Fast Cutter Location Surface Computation Using Ray Tracing Cores

By using the cutter location (CL) surface, fast and stable computation of the cutter path for machining complicated molds and dies can be realized. State-of-the-art graphics processing units (GPUs) are equipped with special hardware named ray tracing (RT) cores dedicated to image processing (called ray tracing) for 3D computer graphics. Using RT cores, it is possible to quickly compute the intersection points between a set of straight lines and polygons. In this paper, we propose a novel CL surface computation method using the RT core. The RT core was originally designed to accelerate 3D computer graphics processing. For the development of software using RT cores, it is necessary to use the OptiX application programming interface (API) library for computer graphics. We demonstrate how to use the OptiX API in the development of software for CL surface computations. Computational experiments were carried out, and it was confirmed that it is possible to obtain the CL surface based on a very high-resolution Z-map several times faster than the depth buffer-based method, which has been considered to be the fastest to date.

Stochastic-Depth Ambient Occlusion

Ambient occlusion (AO) is a popular rendering technique that enhances depth perception and realism by darkening locations that are less exposed to ambient light (e.g., corners and creases). In real-time applications, screen-space variants, relying on the depth buffer, are used due to their high performance and good visual quality. However, these only take visible surfaces into account, resulting in inconsistencies, especially during motion. Stochastic-Depth Ambient Occlusion is a novel AO algorithm that accounts for occluded geometry by relying on a stochastic depth map, capturing multiple scene layers per pixel at random. Hereby, we efficiently gather missing information in order to improve upon the accuracy and spatial stability of conventional screen-space approximations, while maintaining real-time performance. Our approach integrates well into existing rendering pipelines and improves the robustness of many different AO techniques, including multi-view solutions.

Compacted CPU/GPU Data Compression via Modified Virtual Address Translation

We propose a method to reduce the footprint of compressed data by using modified virtual address translation to permit random access to the data. This extends our prior work on using page translation to perform automatic decompression and deswizzling upon accesses to fixed rate lossy or lossless compressed data. Our compaction method allows a virtual address space the size of the uncompressed data to be used to efficiently access variable-size blocks of compressed data. Compression and decompression take place between the first and second level caches, which allows fast access to uncompressed data in the first level cache and provides data compaction at all other levels of the memory hierarchy. This improves performance and reduces power relative to compressed but uncompacted data. An important property of our method is that compression, decompression, and reallocation are automatically managed by the new hardware without operating system intervention and without storing compression data in the page tables. As a result, although some changes are required in the page manager, it does not need to know the specific compression algorithm and can use a single memory allocation unit size. We tested our method with two sample CPU algorithms. When performing depth buffer occlusion tests, our method reduces the memory footprint by 3.1x. When rendering into textures, our method reduces the footprint by 1.69x before rendering and 1.63x after. In both cases, the power and cycle time are better than for uncompacted compressed data, and significantly better than for accessing uncompressed data.

Augmenting Image Warping-Based Remote Volume Rendering with Ray Tracing

<div><div><div><p>We propose an image warping-based remote rendering technique for volumes that decouples the rendering and display phases. Our work builds on prior work that samples the volume on the client using ray casting and reconstructs a z-value based on some heuristic. The color and depth buffer are then sent to the client that reuses this depth image as a stand-in for subsequent frames by warping it according to the current camera position until new data was received from the server. We augment that method by implementing the client renderer using ray tracing. By representing the pixel contributions as spheres, this allows us to effectively vary their footprint based on the distance to the viewer, which we find to give better results than point-based rasterization when applied to volumetric data sets.</p></div></div></div>

Augmenting Image Warping-Based Remote Volume Rendering with Ray Tracing

<div><div><div><p>We propose an image warping-based remote rendering technique for volumes that decouples the rendering and display phases. Our work builds on prior work that samples the volume on the client using ray casting and reconstructs a z-value based on some heuristic. The color and depth buffer are then sent to the client that reuses this depth image as a stand-in for subsequent frames by warping it according to the current camera position until new data was received from the server. We augment that method by implementing the client renderer using ray tracing. By representing the pixel contributions as spheres, this allows us to effectively vary their footprint based on the distance to the viewer, which we find to give better results than point-based rasterization when applied to volumetric data sets.</p></div></div></div>

Polychaetes from Burdwood Bank: “Namuncurá I” Marine Protected Area and slope, SW Atlantic Ocean

