Optimizing rendering is one of the greatest challenges faced by game developers. Most game engines make use of hardware rendering which uses technology specifically built for rendering. Before such hardware existed, game developers had to rely on the CPU to render their games. This is known as software rendering. Software rendering is not commonly used nowadays but has been seen in cases such as a backup for when the end users machine does not support the hardware based renderer of the application. Since the CPU is not purposely built for rendering, unlike the GPU, the developer has to perform optimizations to make the renderer more efficient in terms of speed. In this thesis, we present an approach which is a subset of parallel programming called Single Instruction, Multiple Data. This technique operates on vector based registers which means operations can be performed on multiple pieces of data at once. This is applied to an already built game engine in order to optimize its rendering. The results show a speed-up of 90.5% and a framerate increase from 30 frames per second to 133 frames per second within the rendering routine.

[pt] Este trabalho propõe uma técnica chamada de Opacidade 3D para visualização volumétrica de dados sísmicos. O grande desafio da visualização volumétrica é definir uma função de transferência multidimensional que melhor se adapte ao dado que se deseja visualizar. Será apresentada uma função de transferência que utiliza três tabelas de cores 1D para compor a uma tabela de cores 3D. O trabalho de Silva[30] sobre opacidade 2D serviu de motivação para o desenvolvimento da técnica de opacidade 3D e ao longo deste trabalho são feitas comparações entre ambos. São apresentados exemplos reproduzindo a opacidade 2D e outros mostrando como a técnica proposta pode auxiliar no estudo de determinados eventos sísmicos. / [en] This work proposes a 3D opacity technique for the volume rendering of seismic data. The greater challenge of volume rendering is to define a multidimensional transfer function better adapted to the data to be visualized. This work presents a transfer function that uses three 1D color tables to compose a 3D color table. The work from Silva[30] about 2D opacity has served as a motivation for the development of the 3D opacity technique and, hence, some comparisons are made between them. Some examples are presented in order to reproduce the 2D opacity technique and to show how the proposed technique can improve the visualization of specific seismic events.

[pt] Este trabalho apresenta uma nova proposta para a implementação de um sistema de partículas em GPU. A simulação é feita inteiramente no processador gráfico, o que elimina a transferência de dados entre a CPU e a GPU. O sistema proposto é capaz de simular partículas de diferentes diâmetros em ambientes confinados, incluindo tratamento de colisão entre partículas, restrições e colisão de partículas com o ambiente. A detecção de colisão entre as partículas é feita com base numa estrutura de subdivisão do espaço em uma grade regular de células. Em GPUs atuais, o sistema é capaz de simular um milhão de partículas a taxas iterativas. Também é proposto um método flexível para modelar os obstáculos que compõe o ambiente, permitindo a criação de diferentes cenas sem necessidade de re-codificação de shaders. O sistema é composto por diferentes shaders, responsáveis por cada etapa da simulação. Um programa de fragmentos é responsável por fazer a atualização da posição das partículas. Em seguida, um programa de vértices faz a montagem da estrutura de subdivisão espacial. As etapas seguintes (detecção e tratamento de colisão e de restrições) são efetuadas apenas por programas de fragmentos usando a técnica de relaxação. / [en] This work presents a new proposal for the implementation of a GPU-based particle system. The simulation runs entirely on the graphic processor, thus eliminating data transfer between the CPU and the GPU. The proposed system is able to simulate particles with different diameters in confined environments, including support for inter-particle collisions, constraints, and particle-obstacle collisions. Inter-particle collision detection is accomplished by subdividing the space into a regular grid of cells. On modern graphics cards, the system is able to simulate up to one million particles at interactive rate. It is also proposed a flexible approach for modeling the obstacles that define the environment, allowing the creation of different scenes without relying on shader re-coding. The system is divided in different shaders responsible for each stage of the simulation. One fragment program is responsible to advance the particles in time. After that a vertex program builds the space subdivision structure. The following stages (collision detection and response, and constraint solving) are performed only by fragment programs using the relaxation method.

