FAVR - Accelerating Direct Volume Rendering for Virtual Reality Systems

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Direct link to video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Eu1P-vyWz_4

Keywords

Volume Rendering, Application Motivated Visualization, Algorithms, Scalar Field Data

Abstract

In recent years, virtual reality (VR) has become readily available using robust and affordable head-mounted display (HMD) systems. Several VR-based scientific visualization solutions were proposed recently, but direct volume rendering (DVR) was considered only in a handful of VR-applications. We attribute this to the high computational demand of DVR and the limited rendering budget available for VR systems. For a heavily fragment-bound method such as DVR, it is challenging to achieve the very high update rates essential for VR. We propose an acceleration technique designed to take advantage of the specific characteristics of HMD systems. We utilize an adaptive rendering approach based on the lens distortion of HMDs and the visual perception of the human eye. Our implementation reduces the rendering cost of DVR while providing an experience indistinguishable to standard rendering techniques.