Ambient Occlusion and Edge Cueing for Enhancing Real Time Molecular Visualization

Author

Tarini, Marco ; Cignoni, Paolo ; Montani, Claudio

Author_Institution

Universita dell´´Insubria, Varese

Volume

12

Issue

5

fYear

2006

Firstpage

1237

Lastpage

1244

Abstract

The paper presents a set of combined techniques to enhance the real-time visualization of simple or complex molecules (up to order of 10⁶ atoms) space fill mode. The proposed approach includes an innovative technique for efficient computation and storage of ambient occlusion terms, a small set of GPU accelerated procedural impostors for space-fill and ball-and-stick rendering, and novel edge-cueing techniques. As a result, the user´s understanding of the three-dimensional structure under inspection is strongly increased (even for´still images), while the rendering still occurs in real time

Keywords

biological techniques; biology computing; data visualisation; molecular biophysics; molecular configurations; proteins; rendering (computer graphics); solid modelling; 3D shapes; GPU accelerated procedural impostors; ambient occlusion; ball-and-stick rendering; edge cueing; proteins; real time molecular visualization enhancement; space-fill rendering; Acceleration; Chemicals; Data visualization; Image databases; Inspection; Proteins; Rendering (computer graphics); Shape; Software systems; Visual databases; Ambient Occlusion; Molecular Visualization; Real Time Rendering; Algorithms; Biopolymers; Computer Graphics; Computer Simulation; Computer Systems; Cues; Image Enhancement; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; Imaging, Three-Dimensional; Information Storage and Retrieval; Models, Chemical; Models, Molecular; Molecular Conformation; User-Computer Interface;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Visualization and Computer Graphics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1077-2626

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TVCG.2006.115

Filename

4015487