Slicer3:Volume Rendering With Cuda

Objectives

Timeline

From	To	Task
12/01/07	05/31/08	Master Thesis Duration
12/01/07	12/31/07	Reading into the Project, Defining Basic Classes
01/01/08	01/06/08	Basic Class Definition Ready for Hands on Meeting
01/07/08	01/12/08	Hands on meeting in Salt Lake City
01/14/08	02/01/08	Further Implementation

Lookout

A Short description of the modules needed to integrate a CUDA based Volume Rendering into VTK

VTK Modules

1. A vtkImageReader: to read Volume data as any kind of Volume Data
2. A vtkCudaImageFilter: A Filter to convert from the reader output to a cuda-able DataSet
3. A vtkCudaDataSet: A new vtkDataSet where that holds and handles the data transfer from and to one or multiple CUDA devices.
4. A vtkCudaVolumeMapper: A new vtkVolumeMapper that renders the scene using the
   1. lighting model
   2. a prepared Z buffer
   3. a camera position
   4. A [vtkTexture] and a Plane to render the result to
5. An actor that places the volume into the scene
6. Chain this pipeline together and attach it to a rendering window.

Tasks

1. Proof of concept
2. Integrate into VTK
   1. Render the output from the code of Nicholas volume render sample into vtkImageViewer
   2. Adapt to Z-buffer
   3. Adapt lighting model
   4. Adapt to input Image
3. Integration into Slicer

Resources

1. For testing purposes: File:Heart256.raw Store this file in Slicer3/Modules/VolumeRenderingCuda/Testing/heart256.raw
2. Also checkout the main project page at Slicer-IGT/GPU-IGT