Visualization in scientific computing is getting more and more attention from many people. Especially in relation with the fast increase of com­ puting power, graphic tools are required in many cases for interpreting and presenting the results of various simulations, or for analyzing physical phenomena. The Eurographics Working Group on Visualization in Scientific Com­ puting has therefore organized a first workshop at Electricite de France (Clamart) in cooperation with ONERA (Chatillon). A wide range of pa­ pers were selected in order to cover most of the topics of interest for the members of the group, for this first edition, and 26 of them were presented in two days. Subsequently 18 papers were selected for this volume. 1'he presentations were organized in eight small sessions, in addition to discussions in small subgroups. The first two sessions were dedicated to the specific needs for visualization in computational sciences: the need for graphics support in large computing centres and high performance net­ works, needs of research and education in universities and academic cen­ tres, and the need for effective and efficient ways of integrating numerical computations or experimental data and graphics. Three of those papers are in Part I of this book. The third session discussed the importance and difficulties of using stan­ dards in visualization software, and was related to the fourth session where some reference models and distributed graphics systems were discussed. Part II has five papers from these sessions.

Inhalt

I General Requirements.- 1 Scientific Visualization in a Supercomputer Network.- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 An environment for scientific visualization.- 1.3 Visualization methods in a distributed environment.- 1.4 Network requirements.- 1.5 References.- 2 Visualization Services in Large Scientific Computing Centres.- 2.1 General.- 2.2 Needs and behaviours of users.- 2.3 The different steps of the visualization process.- 2.4 Solutions.- 2.5 Conclusion.- 3 The Visualisation of Numerical Computation.- 3.1 Introductory remarks.- 3.2 A model for visualising computational processes.- 3.3 Data structure visualisation and algorithm animation.- 3.4 Consideration of the target environment.- 3.5 Developing visualisation software.- 3.6 The GRASPARC project.- 3.7 Concluding remarks.- 3.8 References.- II Formal Models, Standards and Distributed Graphics.- 4 Performance Evaluation of Portable Graphics Software and Hardware for Scientific Visualization.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Main PHIGS concepts.- 4.3 Definition of the evaluation.- 4.4 Presentation of the results.- 4.5 Comments about the PHIGS implementations.- 4.6 Conclusions and comments.- 4.7 Future work.- 4.8 References.- 5 Visualization of Scientific Data for High Energy Physics: Basic Architecture and a Case Study.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 CERN and its computing facilities.- 5.3 Visualization of scientific data in the field of HEP.- 5.4 Visualization of scientific data: the four basic building blocks.- 5.5 An example system for the visualization of scientific data: PAW.- 5.6 The four basic facilities in PAW.- 5.7 An important aspect of the software development: the portability.- 5.8 Conclusions.- 5.9 References.- 6 The IRIDIUM Project: Post-Processing and Distributed Graphics.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 What is required in visualization of fluid dynamics.- 6.3 The user interface.- 6.4 The implementation.- 6.5 Conclusion.- 6.6 References.- 7 Towards a Reference Model for Scientific Visualization Systems.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Fundamentals.- 7.3 The basic model.- 7.4 Derived and detailed models.- 7.5 Conclusion.- 7.6 References.- 8 Interactive Scientific Visualisation: A Position Paper.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 Display techniques.- 8.3 Current visualisation system architectures.- 8.4 Parallel processing and interactive visualisation.- 8.5 References.- III Applications.- 9 HIGHEND - A Visualisation System for 3D Data with Special Support for Postprocessing of Fluid Dynamics Data.- 9.1 Introduction.- 9.2 Internal design of HIGHEND.- 9.3 Capabilities of HIGHEND.- 9.4 References.- 10 Supercomputing Visualization Systems for Scientific Data Analysis and Their Applications to Meteorology.- 10.1 Introduction.- 10.2 Background information.- 10.3 Computation and visualization systems.- 10.4 Parameter selection, derivation and data preparation.- 10.5 Animation production procedures used in phase 1.- 10.6 Animation production procedures used in phase 2.- 10.7 Data analysis results.- 10.8 Visualization system evaluations.- 10.9 Conclusions.- 10.10 References.- IV Rendering Techniques.- 11 Rendering Lines on Curved Surfaces.- 11.1 Introduction.- 11.2 Modelling lines in three dimensions.- 11.3 Integration with rendering algorithms.- 11.4 Results.- 11.5 Conclusions.- 11.6 References.- 12 Interactive 3D Display of Simulated Sedimentary Basins.- 12.1 Introduction.- 12.2 Simulation of sedimentary basins - SEDSIM.- 12.3 SEDSHO (using Doré and the DUI).- 12.4 Sedview (using GL).- 12.5 User interface.- 12.6 Future directions.- 12.7 References.- 13 Visualization of 3D Scalar Fields Using Ray Casting.- 13.1 Introduction.- 13.2 Ray casting.- 13.3 Colour mapping and image generation.- 13.4 Implementation.- 13.5 Results.- 13.6 Discussion.- 13.7 References.- 14 Volume Rendering and Data Feature Enhancement.- 14.1 Introduction.- 14.2 Basic technique for volume rendering: the transport theory model.- 14.3 Mapping of data features onto visualization parameters.- 14.4 Tools for enhancement of critical features.- 14.5 Appendix: evaluation of the transport equation.- 14.6 References.- 15 Visualization of 3D Empirical Data: The Voxel Processor.- 15.1 Introduction.- 15.2 The voxel data.- 15.3 The 3D reconstruction.- 15.4 Parallel processing.- 15.5 System architecture.- 15.6 Implementation remarks.- 15.7 Current activities.- 15.8 Conclusions.- 15.9 References.- 16 Spatial Editing for Interactive Inspection of Voxel Models.- 16.1 Introduction.- 16.2 BSP-tree fundamentals.- 16.3 Displaying subdivided volume data.- 16.4 Interactive BSP-tree construction.- 16.5 Implementation and results.- 16.6 Conclusions and further work.- 16.7 References.- V Interaction.- 17 The Rotating Cube: Interactive Specification of Viewing for Volume Visualization.- 17.1 Introduction.- 17.2 Concepts.- 17.3 Implementation.- 17.4 Conclusions.- 17.5 References.- 18 Chameleon: A Holistic Approach to Visualisation.- 18.1 Introduction.- 18.2 Overview.- 18.3 The method concept.- 18.4 The view concept.- 18.5 User interface.- 18.6 Problem interface.- 18.7 Help.- 18.8 Configuration.- 18.9 Chameleon.- 18.10 Conclusions.- 18.11 References.- Colour Plates (see list on p. XII).- List of Authors.