[4eyes] GPU programming

Wed Sep 3 20:32:31 PDT 2008

Thank you so much all.
Really GREAT information for me. :)

My main focus is

1. To generate a voxel or mesh model for about 1,000,000 3D color points
(their coorindates are given),
and render them less than 0.5 sec/frame. The faster, the better. :)
2. Add lighting/shadow

The points are 1 point cloud (a set of 3D points) from LiDAR (Light
Detection and Ranging), plus 4 point clouds from 4 range finders.
My task is to generate a 3D voxel or mesh model to visualize the 1M 3D
color points as _realistic_ as possible.

As far as I know, the GUP programming is not that helpful
if I just make a mesh model and render it without lighting, shadow.
Thus, I thinking of  trying the step 1 without the GPU programming,
and the step 2 with the GPU programming if I am not wrong.

Do you have any suggestions for the step 1, LiDAR data visualization ?
What kind of mesh modeling procedure is better for the LiDAR data
visualization ?
And am I right not to use the GPU programming
in generating a mesh model and render it if there is no lighting/shadow
thing ?

Thanks.

Best
 Sehwan

>
>
> On Mon, Sep 1, 2008 at 4:24 PM, Cha Lee <chalee21 at cs.ucsb.edu> wrote:
>
>>  Hey Sehwan,
>>
>> It depends on what kind of programming you want to do.  The GPU Gems
>> series is great if you want to program for the classic shader pipeline, but
>> its not very useful if your intent is to program for the new shader model.
>>
>> I can't remember exactly where the break off occurs, but the GeForce 8
>> series and above all support the new shading model.  Before that you had
>> your regular vertex and pixel/frament shaders.  After that it has been
>> broken into vertex, geometry, and pixel/frament shaders with the unified
>> shader architecture.  Theres a ton of information online.
>>
>> I would suggest you start out with Cg, NVidia's shader api, b/c it has
>> more examples and documentations plus it will support all their new stuff.
>> You can download it from their developer website.  Also, you may be
>> interested in using CUDA, their parallel processing language on the GPU.  It
>> can be tied directly with your shaders and can increase your framerate
>> greatly.  This can also be found on NVidia's website.  In general I've found
>> that the really good info on the new shader stuff can only be found online.
>> Its still very new and no good books really exist yet (in my opinion).
>>
>> Lastly, you should always check the specs on each card you use manually.
>> They will all say which version of OpenGL or DirectX they support.  If you
>> look at the different versions of OpenGL or DirectX they will tell you what
>> they can do (Wikipedia has great info on this).
>>
>> thanks,
>>
>> Cha Lee
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2008 14:58:12 -0700
>> From: jonathan.d.ventura at gmail.com
>> To: ilab-users at lists.cs.ucsb.edu
>> Subject: Re: [4eyes] GPU programming
>>
>>
>> Hi Sehwan,
>> I have been learning GPU programming with the help of Steve at Adobe.  I
>> think GeForce 6 and beyond are probably the best -- not quite sure about the
>> differences between cards.  I found the tutorials and sample code from
>> gpgpu.org really helpful.
>>
>> Good luck!
>>
>> Jon
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 1, 2008 at 12:32 PM, Sehwan Kim <skim at cs.ucsb.edu> wrote:
>>
>>  Hi, guys.
>>
>> I am starting to learn about GPU programmings.
>> If anyone has some experience about the GPU programmings,
>> would you let me know which books are great for a newbie like me?
>>  It would also be helpful to inform me of some useful websites. :)
>>
>> One of aims is to generate voxels for about 1,000,000 3D color points,
>> and render them less than 0.5 sec/frame. Actually, as fast as possible.
>>
>> In addition,
>> How can I check a graphics card could be used for GPU programmings or not?
>>
>> thanks.
>>
>> --
>> Best,
>> Sehwan
>>
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>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Best,
> Sehwan
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Sehwan Kim, Post-Doctoral Researcher
> Four-Eyes Lab., Dept. of Computer Science,
> Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5110, USA
>
> Tel: +1-805-893-4400 (Office), +1-805-636-0954 (Cell)
> Fax: +1-805-893-8553
> E-mail: skim at cs.ucsb.edu or sehnkim at gmail.com
> Home: http://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~skim/
> MSN ID: sehnkim at hotmail.com
> Cyworld: http://www.cyworld.com/sehnkim
>

-- 
Best,
Sehwan

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sehwan Kim, Post-Doctoral Researcher
Four-Eyes Lab., Dept. of Computer Science,
Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5110, USA

Tel: +1-805-893-4400 (Office), +1-805-636-0954 (Cell)
Fax: +1-805-893-8553
E-mail: skim at cs.ucsb.edu or sehnkim at gmail.com
Home: http://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~skim/
MSN ID: sehnkim at hotmail.com
Cyworld: http://www.cyworld.com/sehnkim
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