Viz Lab Summer Grant 2006

2007 Reports 2006 Reports 2005 Reports 2004 Reports

Animated Visualizations of ECOPHYS Tree Growth Simulation

Hans Anderson Graduate Student under Prof. Harlan Stech, Mathematics

The ECOPHYS project is a computer model of the growth of a Populus tree. It aims to provide a better understanding of the processes that influence the tree’s growth and predict the forest ecosystem’s response to pollution and climate change. The ECOPHYS computer program periodically outputs geometric data describing the shape and location of each leaf and branch of the simulated tree and also shows a continuously updated image of the tree as the model is running.

This project focused on converting the three dimensional data from the ECOPHYS program into a realistic image of the tree in simulation. We focused especially on generating images of a whole forest of young simulated trees. We used a free program called POV-Ray to generate realistic scenery and ray-trace the image of a small experimental forest.

A secondary part of this project was an experiment on the VDIL Beowulf cluster where we demonstrated a proof-of-concept model of parallel simulation where several tree models could be run simultaneously on separate processors of a large computer. Our program demonstrated how a Beowulf cluster could be used to pass leaf canopy data from one tree model to another nearby model to simulate the effect of the two trees competing for sunlight.

ECOPHYS visualization using OpenGL

ECOPHYS visualization using POV-Ray

Experimental forest visualization using POV-Ray