28. Real-Time Volume Graphics
Tuesday, Full Day, 8:30 am - 5:30 pm
Room 515B
Level: Intermediate

The tremendous evolution of programmable graphics hardware has made high-quality, real-time volume graphics a reality. In addition to the traditional application of rendering volume data in scientific visualization, interest in applying these techniques for real-time rendering of atmospheric phenomena and participating media such as fire, smoke, and clouds is growing rapidly. This course covers both applications in scientific visualization (for example, medical volume data) and real-time rendering (for example, advanced effects and illumination in computer games), in detail. Attendees learn techniques for harnessing the power of consumer-grade graphics hardware and high-level shading languages for real-time rendering of volumetric data and effects. Beginning with basic texture-based approaches including hardware ray casting, the algorithms are improved and expanded incrementally, covering local and global illumination, scattering, pre-integration, implicit surfaces and non-polygonal isosurfaces, transfer function design, volume animation and deformation, dealing with large volumes, high-quality volume clipping, rendering segmented volumes, higher-order filtering, and non-photorealistic volume rendering. Attendees receive documented source code covering details that are usually omitted in publications.

Prerequisites
Working knowledge of computer graphics and some background in graphics programming APIs like OpenGL or DirectX. Familiarity with basic visualization techniques is helpful but not required.

Intended Audience
Practitioners in both scientific visualization and real-time rendering, including the entertainment community.

Co-Organizers
Markus Hadwiger
VRVis Research Center

Christof Rezk-Salama
Universität Siegen

Lecturers
Klaus Engel
Siemens Corporate Research Princeton

Markus Hadwiger
VRVis Research Center

Joe M. Kniss
University of Utah

Aaron E. Lefohn
University of California, Davis

Christof Rezk-Salama
Universität Siegen

Daniel Weiskopf
Universität Stuttgart

Schedule

8:30	Welcome and Speaker Introduction Introduction to GPU-Based Volume Rendering Rezk-Salama
9:40	GPU-Based Ray Casting Weiskopf
10:15	Break
10:30	Local Illumination for Volumes Hadwiger
10:55	Transfer Function Design: Classification Kniss
11:20	Transfer Function Design: Optical Properties Kniss
11:45	Pre-Integration and High-Quality Filtering Engel
12:15	Lunch
1:45	Atmospheric Effects, Participating Media, and Scattering Kniss
2:30	High-Quality Volume Clipping Weiskopf
3	Non-Photorealistic Volume Rendering and Segmented Volumes Hadwiger
3:30	Break
3:45	Volume Deformation and Animation Rezk-Salama
4:15	Dealing With Large Volumes Engel
4:45	Rendering From Difficult Data Formats Lefohn
5:15	Summary, Questions and Answers All