Numerical simulations are often used in computer graphics to capture the effects of natural phenomena such as fire, water and smoke. However, simulating large-scale events in this way, with the details needed for feature film, poses serious problems. Grid-based simulations at resolutions sufficient to incorporate small-scale details would be costly and use large amounts of memory, and likewise for particle based techniques. To overcome these problems, a new framework for simulation and rendering of gaseous phenomena is presented in this thesis. It makes use of a combination of different existing concepts for such phenomena to resolve many of the issues in using them separately, and the result is a potent method for high-detailed simulation and rendering at low cost. The developed method utilizes a slice refinement technique, where a coarse particle input is transformed into a set of two-dimensional view-aligned slices, which are simulated at high resolution. These slices are subsequently used in a rendering framework accounting for light scattering behaviors in participating media to achieve a final highly detailed volume rendering outcome. However,the transformations from three to two dimensions and back easily introduces visible artifacts, so a number of techniques have been considered to overcome these problems, where e.g. a turbulence function is used in the final volume density function to break up possible interpolation artifacts.

Direct volume rendering techniques for scalar fields make use of transfer functions to map optical properties to the field; the field can subsequently be visualized through the drawing of isosurfaces in the volume spanned by the field. The utility of this approach is limited in the case of nested or clustered structures with the same isovalue and further does not easily allow for quantitative measurements of the visualized data. This report explores the use of topological structures (contour trees and Morse-Smale complexes) as an augmentation of traditional direct volume rendering and describes a fully functional implementation in the visualization software Inviwo. The implementation is evaluated through analysis of valency charge density fields in cubic MgO2 and FeO2. It is demonstrated that both contour trees and Morse-Smale complexes provide information and segmentation of initial volume data that allows for selective transfer function application (based on the segmentation), on-demand information on critical points and an overview of the scalar field through a topological representation embedded in the visualized volume. Analysis of the provided charge density fields show that contour trees generate physically irrelevant artefacts and thus are ill-suited for analysing highly symmetric data. On the other hand, the Morse-Smale complex approach is used to extract information of the bond strength of O-O contacts in MgO2 and FeO2 consistent with previous findings, as well as information on electronic charge configuration consistent with previous findings on MgO2. In the case of FeO2, the electronic configuration results are not consistent. This is speculated to be due to a combination of factors, most notably the lack of periodic boundary conditions in the implementation and the more complicated structure of FeO2.   In light of the partially accurate data analysis, as well as the added functionality and utility provided to visualization software, this approach to topology-guided visualization is considered promising and worthy of further study and/or development.

No Brasil, a quase totalidade dos edifícios habitacionais empregam revestimentos de argamassa em suas fachadas. Este revestimento vem passando por alterações significativas ao longo do tempo, dentre as quais se destaca a substituição do lançamento manual de argamassas pela projeção, por meio de equipamentos mecânicos, em especial a aplicação mecanizada contínua, com bombas helicoidais. Acredita-se que este sistema, por possibilitar o fluxo contínuo na etapa de aplicação e promover a diminuição da interferência das habilidades dos operários durante a execução, permite alcançar maior produtividade e melhorar a qualidade dos revestimentos, mas as diferentes técnicas de execução empregadas para a produção dos revestimentos de argamassa aplicados com projeção mecânica contínua ainda não foram avaliadas sistemicamente quanto à sua interferência no comportamento destes revestimentos. Sendo assim, o objetivo deste trabalho é avaliar a influência de algumas variáveis empregadas na execução dos revestimentos de fachada de argamassa aplicados com projeção mecânica contínua, no seu comportamento, mais especificamente na adesão inicial, fissuração e aderência. Estas variáveis foram selecionadas através de um levantamento bibliográfico e aplicadas a um estudo experimental, no qual foram executados vinte e sete painéis de revestimento, para verificação da influência das variáveis no comportamento destes revestimentos. Ao final, foram apresentados e avaliados os resultados obtidos, por meio de análises qualitativas (adesão inicial e fissuração) e quantitativas (no caso de resistência de aderência). Os resultados obtidos permitiram concluir que, apesar de haver um acréscimo significativo da resistência de aderência à tração com a projeção mecânica contínua da argamassa, em comparação à aplicação manual, o teor de água das argamassas, associado à condição de umidade do substrato e ao tempo entre demãos, e as técnicas de acabamento da superfície do revestimento podem influenciar significativamente o comportamento dos revestimentos, aumentando ou diminuindo a resistência de aderência. / In Brazil, almost all residential buildings make use of exterior cement-based rendering. This rendering has been going through significant changes over time, among which the substitution of hand application of the mortar by mechanical methods of application, in particular the wet spraying method using rotor type machines. It is believed that this system, by allowing the continuous flow in the application step and reducing user skill interference, promotes greater productivity and helps to increase the quality of the rendering, but the different execution techniques employed in its production still havent been systematically evaluated regarding their interference in the renderings behavior. Hence, the objective of this study is to evaluate the influence of some variables related to the execution techniques of exterior cement-based rendering applied with the wet spraying method using rotor type machines on their behavior, more specifically on initial bonding, cracking and adhesion. These variables were selected through bibliographic data gathering, and then applied to an experimental study on which twenty seven rendering panels were executed for the verification of the influence of the variables on their behavior. The results were presented and evaluated by qualitative (in the case of initial bond and cracking) and quantitative analyses (in the case of adhesion). The results obtained allowed to conclude that, despite a significant increase in adhesion with the mechanical projection of the mortar compared to manual application, the water content of the mortar, associated with substrate moisture condition and time between coatings, as well as the techniques of surface finishing of the coating may affect the rendering quality by increasing or decreasing the adhesion strengths.

