The rapid increase in the performance of graphics hardware, coupled with recent improvements in its programmability, have made graphics hardware a compelling platform for computationally demanding tasks in a wide variety of application domains. In this report, we describe, summarize, and analyze the latest research in mapping general-purpose computation to graphics hardware. We begin with the technical motivations that underlie general-purpose computation on graphics processors (GPGPU) and describe the hardware and software developments that have led to the recent interest in this field. We then aim the main body of this report at two separate audiences. First, we describe the techniques used in mapping general-purpose computation to graphics hardware. We believe these techniques will be generally useful for researchers who plan to develop the next generation of GPGPU algorithms and techniques. Second, we survey and categorize the latest developments in general-purpose application development on graphics hardware. This survey should be of particular interest to researchers who are interested in using the latest GPGPU applications in their systems of interest.

/pdf/a-survey-of-general-purpose-computation-on-graphics-hardware-2phx1q9xxr.pdf

A Survey of General-Purpose Computation on Graphics Hardware

A Survey of General-Purpose Computation on Graphics Hardware.

This paper presents a many-core visual computing architecture code named Larrabee, a new software rendering pipeline, a manycore programming model, and performance analysis for several applications. Larrabee uses multiple in-order x86 CPU cores that are augmented by a wide vector processor unit, as well as some fixed function logic blocks. This provides dramatically higher performance per watt and per unit of area than out-of-order CPUs on highly parallel workloads. It also greatly increases the flexibility and programmability of the architecture as compared to standard GPUs. A coherent on-die 2nd level cache allows efficient inter-processor communication and high-bandwidth local data access by CPU cores. Task scheduling is performed entirely with software in Larrabee, rather than in fixed function logic. The customizable software graphics rendering pipeline for this architecture uses binning in order to reduce required memory bandwidth, minimize lock contention, and increase opportunities for parallelism relative to standard GPUs. The Larrabee native programming model supports a variety of highly parallel applications that use irregular data structures. Performance analysis on those applications demonstrates Larrabee's potential for a broad range of parallel computation.

/pdf/larrabee-a-many-core-x86-architecture-for-visual-computing-58j94b6w2n.pdf

Larrabee: a many-core x86 architecture for visual computing

From the Publisher:
Do you spend too much time creating the building blocks of your graphics applications or finding and correcting errors? Geometric Tools for Computer Graphics is an extensive, conveniently organized collection of proven solutions to fundamental problems that you'd rather not solve over and over again, including building primitives, distance calculation, approximation, containment, decomposition, intersection determination, separation, and more.
If you have a mathematics degree, this book will save you time and trouble. If you don't, it will help you achieve things you may feel are out of your reach. Inside, each problem is clearly stated and diagrammed, and the fully detailed solutions are presented in easy-to-understand pseudocode. You also get the mathematics and geometry background needed to make optimal use of the solutions, as well as an abundance of reference material contained in a series of appendices.
KEY FEATURES: * Filled with robust, thoroughly tested solutions that will save you time and help you avoid costly errors.
* Covers problems relevant for both 2D and 3D graphics programming.
* Presents each problem and solution in stand-alone form allowing you the option of reading only those entries that matter to you.
* Provides the math and geometry background you need to understand the solutions and put them to work.
* Clearly diagrams each problem and presents solutions in easy-to-understand pseudocode.
* Resources associated with the book are available at the companion Web site.
Author Biography: Philip Schneider leads a modeling and dynamic simulation software group at Walt Disney Feature Animation. Prior to that, his work at Apple and Digital Equipment Corporation in 3D graphics ranged from low-level interfaces to graphics libraries and interactive applications. He holds an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Washington.
Dave Eberly is the president of Magic Software, Inc., a company known for its free source code and documentation for computer graphics, image analysis, and numerical methods. Previously, he was the director of engineering at Numerical Design Limited, the company responsible for the real-time 3D game engine, NetImmerse. His background includes a B.A. in mathematics from Bloomsburg University, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dave is author of 3D Game Engine Design, co-author with Philip Schneider of Geometric Tools for Computer Graphics, and author of the forthcoming Game Physics (Spring 2003).

