Q+A CENTER

"Visualization middleware is no longer concerned only with rendering algorithms, Heck adds. "Seismic volume data and derived data such as surfaces [horizons] and meshes [reservoir models] is too large to fit in memory and difficult to render interactively."

Advanced visualization middleware now addresses data management, computation and scalability, in addition to rendering. Desktop machines can handle hundred gigabyte volumes and hundred million cell models at interactive speeds. Computation support provides a framework for multi-core computing and provides building block algorithms already tuned for multi-core hardware."

"In this solution, a pre-processing step subdivides the volume data into "bricks" and computes multiple resolution levels. The full-resolution data is the lowest level of the hierarchy, and each higher-level brick represents multiple bricks at the level below."

The middleware can initially load the lower-resolution data then refine the image as higher-resolution data is loaded in the background. The user doesn't have to wait for all the data to be loaded, only that which is actually needed.

Machines with multiple central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) are evolving along with data size and algorithm complexity. But today's visualization middleware can handle more than just algorithms. Seismic volume data and derived data such as surfaces is too large to fit in memory and difficult to render interactively. Advanced visualization middleware now addresses data management, computation and scalability in addition to rendering. Advanced data management allows desktop machines to handle hundred gigabyte volumes and hundred million cell models at interactive speeds. Computation support leverages this data management, provides framework for multi-core computing and provides building block algorithms already tuned for multi-core hardware.