[pt] A principal motivação para realização deste trabalho é verificar a viabilidade de uso da técnica de mapeamento de textura com relevo em aplicações que exijam interação em tempo real como, por exemplo, jogos eletrônicos. Esta dissertação apresenta uma extensão ao mapeamento de textura com relevo que suporta a representação de efeitos dependentes do ponto de vista e da direção de iluminação, que antes não eram possíveis de serem representados. Além disso, propõe uma forma de paralelizar tal mapeamento entre CPU e GPU (Graphic Processor Unit), utilizando-se para isto da tecnologia de Hyper-Threading. Nesta nova abordagem, cada amostra pertencente a uma textura com relevo é aumentada para incluir três valores escalares representando o vetor normal à superfície reproduzida pela textura. Desta forma, o cálculo de iluminação pode ser efetuado por pixel. A paralelização do processo de mapeamento de textura com relevo demonstra-se favorável uma vez que são obtidos ganhos de até 37% em relação ao tempo de processamento da abordagem convencional. / [en] The main motivation for this work is to verify the feasibility of using relief texture mapping in high-demand real-time applications, such as computer games. This dissertation presents an extension to relief texture mapping that supports the representation of effects that depend of viewpoint and illumination direction, which could not be represented with previous techniques. Moreover, it proposes a way to parallelize relief texture mapping between CPU and GPU, using Hyper-Threading technology. In this new approach, each element that belongs to a relief texture is augmented to include three scalar values representing the normal vector of the reproduced surface. So, the illumination can be calculated per pixel. In the proposed approach, the parallelization of the relief texture mapping represents an acceleration of up to 37% when compared to conventional techniques.

La synthèse de textures est une technique qui génère une texture automatiquement grâce à un algorithme. Cette technique permet de réduire le temps de création des textures et le coût mémoire étant donné que seuls les algorithmes et leurs paramètres ont besoin d'être stockés. Cependant, des difficultés sont souvent rencontrées lors de l'utilisation des textures synthétisées. D'abord, les paramètres de ces textures sont difficiles à manipuler. Ensuite, l'algorithme de synthèse génère souvent les textures sous forme de tableaux de pixels nécessitant beaucoup de mémoire. Pour aborder ces difficultés, nous proposons les approches suivantes : pour améliorer la visualisation de l'espace des textures synthétisées, nous proposons de construire un résumé de cet espace: une seule image statique qui résume, dans un espace limité de pixels, les apparences produites par un synthétiseur donné. De plus, pour améliorer la sélection de paramètres, nous augmentons les curseurs qui contrôlent les paramètres avec des bandes visuelles révélant les changements qui se produisent quand l'utilisateur manipule les curseurs. Pour permettre à l'utilisateur d'interagir de manière interactive avec les résumés visuels, nous nous reposons sur un algorithme de synthèse par patch permettant de générer les textures de façon rapide grâce à une implémentation parallèle sur le processeur graphique. Au lieu de générer le résultat de ce synthétiseur sous forme d'un tableau de pixels, nous représentons le résultat dans une structure compacte et nous utilisons une méthode rapide permettant de lire des pixels directement à partir de cette structure / Texture synthesis is a technique that algorithmically generates textures at rendering time. The automatic synthesis reduces authoring time and memory requirements since only the algorithm and its parameters need to be stored or transferred. However, two difficulties often arise when using texture synthesis: First, the visualization and parameters selection of synthesized textures are difficult. Second, most synthesizers generate textures in a bitmap format leading to high memory usage. To address these difficulties we propose the following approaches: First, to improve the visualization of synthesized textures we propose the idea of a procedural texture preview: A single static image summarizing in a limited pixel space the appearances produced by a given synthesizer. The main challenge is to ensure that most appearances are visible, are allotted a similar pixel area, and are ordered in a smooth manner throughout the preview. Furthermore, to improve parameters selection we augment sliders controlling parameters with visual previews revealing the changes that will be introduced upon manipulation. Second, to allow user interactions with these visual previews we rely on a fast patch-based synthesizer. This synthesizer achieves a high degree of parallelism and is implemented entirely on the GPU. Finally, rather than generating the output of the synthesizer as a bitmap texture we encode the result in a compact representation and allow to decoding texels from this representation during rendering

