Visual Parameter Exploration in GPU Shader Space
Files
Date issued
2013
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Václav Skala - Union Agency
Abstract
The wide availability of high-performance GPUs has made the use of shader programs in visualization ubiquitous.
Understanding shaders is a challenging task. Frequently it is difficult to mentally reconstruct the nature and types
of transformations applied to the underlying data during the visualization process. We propose a method for the
visual analysis of GPU shaders, which allows the flexible exploration and investigation of algorithms, parameters,
and their effects. We introduce a method for extracting feature vectors composed of several attributes of the shader,
as well as a direct manipulation interface for assigning semantics to them. The user interactively classifies pixels of
images which are rendered with the investigated shader. The two resulting classes, a positive class and a negative
one, are employed to steer the visualization. Based on this information, we can extract a wide variety of additional
attributes and visualize their relation to this classification. Our system allows an interactive exploration of shader
space and we demonstrate its utility for several different applications.
Description
Subject(s)
vizualizace dat, augmentace shaderu, grafické procesory
Citation
Journal of WSCG. 2013, vol. 21, no. 3, p. 225-234.