ACCELERATED COMPOSITION FOR PARALLEL VOLUME RENDERING

We describe an algorithm for efficiently compositing partial images ge nerated during parallel volume rendering on a distributed memory paral lel computer. In this object space partitioning algorithm, each PE is assigned to several subvolumes where each subvolume has a correspondin g local frame buffer, After volume rendering is performed independentl y for each subvolume, the partial images stored in the local frame buf fers are combined to generate a complete image. During this compositin g process, the communication of partial image data between the PEs is kept minimal by assigning PEs to subvolumes in an interleaved manner, This assignment makes possible a reduction in communication in the axi s direction in which there is the most communication. Experimental res ults indicate that a 9% to 35% reduction in the total rendering time c an be attained with no additional data structures and no memory overhe ad.