EnSight Volume Visualization

Abstract

Volume visualization is a computationally intensive image-rendering technique that has been around since the 1970s; however, the advent of modern parallel computing architecture and high-speed graphics cards now makes this technique an attractive alternative to traditional surface-based methods. The resulting image using the volume visualization algorithm can best be described as an opaque cloud of data that allow the viewer to see millions or billions of computational values simultaneously. There are numerous algorithms available to perform volume rendering, and this report focuses on a specific implementation developed by Computational Engineering, Inc. the developers of EnSight, which is a commonly used general-purpose visualization package used at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL). EnSight provides an extendable graphical user interface that supports client-server access to data calculated on high-performance computing systems supported by ARL and the Department of Defense. The volume-rendering technique implemented by EnSight was applied to ARL datasets, and the methodology and results are presented in this report.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 2012
Accession Number
ADA579690

Entities

People

  • Richard C. Angelini

Organizations

  • United States Army Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Algorithms
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Data Analysis
  • Data Visualization
  • Department Of Defense
  • Engineering
  • Graphical User Interface
  • Graphics
  • High Performance Computing
  • Military Research
  • Parallel Computing
  • Three Dimensional
  • User Interface
  • Visualizations

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Atmospheric Remote Sensing.
  • Database Systems and Applications
  • Distributed Systems and Data Platform Development