Geometric Tools for Computer Graphics

Recent progress in computer vision has been driven by high-capacity models trained on large datasets. Unfortunately, creating large datasets with pixel-level labels has been extremely costly due to the amount of human effort required. In this paper, we present an approach to rapidly creating pixel-accurate semantic label maps for images extracted from modern computer games. Although the source code and the internal operation of commercial games are inaccessible, we show that associations between image patches can be reconstructed from the communication between the game and the graphics hardware. This enables rapid propagation of semantic labels within and across images synthesized by the game, with no access to the source code or the content. We validate the presented approach by producing dense pixel-level semantic annotations for 25 thousand images synthesized by a photorealistic open-world computer game. Experiments on semantic segmentation datasets show that using the acquired data to supplement real-world images significantly increases accuracy and that the acquired data enables reducing the amount of hand-labeled real-world data: models trained with game data and just 1/3 of the CamVid training set outperform models trained on the complete CamVid training set.

Playing for Data: Ground Truth from Computer Games

From the Publisher:
The second edition of "Real-Time Rendering" comes three years after the release of the first. In that time computer graphics hardware has evolved at a rapid rate: it is more than ten times faster (outstripping Moore's Law) and the functionality has increased significantly in a wide range of areas. Reflecting these changes, this second edition is almost 900 pages long, 75% larger than the 512 pages of the first edition. 
All chapters have been updated, and new chapters added on spline and subdivision surfaces, advanced shading theory and techniques, and non-photorealistic and image-based rendering. As with the first edition, this new book is a blend of solid theory and practical advice, useful for students, professionals, and hobbyists alike.

Real-Time Rendering

A device for mounting and inflating a tubeless tire on an automotive wheel rim. An inflatable annular member of tubular cross section is placed between the flanged rim of the wheel and the sidewall of the tire to establish a sealed air chamber after the annular member has been inflated. Upon initial inflating of the tire, the annular member rolls off from between the rim and the sidewall.

/pdf/real-time-rendering-second-edition-1nowxbf9rd.pdf

Real-Time Rendering, Second Edition

Fast and accurate collision detection between geometric bodies is essential in application areas like virtual reality, animation, simulation, games and robotics. In this work, we address the collision detection problem in applications where deformable bodies are used, which change their overall shape every time step of the simulation. We propose and evaluate suitable bounding volume trees for deforming bodies that can be pre-built and then updated very efficiently during simulation. Several heuristics for updating the trees due to deformations are compared to each other. By combining a top-down and a bottom-up update strategy into a hybrid tree update method, promising results were achieved. Experiments show that our approach is four to five times faster than a previously leading method.

/pdf/collision-detection-for-continuously-deforming-bodies-1pkkniykxh.pdf

Collision Detection for Continuously Deforming Bodies

A fast routine for testing whether a triangle and a box are overlapping in three dimensions is presented. The test is derived using the separating axis theorem, whereafter the test is simplified and the code is optimized for speed. We show that this approach is 2.3 vs. 3.8 (PC vs. Sun) times faster than previous routines. It can be used for faster collision detection and faster voxelization in interactive ray tracers. The code is available online.

Fast 3D triangle-box overlap testing

We present a new technique for importance sampling products of complex functions using wavelets. First, we generalize previous work on wavelet products to higher dimensional spaces and show how this product can be sampled on-the-fly without the need of evaluating the full product. This makes it possible to sample products of high-dimensional functions even if the product of the two functions in itself is too memory consuming. Then, we present a novel hierarchical sample warping algorithm that generates high-quality point distributions, which match the wavelet representation exactly. One application of the new sampling technique is rendering of objects with measured BRDFs illuminated by complex distant lighting --- our results demonstrate how the new sampling technique is more than an order of magnitude more efficient than the best previous techniques.

Tomas Akenine-Möller

Papers

Real-Time Rendering

Real-Time Rendering, Second Edition

Collision Detection for Continuously Deforming Bodies

Fast 3D triangle-box overlap testing

Wavelet importance sampling: efficiently evaluating products of complex functions