Coupling between Meshless FEM Modeling and Rendering on GPU for Real-time Physically-based Volumetric Deformation

• Main Authors: Movania, Muhammad Mobeen, Lin, Feng, Qian, Kemao, Chiew, Wei Ming, Seah, Hock Soon
• Other Authors: School of Computer Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Physically based deformation; GPU transform feedback; Volume rendering; Volumetric deformation; Finite element method; Meshless model
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/81925; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/39707; http://wscg.zcu.cz/DL/wscg_DL.htm
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

For real-time rendering of physically-based volumetric deformation, a meshless finite element method (FEM) is proposed and implemented on the new-generation Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). A tightly coupled deformation and rendering pipeline is defined for seamless modeling and rendering: First, the meshless FEM model exploits the vertex shader stage and the transform feedback mechanism of the modern GPU; and secondly, the hardware-based projected tetrahedra (HAPT) algorithm is used for the volume rendering on the GPU. A remarkable feature of the new algorithm is that CPU readback is avoided in the entire deformation modeling and rendering pipeline. Convincing experimental results are presented.