Patent ID: 8330763
Filing Date: 2012-12-11
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
1. A method for volume rendering a volumetric dataset with multiple graphics processing units (GPUs) coupled to a computer system, comprising: building a block hierarchy in form of a block tree containing multiple levels of blocks representing multiple partitioning of said volumetric dataset with different granularities; determining a target work load for each GPU as a percentage of total GPU load, wherein each target work load is based on computation resources and storage resources of a corresponding GPU; sorting said GPUs in visibility order according to the largest block assigned to a GPU for a preceding frame; traversing said block hierarchy in visibility order and partitioning said volumetric data set into a number N of groups of blocks in accordance with a target work load of each respective corresponding GPU, where N equals the number of said GPUs; sorting blocks within each group in visibility order; rendering said groups by corresponding respective GPUs to provide respective intermediate images to a display node; alpha blending said intermediate images in visibility order; and adjusting the target work load of each GPU based on a rendering time of the preceding frame of the respective GPU, and a sum of power of all of the GPUs.