Managing the image generation of large datasets

At the ARL MSRC, datasets resulting from scientific visualizations and conceptual animations continue to grow in size and complexity as our computing capabilities expand. While visualizing these datasets and building the animations are a challenge, so is the overall oversight of the image generation process and long-term management of the resulting voluminous data sets. We have developed a tool to handle the management of the image generation process. By automatically monitoring the rendering process, we can improve overall throughput and image quality. This tool automatically distributes the rendering load, and detects and resolves problems in the image generation process including missing frames, excessive noise, and other common rendering problems.