Exploring the Tetrahedral Decomposition of the Subsurface

@inproceedings{FrankRM2004,
 abstract = { This paper deals with the interactive visualization of homogeneous unstructured grids based on tetrahedra tessellation. Due to the recent advances in grid construction, volumes based on tetrahedra are more and more used for geological applications. This fact leads to the need for an interactive way to explore these grids and not only to show the boundary faces. This article introduces an implementation of a grid explorer for the above mentioned type of grids. This grid explorer allows perpendicular and arbitrary slicing of properties according to the coordinate axes and not only property values but also additional parametrization of certain properties can be mapped on the slice planes. Furthermore an extraction of high quality iso-value surfaces is possible. The functionality of this tool is not only restricted to extract pictures for visualization but can also be used to generate meta-data for following post-processing steps on the model. Our algorithms do not need the construction of a second model of the grid and use only the implicit information already stored in the data model. This leads to a minimum number of necessary preprocessing steps. At the same time, the partition of preprocessing and real-time processing was chosen in a balanced way to get the best out of both the systems processor(CPU) and the graphics processor(GPU). Thereby a visualization in real-time is achieved. Thanks to the rapid advances in computer graphics hardware like the support of 3D texture maps on normal consumer hardware this grid explorer runs on PC hardware and does not require expensive graphic workstations. The implementation of our grid explorer is based on generic software components which allow an easy combination and parallel use of different algorithms. Thus, further enhancement and adaption to new advances in algorithmic and graphics hardware is assured. },
 author = { Frank, Tobias AND Mallet, Jean-Laurent },
 booktitle = { 24th gOcad Meeting },
 month = { "june" },
 publisher = { ASGA },
 title = { Exploring the Tetrahedral Decomposition of the Subsurface },
 year = { 2004 }
}