Design by Simulation and Rendering on Parallel Architectures

DESIRE - 6173

Keywords animation, computational fluid dynamics, computer aided design, parallel architectures, photo-realism, rendering, simulation, virtual reality, visualisation

Start Date: 01 July 1992 / Duration: 24 months / Status: ongoing

[ contact / participants ]

development and demonstration of key software components for a system for the interactive design of complex industrial products, or parts thereof, by simulation and rendering using parallel architectures

Objectives and Approach

Software components will be demonstrated in the context of an application demonstrator for the interactive design and engineering of car bodies for both aesthetic and physical design decisions. This demonstrator will be evaluated in collaboration with BMW AG, the industrial end-user involved in the project.

Major results will be achieved in the course of the project:

• definition of a very general data exchange format for visualisation to unify all aspects of visualisation required to meet industrial and scientific needs
• development of a general purpose, high image quality rendering software for distributed memory parallel systems for animation and visualisation using a novel ray-tracing acceleration algorithm
• development of interfaces to allow for the integration of software developed outside the project for the simulation of external aerodynamics
• development of a prototype graphical interactive designer's front-end software including a novel constraint-based free form surface modelling system

The implementation aims at the widest possible portability of the software to both distributed memory parallel machines as well as to shared memory parallel machines and networks of workstations. The software is based on message passing, using a particular message passing interface defined in the project.

CONTACT POINT

Rolf Herken
Mental Images GmbH & Co. KG
Rankestrasse 9
D-10789 Berlin
tel: +49 30 8821088
fax: +49 30 8825381

Participants

Coordinator
Mental Images GmbH & Co. KG [D]
Partners
Bertin & Cie [F]
Delcam InternationalL Plc [UK]
Parsytec Computer GmbH [D]
Warwick Strategic Technology Laboratories [UK]

DESIRE - 6173, December 1993

please address enquiries to the ESPRIT Information Desk

html version of synopsis by Nick Cook