rendering by skipping invisible voxels. We partition the volume into sub-volumes, each containing voxels with similar properties. Sub-volumes composed of only voxels mapped to empty by the transfer function are skipped. To render the adaptively partitioned sub-volumes in visibility order, we reorganize them into an orthogonal BSP tree. […]

Current graphics hardware can render procedurally shaded objects in real-time. However, due to resource and performance limitations, interactive shaders can not yet approach the complexity of shaders written for film production and software rendering, which may stretch to thousands of lines. These constraints limit not only the complexity of a single shader, but also the […]

Graphics hardware is undergoing a change from fixed-function pipelines to more programmable organizations that resemble general purpose stream processors. In this paper, we show that certain general algorithms, not normally associated with computer graphics, can be mapped to such designs. Specifically, we cast nonlinear optimization as a data streaming process that is well matched to […]

This paper presents a physically-based, visually-realistic interactive cloud simulation. Clouds in our system are modeled using partial differential equations describing fluid motion, thermodynamic processes, buoyant forces, and water phase transitions. We also simulate the interaction of clouds with light, including self-shadowing and light scattering.We implement both simulations — dynamic and radiometric — entirely on programmable […]

We present a case study in the application of graphics hardware to general-purpose numeric computing. Specifically, we describe a system, built on programmable graphics hardware, able to solve a variety of partial differential equations with complex boundary conditions. Many areas of graphics, simulation, and computational science require efficient techniques for solving such equations. Our system […]

We present a modified photon mapping algorithm capable of running entirely on GPUs. Our implementation uses breadth-first photon tracing to distribute photons using the GPU. The photons are stored in a grid-based photon map that is constructed directly on the graphics hardware using one of two methods: the first method is a multipass technique that […]

We present a physically-based flow simulation which supports complex boundary conditions running on the graphics processing unit (GPU). We employ the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM), a relatively new discrete-space discrete-time method, for computing the flow field. To handle complex, moving and deformable boundaries, we propose a generic voxelization algorithm of the boundaries using depth peeling, […]

Nowadays, direct volume rendering via 3D textures has positioned itself as an efficient tool for the display and visual analysis of volumetric scalar fields. It is commonly accepted, that for reasonably sized data sets appropriate quality at interactive rates can be achieved by means of this technique. However, despite these benefits one important issue has […]

Recently, graphics hardware architectures have begun to emphasize versatility, offering rich new ways to programmatically reconfigure the graphics pipeline. In this paper, we explore whether current graphics architectures can be applied to problems where general-purpose vector processors might traditionally be used. We develop a programming framework and apply it to a variety of problems, including […]

Real-time programmable graphics hardware has resource constraints that prevent complex shaders from rendering in a single pass. One way to virtualize these resources is to partition shading computations into multiple passes, each of which satisfies the given constraints. Many such partitions exist for a shader, but it is important to find one that renders efficiently. […]

In this paper, we present a method for real-time visual simulation of diverse dynamic phenomena using programmable graphics hardware. The simulations we implement use an extension of cellular automata known as the coupled map lattice (CML). CML represents the state of a dynamic system as continuous values on a discrete lattice. In our implementation we […]

High performance deformation of volumetric objects is a common problem in computer graphics that has not yet been handled sufficiently. As a supplement to 3D texture based volume rendering, a novel approach is presented, which adaptively subdivides the volume into piecewise linear patches. An appropriate mathematical model based on tri-linear interpolation and its approximations is […]