Geometry and Rendering Optimizations for the Interactive Visualization of Crash-Worthiness Simulations

Todays car body models used for crash-worthiness simulations consist of around half a million nite elements. The interactive visualization of these large scale time-dependent geometries with constant topology on workstation platforms requires a variety of modeling and rendering optimizations. We present a memory eecient scene graph design, an algorithm to concatenate the mainly four-sided elements into optimal quadrilateral strips, and a simpliier which generates an approximating triangle mesh by using the one-sided Hausdorr distance as an error measure. Furthermore we describe a technique to explore scalar data mapped onto complex scenes by hiding geometry with values outside an interactively speciied range of interest. These optimizations allow for the rst time interactive visualization of a full car crash on medium range graphics workstations. They are embedded in an application which is based on Cosmo3D / OpenGL Optimizer. It was developed in close cooperation with the BMW Group and it is in productive use.