Eurographics 2006 - Conference Webpage

T7Real-Time Volume Graphics

Date:	Tuesday, 5th September
Time:	9:00-17:30
Location:	Tutorial Room 5 (HS 5)

Organizer: Markus Hadwiger, VRVis Research Center
Speakers: Markus Hadwiger, VRVis Research Center
Klaus Engel, Siemens Corporate Research
Joe M. Kniss, University of Utah
Christof Rezk-Salama, University of Siegen
Daniel Weiskopf, Simon Fraser University
Abstract: A comprehensive overview of real-time volume graphics on consumer graphics hardware. Covered applications include both scientific visualization of volume data, and real-time rendering of atmospheric phenomena and participating media (such as fire, smoke, and clouds). Topics include GPU-ray-casting, illumination, participating media, transfer function design, animation and deformation, and large volumes.
Summary: This full-day tutorial covers high-quality real-time volume rendering techniques for consumer graphics hardware. In addition to the traditional field of scientific visualization, the interest in applying these techniques for visual arts and real-time rendering is steadily growing. This tutorial covers applications for science, visual arts and entertainment, such as medical visualization, visual effects and computer games. Participants will learn techniques for harnessing the power of consumer graphics hardware and high-level shading languages for real-time rendering of volumetric data and effects. Beginning with a short theoretical part, the basic texture-based approaches are explained. These basic algorithms are improved and expanded incrementally throughout the tutorial. Special attention is paid to latest developments in GPU ray casting. We will cover local and global illumination, scattering, and participating media. GPU optimization techniques are explained in detail, such as pre-integration, space leaping, occlusion queries, early ray termination and levelof- detail. We will show efficient techniques for clipping and voxelization, and for rendering implicit surfaces. Participants will learn to deal with large volume data, segmented volumes and to apply higher-order filtering, and non-photorealistic techniques to improve image quality. Further presentations cover multi-dimensional classification and transfer function design, as well as techniques for volumetric modeling, animation and deformation. Participants are provided with code samples covering important implementation details usually omitted in publications.

Speakers' Background

Klaus Engel: Klaus Engel is a researcher for Siemens Corporate Research, Inc. in Princeton/NJ. He received a PhD from the University of Stuttgart in 2002 and a Diplom (Masters) of computer science from the University of Erlangen in 1997. He has presented the results of his research at international conferences and in journals, including IEEE Visualization, Visualization Symposium, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics and Graphics Hardware. In 2000 and 2001, his papers Interactive Volume Rendering on Standard PC Graphics Hardware Using Multi-Textures and Multi-Stage Rasterization and "High- Quality Pre-Integrated Volume Rendering Using Hardware- Accelerated Pixel Shading" have won the best paper awards at the SIGGRAPH/Eurographics Workshop on Graphics Hardware. Klaus has regularly taught courses and seminars on computer graphics, visualization and computer games algorithms. In his PhD thesis he investigated "Strategies and Algorithms for Distributed Volume-Visualization on Different Graphics-Hardware Architectures".
Markus Hadwiger: arkus Hadwiger is a senior researcher in the Medical Visualization department at the VRVis Research Center in Vienna, Austria. He received a PhD degree in computer science from the Vienna University of Technology in 2004, concentrating on high quality real-time volume rendering and texture filtering with graphics hardware. He is regularly teaching courses and seminars on computer graphics, visualization, and game programming, including courses at the annual SIGGRAPH conference, and tutorials at IEEE Visualization and Eurographics. Before concentrating on scientific visualization, he was working in the area of computer games and interactive entertainment.
Joe M. Kniss: Joe recently finished his Ph.D. in computer science at the Unversity of Utahs School of Computing. As a member of the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, he has done research in the areas of volume rendering, volume light transport, human-computer interaction, and image processing. His Ph.D. work was supported by the Department of Energy High-Performance Computer Science Graduate Fellowship. In his free time, Joe enjoys snowboarding, skateboarding, music, carpentry, and art.
Christof Rezk-Salama: Christof Rezk Salama is an assistant professor at the Computer Graphics and Multimedia Group of the University of Siegen, Germany. Before that he was a research engineer at Siemens Medical Solutions. He has received a PhD at the Computer Graphics Group in Erlangen in 2002 as a scholarship holder at the graduate college "3D Image Analysis and Synthesis". His research interests include scientific visualization, GPU programming, real-time rendering, and computer animation. He is regularly holding lectures and teaching courses and seminars on computer graphics, scientific visualization, character animation and graphics programming. He has gained practical experience in applying computer graphics to several scientific projects in medicine, geology and archaeology. He is member of ACM SIGGRAPH, and the Gesellschaft für Informatik.
Daniel Weiskopf: DanielWeiskopf is an Assistant Professor of Computing Science and a co-director of the Graphics, Usability, and Visualization Lab (GrUVi) at Simon Fraser University, Canada. His research interests include scientific visualization, GPU methods, real-time computer graphics, mixed realities, as well as special and general relativity. He received an MS in Physics and a PhD in Physics, both from the University of Tübingen, Germany. He is regularly teaching courses and seminars on computer graphics and visualization, including courses at the annual SIGGRAPH conference, and tutorials at IEEE Visualization and Eurographics. He did his Habilitation in Computer Science at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He is member of the IEEE Computer Society, ACM SIGGRAPH, and the Gesellschaft für Informatik.