Real-time visualizations of gigapixel texture data sets using HTML5

Abstract

With the recent standardization of WebGL as part of HTML5, new possibilities have arisen for graphically intensive web-based applications. This paper presents our gigapixel texture visualization system which runs entirely within the limitations of a standards-compatible browser. Compared to existing approaches, our system offers high- performance 3D texture visualization and streaming without any dedicated plugins. We show that real-time performance can be achieved (less than 12ms render time per frame) on current-generation desktop hardware for texture data sets of at least 15 gigapixels. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.