Les travaux de cette thèse s'inscrivent dans le cadre du projet PIA2 3DNeuroSecure. Ce dernier vise à proposer un système collaboratif de navigation multi-échelle interactive dans des données visuelles massives (Visual Big Data) ayant pour cadre applicatif l'imagerie biomédicale 3D ultra-haute résolution (ordre du micron) possiblement multi-modale. En outre, ce système devra être capable d'intégrer divers traitements et/ou annotations (tags) au travers de ressources HPC distantes. Toutes ces opérations doivent être envisagées sans possibilité de stockage complet en mémoire (techniques out-of-core : structures pyramidales, tuilées, … avec ou sans compression …). La volumétrie des données images envisagées (Visual Big Data) induit par ailleurs le découplage des lieux de capture/imagerie/génération (histologie, confocal, imageurs médicaux variés, simulation …), de ceux de stockage et calcul haute performance (data center) mais aussi de ceux de manipulation des données acquises (divers périphériques connectés, mobiles ou non, tablette, PC, mur d’images, salle de RV …). La visualisation restituée en streaming à l’usager sera adaptée à son périphérique, tant en termes de résolution (Full HD à GigaPixel) que de rendu 3D (« à plat » classique, en relief stéréoscopique à lunettes, en relief autostéréoscopique sans lunettes). L'ensemble de ces développements pris en charge par le CReSTIC avec l'appui de la MaSCA (Maison de la Simulation de Champagne-Ardenne) se résument donc par : - la définition et la mise en oeuvre des structures de données adaptées à la visualisation out-of-core des visual big data (VBD) ciblées - l’adaptation des traitements spécifiques des partenaires comme des rendus 3D interactifs à ces nouvelles structures de données - les choix techniques d’architecture pour le HPC et la virtualisation de l’application de navigation pour profiter au mieux des ressources du datacanter local ROMEO. Le rendu relief avec ou sans lunettes, avec ou sans compression du flux vidéo relief associé seront opérés au niveau du logiciel MINT de l’URCA qui servira de support de développement. / These thesis studies are part of the PIA2 project 3DNeuroSecure. This one aims to provide a collaborative system of interactive multi-scale navigation within visual big data (VDB) with ultra-high definition (tera-voxels), potentially multimodal, 3D biomedical imaging as application framework. In addition, this system will be able to integrate a variety of processing and/or annotations (tags) through remote HPC resources. All of these treatments must be possible in an out-of-core context. Because of the visual big data, we have to decoupled the location of acquisition from ones of storage and high performance computation and from ones for the manipulation of the data (various connected devices, mobile or not, smartphone, PC, large display wall, virtual reality room ...). The streaming visualization will be adapted to the user device in terms of both resolution (Full HD to GigaPixel) and 3D rendering (classic rendering on 2D screens, stereoscopic with glasses or autostereoscopic without glasses). All these developments supported by the CReSTIC with the support of MaSCA (Maison de la Simulation de Champagne-Ardenne) can therefore be summarized as: - the definition and implementation of the data structures adapted to the out-of-core visualization of the targeted visual big data. - the adaptation of the specific treatments partners, like interactive 3D rendering, to these new data structures. - the technical architecture choices for the HPC and the virtualization of the navigation software application, to take advantage of "ROMEO", the local datacenter. The auto-/stereoscopic rendering with or without glasses will be operated within the MINT software of the "université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne".

The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Optical Line Scan (OLS) instruments collect data from an altitude of approximately 830km above the surface of the Earth. The night light data from these instruments has been shown to correlate by lit area with national level Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and to correlate with GDP at the State level by total radiance value. Very strong correlation is found between the night light data at a new, larger scale, the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) within the state of Florida. Additional statistical analysis was performed to determine which industries within each MSA explain the greatest amount of variance in the night light data. Industrial variables exhibited strong multi-collinearity. It is therefore impossible to determine which industries explain the greatest variance in the night light image data. / by Dolores Jane Forbes. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.