A Dynamic Multi-contextual GPU-based Particle System using Vector Fields for Particle Propagation

Particle systems have long been used in scientific visualizations. The advancement of graphics technology has allowed for the computations of these systems to be performed on the graphics processing units (GPUs). The parallelism offered by these devices allows for a greater number of particles to be updated in real-time. Scientists can immerse themselves in these systems through the use of virtual reality. However, the use of such environments with multiple screens and multiple rendering contexts presents data synchronization problems with respect to dynamic GPU data. We present a solution to this problem and apply it to the visualization of brownouts caused by helicopter downwash.