Michael B. Carter

Jupiter: a toolkit for interactive large model visualization

The fast increasing size of datasets in scientific computing, mechanical engineering, or virtual medicine is quickly exceeding the graphics capabilities of modern computers. Toolkits for the large model visualization address this problem by combining efficient geometric techniques, such as occlusion and visibility culling, mesh reduction, and efficient rendering. We introduce Jupiter, a toolkit for the interactive visualization of large models which exploits the above mentioned techniques. Jupiter was originally developed by Hewlett-Packard and EAI, and it has been equipped with new functionality by the University of Tubingen, as being part, of the Kelvin project. An initial version of Jupiter has been released as open source.

Clustered backface culling

A backface culling technique for clusters of polygons, as well as a method for generating efficient clusters from a set of triangle strips. The cluster backface test is directly derived from the traditional single-polygon test, and has about the same complexity. Memory requirements are 40 bytes per test. The cluster backface tests may be arranged hierarchically, with frontface tests added for symmetry. Experiments show graphics performance improvements of up to 50% in terms of number of effective polygons rendered per second.