Remote Interactive Direct Volume Rendering of AMR Data

We describe a framework for direct volume rendering (DVR) of adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) data that operates directly on the hierarchical AMR grid structure, without the need to resample data onto a single uniform rectilinear grid. The framework can be used for a range of renderers optimized for particular hardware architectures: a hardwareassisted renderer for single-processor graphics workstations, a parallel hardware-assisted renderer for clusters of graphics workstations or multi-CPU graphics workstations, and a massively parallel software-only renderer for supercomputers. It is also possible to use the framework for distributed rendering to visualize data sets only accessible by remote rendering servers. By exploiting the multiresolution structure of AMR data, the hardware-assisted renderers can render large data sets at interactive rates, even if data is stored remotely. CR Categories: K.6.1 [Management of Computing and Information Systems]: Project and People Management— Life Cycle