Book Image

OpenGL Data Visualization Cookbook

Book Image

OpenGL Data Visualization Cookbook

Overview of this book

OpenGL is a great multi-platform, cross-language, and hardware-accelerated graphics interface for visualizing large 2D and 3D datasets. Data visualization has become increasingly challenging using conventional approaches as datasets become larger and larger, especially with the Big Data evolution. From a mobile device to a sophisticated high-performance computing cluster, OpenGL libraries provide developers with an easy-to-use interface to create stunning visuals in 3D in real time for a wide range of interactive applications. This book provides a series of easy-to-follow, hands-on tutorials to create appealing OpenGL-based visualization tools with minimal development time. We will first illustrate how to quickly set up the development environment in Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Next, we will demonstrate how to visualize data for a wide range of applications using OpenGL, starting from simple 2D datasets to increasingly complex 3D datasets with more advanced techniques. Each chapter addresses different visualization problems encountered in real life and introduces the relevant OpenGL features and libraries in a modular fashion. By the end of this book, you will be equipped with the essential skills to develop a wide range of impressive OpenGL-based applications for your unique data visualization needs, on platforms ranging from conventional computers to the latest mobile/wearable devices.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
OpenGL Data Visualization Cookbook
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Rendering a volumetric dataset – MCML simulation


In this section, we will demonstrate the rendering of a 3D volumetric dataset generated from a Monte Carlo simulation of light transport in biological tissue, called Monte Carlo for multi-layered media (MCML). For simplicity, the simulation output file is included with the code bundle for this chapter so that readers can directly run the demo without setting up the simulation code. The source code for the Monte Carlo simulation is described in detail in a series of publications listed in the See also section and the GPU implementation is available online for interested readers (https://code.google.com/p/gpumcml/).

Light transport in biological tissue can be modeled with the radiative transport equation (RTE), which has proven difficult to solve analytically for complex geometry. The time-dependent RTE can be expressed as:

Here is the radiance [W m−2sr−1] defined as the radiant power [W] crossing an infinitesimal area at location r perpendicular...