Compression and occlusion culling for fast isosurface extraction from massive datasets

Abstract

We present two algorithms for data compression and occlusion culling that improve interactive, adaptive isosurface extraction from large volume datasets. Our algorithm, based on hierarchical tetrahedral meshes defined by longest edge bisection, allows arbitrary isosurfaces to be adaptively extracted at interactive rates from losslessly compressed volumes where the region of interest, determined at runtime by user interaction, is decompressed on-the-fly. For interactive applications, we exploit frame-to-frame coherence between consecutive views to simplify the mesh structure in occluded regions and eliminate occluded triangles significantly reducing the complexity of the visualized surface and the underlying multiresolution volume representation. We extend the use of hardware accelerated occlusion queries to adaptive isosurface extraction applications where the surface geometry and topology change with the level-of-detail and view-point and the user can select an arbitrary isovalue for visualization.