Exploring Flow Fields with GPU-Based Stream Tracers in Virtual Environments

Abstract

In this paper we present an immersive visualization approach for the intuitive exploration of flow fields, which operates entirely within the graphics subsystem. We augment particle data with a brief history of their recent positions, thus effectively computing and displaying animated tracers facilitating the understanding of the underlying flow field. Image quality is enhanced by employing a billboard-based rendering method for the particle trajectories simulating lit tubular geometry. This leads to significantly reduced depth perception problems and depth order ambiguities. Interactivity is maintained even for large amounts of tracers by shifting the computational load to the GPU. We alleviate 3D seed point specification problems by offering interaction mechanisms with full 6 degrees-of-freedom within an immersive virtual environment.