Since the size of time-varying volumetric data sets typically exceeds the amount of available GPU and main memory, out-of-core streaming techniques are required to support interactive rendering. To deal with the performance bottlenecks of hard-disk transfer rate and graphics bus bandwidth, we present a hybrid CPU/GPU scheme for lossless compression and data streaming that combines a temporal prediction model, which allows to exploit coherence between time steps, and variable-length coding with a fast block compression algorithm. This combination becomes possible by exploiting the CUDA computing architecture for unpacking and assembling data packets on the GPU. The system allows near-interactive performance even for rendering large real-world data sets with a low signal-to-noise-ratio, while not degrading image quality. It uses standard volume raycasting and can be easily combined with existing acceleration methods and advanced visualization techniques.

@inproceedings{MRH10a,
  author = {Mensmann, J{\"o}rg and Ropinski, Timo and Hinrichs, Klaus H.},
  title = {A GPU-Supported Lossless Compression Scheme for Rendering Time-Varying Volume Data},
  booktitle = {IEEE/EG International Symposium on Volume Graphics},
  pages = {109--116},
  year = {2010},
  editor = {R{\"u}diger Westermann and Gordon Kindlmann},
  publisher = {Eurographics Association},
  keywords = {voreen},
  url = {http://viscg.uni-muenster.de/publications/2010/MRH10a},
}