Using line integral convolution for flow visualization: curvilineargrids, variable-speed animation, and unsteady flows

摘要

Line integral convolution (LIC), introduced by Cabral and Leedomn(1993) is a powerful technique for imaging and animating vector fields.nWe extend the LIC technique in three ways. Firstly the existingnalgorithm is limited to vector fields over a regular Cartesian grid. Wenextend the algorithm and the animation techniques possible with it tonvector fields over curvilinear surfaces, such as those found inncomputational fluid dynamics simulations. Secondly we introduce antechnique to visualize vector magnitude as well as vector direction,ni.e., variable-speed flow animation. Thirdly we show how to modify LICnto visualize unsteady (time dependent) flows. Our implementationnutilizes texture-mapping hardware to run in real time, which allows ournalgorithms to be included in interactive applications