GPU-Based Visualization of 3D Fluid Interfaces using Level Set Methods

We model a simple 3D fluid-interface problem using the level set method and visualize the interface as a dynamic surface. Level set methods allow implicit handling of complex topologies deformed by evolutions where sharp changes and cusps are present without destroying the representation. We present a highly optimized visualization and computation algorithm that is implemented in CUDA to run on the NVIDIA GeForce 295 GTX. CUDA is a general purpose parallel computing architecture that allows the NVIDIA GPU to be treated like a data parallel supercomputer in order to solve many computational problems in a fraction of the time required on a CPU. CUDA is compared to the new OpenCL™ (Open Computing Language), which is designed to run on heterogeneous computing environments but does not take advantage of low-level features in NVIDIA hardware that provide significant speedups. Therefore, our technique is implemented using CUDA and results are compared to a single CPU implementation to show the benefits of using the GPU and CUDA for visualizing fluid-interface problems. We solve a 1024^3 problem and experience significant speedup using the NVIDIA GeForce 295 GTX. Implementation details for mapping the problem to the GPU architecture are described as well as discussion on porting the technique to heterogeneous devices (AMD, Intel, IBM) using OpenCL. The results present a new interactive system for computing and visualizing the evolution of fluid interface problems on the GPU.