Kenneth Dean Moreland
Date: July 2004
In this dissertation, I describe an unstructured grid volume renderer. The renderer is interactive, yet it can produce artifact free images that traditionally would take minutes to render. I employ a projective technique that takes advantage of the expanded programmability of the latest 3D graphics hardware. I analyze also an optical model commonly used for scientific volume rendering and derive new approximations that are exceptionally accurate but computationally feasible in real time. I demonstrate a system that can accurately produce a volume rendering of an unstructured grid with any piecewise linear transfer function. Furthermore, my algorithm is capable of rendering over 300 thousand tetrahedra per second yet is not limited by pre-integration techniques.
To JoAnn, Ryan, and Mackenzie, without whom I would be bitter and alone.
How can I start these acknowledgments without first thanking my wife, JoAnn? For the love, for the care, for the support, and, most importantly, for never letting me forget what is really important, this is for you.
Although I left the nest long ago, much credit to my academic success belongs to my parents. Had you not instilled such a high importance to education in me, I doubt I would have made it here today.
A big thanks goes to my adviser, Edward Angel. Thank you for your endless supply of ideas and advice. Thank you for wading through and correcting this dissertation. Thank you for not retiring yet. I also express gratitude to the rest of my committee members: Thomas Caudell, Philip Heermann, Arthur Maccabe, and Bernard Moret. Thank you for your time, for your support, and for passing me.
I also appreciate all the help I received from my coworkers at Sandia National Laboratories. Philip Heermann, thank you for your managerial support, without which I could never have started on this journey. Brian Wylie and Andrew Wilson, thank you for your technical ideas and support. Patricia Crossno, thank you for your financial support and use of your impressive technical library.
Finally, I feel obliged to thank the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. It was while lying awake in one of its rooms wondering if I would need to evacuate the building for a third false fire alarm that I imagined the initial ideas for my thesis. Had it not been for that faulty wiring, who knows what I would have been researching?
The DOE Mathematics, Information, and Computer Science Office funded this research. The National Science Foundation also funded this research under grant number CDA-9503064. The work was performed at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico. Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under Contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.
