Interactive particle visualization with advanced shading models using lazy evaluation

Particle-based simulation methods are used to model a wide range of complex phenomena and to solve timedependent problems of various scales. Effective visualizations of the resulting state will communicate subtle changes in the three-dimensional structure, spatial organization, and qualitative trends within a simulation as it evolves. We describe a visualization process targeting upcoming, highly parallel multicore desktop systems that enables interactive navigation and exploration of large particle datasets rendered with illumination effects from advanced shading models. These expensive illumination effects are evaluated lazily by decoupling interactive display and high quality rendering. We explore the performance characteristics of this approach and demonstrate its effectiveness using several large particle datasets.