Scalable parallel volume raycasting for nonrectilinear computational grids

A scalable approach to parallel volume raycasting of structured and unstructured computational grids is presented. The algorithm is general enough to handle non-convex grids and cells, grids with voids, grids constructed from multiple grids, and embedded geometrical primitives. The algorithm is designed for a highly parallel MIMD architecture which features both local memory and shared memory with nonuniform access times. It has been implemented on a BBN TC2000 and benchmarked on several datasets. A variation of the algorithm which provides fast image updates for a changing transfer function is also presented. A distributed approach to controlling the execution of the volume render is used and the graphical user interface designed for this purpose is briefly described.