Project OpenGL 3D Volume-Rendering

Project: Real-time 3D Rendering Engine (RT3D)1. Main Goal:To develop a backbone 3D volume rendering code, using OpenGL/DirectX capabilities (such as textures) for interactive 3D medical imaging.2. What we are looking forThis project should produce the images comparable with the following examples: /gallery/med_gallery.html3. Project design3.1. Input dataRT3D should take as an input a series of images (as pixel buffers). Each imagecorresponds to a 3D volume slice, so the series corresponds to a 3D volume (all slices are parallel and equidistant).Position of the viewer, rendering plane, etc. should be supplied to define the rendering direction and any other required parameters.3.2.Output RT3D should output the rendered image as a pixel buffer. I.e., RT3D must not render anything on the screen– all rendering must be done completely offscreen . In essence, RT3D should function as a totally separate, GUI-independent image renderer, using the power of OpenGL (or DirectX, and anything else you may suggest) to achieve real-time rendering speeds3.3. Coding1.RT3D should be implemented in Visual Studio 2005, in C++ (unmanaged), as aset of separate classes.2.RT3D has to support 2 different rendering speeds;a.Fast – to achieve at least 20 frames (renderings) per second, so that usercan render images interactively. For large data volumes, you will have torender at lower resolution to support interactive speedb.Slow – high-quality (full-resolution) rendering3.The following rendering types should be included in your implementation:a.Planar – simple planar cut through the volumeb.Thick slice –planar slice with given “thickness”c.MaxIP, minIP – maximum and minimum intensity projectionsImagine that you have rendered the volume at some angle, and created a series of parallel images (planar renderings). Than any one of these images is you planar rendering, thick slice can be obtained as their weighted average, MaxIP – as their maximum (at each pixel), minIP – as their minimum (at each pixel). I.e., any rendering type in this project can be derived from 3a, planar rendering.3.4. Project implementation stagesWe will ask you to do the following:1.Write a sample app which takes a series of bitmap images from a given folder,and interactively renders a slice image in a user-defined plane. Note that yourrendering should be implemented as offscreen – i.e., you render into a pixel buffer first, and then you display the buffer.2.If successful, port this into our application code3.Add thick slice, MaxIP and minIP rendering types.3.5. BonusesIf successful, this project will be taken to the next stage, to implement:1.Curved-planar renderings: instead of “cutting” the volume with a plane, you c ut itwith a predefined surface, and create the resulting cut image2.Graphics-card-specific optimizations. For instance, using nVidia-specificrendering capabilities to enhance the original card-independent rendering.3.Surface rendering – render iso-surface for a given intensity range [i0, i1]Keep these extensions in mind when you implement your basic code, so that you can add them later easily.4. Performance requirements1.There are tons of 3D renderers available online, open-source, and we already haveour own code, so making 3D images is not the main point of the project. The main point is to do it real-time, and with the highest quality possible. Our data will belarge: on average, we are talking about 1000-4000 images in a single series(volume), 512x512 pixels each image. I.e., your original volume will have2000x512x512 voxels, and this is what you will have to render to create 3Dreconstructions.2.The program will be used by many clients, on whatever hardware they have. I.e.,the RT3D should work on virtually any current (Windows) PC. RT3D must firstdetect the system capabilities (graphics card type, memory, support forOpenGL/DirectX), and then eitherrm the user that his computer cannot be used for this rendering,because it lacks certain hardware. These occasions should be absolutelyminimized. ORb.Render the images. If the hardware is slow, then more resolution may becompromised (reduced) in the fast-rendering mode, just to make it run onthis PC. But the final image should always be produced with the finestquality (i.e., with the same resolution, as the original images –for instance,512x512 pixels)So, process any data size interactively, and work on virtually any Windows PC are two main requirements for this implementation. For instance, the project can be easily done with 3D textures, but what if they are not supported on the target PC?5. Data formatOur input images are bitmaps of any bit depth, up to 16 bits per color channel. Practically, there will be 2 sorts of images:1.Grayscale images, with 16-bit grayscale (from 0 to 65535). More likely, we willconvert them into either color or 8-bit grayscale2.Color RGB images (8-bit color per channel, i.e, regular 24-bit bitmaps) Therefore, RT3D should support at least 2 voxel color formats: 8-bit grayscale and 24-bit color (RGB). Then, to render grayscale images, you won’t have to allocate too much memory.Also, each image series will have its own physical voxel size – for instance, a voxel would correspond to a [1mm x 0.45mm x 0.45mm]. So RT3D will have to accommodate these voxel proportions to display voxels with their natural dimensions.6. Test dataWe will provide you with the real image series to test.7. Developers we are looking forThis is not a learning project. We need someone with very solid experience in the 3D image rendering. The above project description should be sufficient for you, and youshould be able to implement any specific details and optimizations on your own. Your work will be judged only by its final result, and it will not be accepted if it fails to achieve what we described. On the other side, if it works as expected, we will have more 3D projects to come. This is a very interesting area, and we would like to find someone experienced and creative to work with us on 3D projects.To be considered for this project, do not send us your generic “plug and play” resume. Instead, please provide us with a description and a sample of your related work. Ideally, some sample interactive 3D-renderer or shader app, which we could run.。