VisIVODesktop 3.0: An Interactive Desktop Environment for Astrophysical Visualization

摘要

The aim of scientific visualization (images and animations) is to create suitable visuals (images and animations) to aid scientists in easily understanding highly-complex datasets. Modern visualization can act as a catalyst in rapidly and intuitively discovering correlations and patterns in large-scale astrophysical datasets without involving numerical algorithms or CPU intensive analysis codes. We introduce VisIVODesktop 3.0, a true multi-platform environment for interactive astrophysical visualization. We outline recently added visualization functionality, namely hybrid and stereoscopic rendering. Hybrid rendering combines volume and point rendering and employs an elliptical, Gaussian distribution function. Opacity transfer functions can be finely tuned to extract interesting details within cosmological structures. We conclude with a summary of our work and future developments.