[vtkusers] VTK 5.6.0 vtkGPUVolumeRayCastMapper very slow?

[Francois Bertel]

Yes you can use the latest DirectX SDK (side note: there are two
DirectX SDK releases per year, one in February, one in August).

I currently use the Feb 2010 one.

Once your done building VTK, run the test TestGPUInfo in verbose mode
to see if the returned information makes sense:

For example, on Vista 64 SP1 with a nVidia Quadro FX 3600M, 512MB, I have:

> cd vtk-build
> ctest.exe -R TestGPUInfo -V
...
160: Test command: C:\vtk-build\bin\Debug\RenderingCxxTests.exe
TestGPUInfo -D C:/VTKData -T C:/vtk-build/Testing/Temporary -V
Baseline/Rendering/TestGPUInfo.png
160: Test timeout computed to be: 1500
160: There is 1 GPU(s).
160:  GPU 0:
160:   dedicated VRAM=495 MB
160:   dedicated RAM=0 MB
160:   shared RAM=1791 MB
1/1 Test #160: TestGPUInfo ......................   Passed    0.13 sec
...

You can see that 495MB is less than 512MB. This is probably the
available VRAM memory. This is normal.


On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 12:09 PM, Elvis Chen <elvis.chen at gmail.com> wrote:
> hi,
> Thanks for the reply.  On a Windows-7 (64-bit) system with Visual Studio
> Express 2008 (32bit), is it safe to use the Feb/2010 DirectX SDK instead of
> the one listed on VTKEdge FAQ (which was dated aug/2008 and no Windows-7
> support)?
>
> On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 3:54 PM, Francois Bertel
> <francois.bertel at kitware.com> wrote:
>>
>> In short (ie that what you will find reading the VTKEdge FAQ), to make
>> it work properly under Windows with big datasets, you need to compile
>> VTK against the DirectX SDK.
>>
>> Just to be clear, DirectX is not used for rendering, but it is just
>> for requesting information about the GPU (amount of VRAM). OpenGL is
>> used for rendering.
>>
>> On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 3:14 PM, Wagner Sales <wsales at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Hi Elvis,
>> >
>> > Since vtkGPUVolumeRayCastMapper comes from VTKEdge, you can follow the
>> > instructions at
>> >
>> > http://vtkedge.org/Wiki/VTKEdge:FAQ#How_can_I_make_vtkKWEGPUVolumeRayCastMapper_run_as_fast_as_in_VolView_3.0.3F
>> >
>> > Regards,
>> >
>> > Wagner Sales
>> >
>> > 2010/5/10 Elvis Chen <elvis.chen at gmail.com>
>> >>
>> >> greetings,
>> >> I've just compiled VTK 5.6.0 and was testing vtkGPUVolumeRayCastMapper
>> >> using the GPURenderDemo.cxx.  Using a CT volume available to me
>> >> (512x512x481, short), I found the rendering to be VERY slow:  it is
>> >> non-interactive at all.  If I use a mouse to change the camera
>> >> position, I
>> >> basically have to wait about 5-8 seconds for the rendering to complete.
>> >> I'm using:
>> >> Windows-7, 64bit
>> >> Intel i7-860 (4 core at 2.80GHz)
>> >> 4GB RAM
>> >> Nvidia GTX260 with 196.21 driver, 896MB of video RAM
>> >> Visual Studio Express 2008
>> >> VTK 5.6.0 was compiled with all the standard options, except with
>> >> python
>> >> binding (ON).
>> >> My questions are:
>> >> 1) is there a way to display the frame rate to quantify the rendering
>> >> speed?
>> >> 2) the CT volume is about 240MB, which should fit inside the video RAM.
>> >>  Has anyone else notice the slow speed?  Should I expect
>> >> vtkGPUVolumeRayCastmapper to be faster (or slower) than
>> >> vtkFixedPointVolumeRayCastMapper?
>> >>
>> >> Once I know how to do 1) I'll write a small program to test the speed
>> >> difference between
>> >> vtkGPUVolumeRayCastMapper/vtkFixedPointVolumeRaycastMapper.
>> >> any insight is very much appreciated,
>> >> Elvis
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
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>> >> Please keep messages on-topic and check the VTK FAQ at:
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>> >>
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>> >
>> >
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>> >
>> > Visit other Kitware open-source projects at
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>> >
>> > Please keep messages on-topic and check the VTK FAQ at:
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>> >
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> François Bertel, PhD  | Kitware Inc. Suite 204
>> 1 (518) 371 3971 x113 | 28 Corporate Drive
>>                      | Clifton Park NY 12065, USA
>> _______________________________________________
>> Powered by www.kitware.com
>>
>> Visit other Kitware open-source projects at
>> http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html
>>
>> Please keep messages on-topic and check the VTK FAQ at:
>> http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK_FAQ
>>
>> Follow this link to subscribe/unsubscribe:
>> http://www.vtk.org/mailman/listinfo/vtkusers
>
>



-- 
François Bertel, PhD  | Kitware Inc. Suite 204
1 (518) 371 3971 x113 | 28 Corporate Drive
                      | Clifton Park NY 12065, USA