Introduction: The first open-sea (non-coastal) Marine Protected Area in Argentina, named “Namuncurá I” (NMPA), was created in 2013 at Burdwood Bank (BB), an undersea plateau located about 200 km south from Malvinas Islands (Falkland Islands) and 150 km east from Staten Island, SW Atlantic Ocean. It comprises three different management areas: the central one (“core”, strict protection, only control and monitoring activities), surrounded by a “buffer” area (authorized activities, e.g. scientific research) and an external “transition” area (productive and extractive activities contemplated in the Management Plan). Beyond the transition area, only the southern shelf-break is protected, after the creation of the “Namuncurá II” MPA in December 2018. Objective: provide the inventory of polychaetes collected during 2016 and 2017 at the core (98 m depth), buffer (128 m depth), transition (133 m-189 m depth) areas of the Namuncurá I MPA, together with slope areas (220 m-798 m depth). Methods: taken with a trawl net used to characterize the faunal assemblages and to compare results with other Magellan areas. Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) and Cluster Analysis (CA) were applied to a Bray-Curtis similarity index to assess polychaete assemblages in the NMPA - BB slope and Magellan region respectively; SIMPER (Similarity Percentage Analyses) and ANOSIM (Analysis of Similarities) were performed. Results: A total of 918 individuals, which correspond to 39 taxa distributed in 22 families, were recorded in samples from NMPA and BB slope, mainly epibenthic or associated with the large corals collected. Ampharete kerguelensis McIntosh, 1885; Hyalinoecia artifex Verrill, 1880; Idanthyrsus macropaleus (Schmarda, 1861); Laetmonice producta Grube, 1877; Onuphis pseudoiridescens Averincev, 1972; Pista mirabilis McIntosh 1885 and Terebellides malvinensis Bremec & Elias, 1999 constitute new records for Burdwood Bank. A similar polychaete assemblage characterized the three areas of NMPA and slope locations, while H. artifex characterized locations at the NW deepest slope of the bank. Conclusions: These results indicate strong connections between the fauna collected at NMPA and the polychaetes assemblage in other Magellan areas dominated by soft bottoms. The biogeographic importance of the BB as connection for benthic polychaete species between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula merits future investigation.

Modeling and realization for appearance visualization of Textronic laces

A computing approach based on the warp-knitted fabric structure was presented in this paper to visualize Textronic laces by taking a fall-plate lapping in one course as a targeted unit. Its geometric description was firstly presented on both the projection plane and normal plane of structure depth. Based on this and an improved Blinn–Phong reflection model, illuminative interaction along the yarn width and lapping length was separately studied and then overlaid with empirical weight coefficients to fit a function to solve fall-plate lapping facial illumination. Because the displayed facial feature was illustrated by distinguishing pixels on screen, the continuous solved function was discretized into average grids and each grid was integrating to obtain segmental appearance variation. The variation was then mapped from a Cartesian coordinate to a screen coordinate of pixels to be displayed, while the hidden lapping was eliminated according to the depth-buffer algorithm.

Automated block-by-block correction of milling parameters by means of numerical simulation

The methodology of the block-by-block correction of feed during the multi-axis milling process using the criterion based on the calculation of local maxima of the cut-off thickness, which is calculated instantly along the cutting edges, has been introduced in this paper. This correction is carried out using numerical simulation, which is based on the depth buffer and special geometric algorithm. The example of heavy stock removal cycle optimization during three-axis milling of figurine-shaped surface has been given also. This example demonstrates that peak loads on the tool has decreased, whereas the process efficiency has improved by more than one third.

A photograph-based approach for visual simulation of wrapped Jacquardtronic lace

A computing approach is proposed in this paper to simulate wrapped Jacquardtronic® lace appearance based on wrapped yarn photographs. The approach focuses on the determination of yarn color distribution functions using yarn photographs and extracted hue, saturation and value meshes in HSV color mode. Section curves of these meshes are fitted with a piecewise linear fitting algorithm and least-squares method to respectively describe the distribution functions of dull, semi-dull and shinning wrapped yarns. A modified depth-buffer method is also selected for visible lapping detection when dealing with multi-bar lapping coverage on the simulation plane. With the photograph-based approach, a simulator is implemented for visualization of wrapped Jacquardtronic lace via the Visual C++ programming language. It is confirmed that the developed method is capable of simulating sophisticated wrapped Jacquardtronic® lace with a superior stereoscopic impression and high efficiency.