Archive for January, 2010
Medical Imaging Update
We’ve been working with our client on this medical imaging system for over a year now. Our part (the 3D part, of course) is one element in a larger application. The entire system is developing very nicely. Here is the latest version of our 3D renderer for CT and MRI scans. What you see above is the most basic rendering: direct volume rendering with no coloring applied. Below is the same scan rendered from above. Keep in mind that the scan is rendered at interactive framerates, so the user can change all display settings and navigate around and in the scan in real time.
We’ve added in another rendering mode which can be useful for some scans: iso-surface rendering. This mode creates a more “solid” image of the data and allows us to do a few different kinds of effects compared to the direct volume rendering mode.
Notice the high-quality lighting. There are numerous lighting and coloring settings available for isosurface mode. Many of the same data manipulation controls are available in this mode as well. Here’s the same scan but we’ve now focused on on the pelvis and hip bones. You can see that the scan has a lot of data in it and that once we start exploring the inside of the body it gets quite jumbled. Don’t worry, a radiologist knows what they are looking at. Also notice a few lighting artifacts (bands and stairs) because even though this data has some better resolution than previous scans, it is still relatively low. For this entire abdomen there are only about 160 slices.
To Finish a Game
As we approach our Beta release of Luster, one of the major hurdles we need to get over is finishing some of our projects we want to show off. We have so many half-started or half-finished things we could use to show the power and versatility of Luster, but we don’t want to be showing unfinished work. One project we definitely want to have ready for launch day is Blocks: the physics-based puzzle game we’ve been plucking away at for the last few months.
Finishing a game is a difficult task. There are a number of very different areas which need to be completed and polished and tested before release. We need original music, smooth gameplay, finalized textures, and we need to try to fit it all into the smallest package possible. Blocks is a relatively small game and even it requires a lot of attention to bring up to production level. We’ll be working hard on the sounds, the levels, and the GUI for the game right up until launch day. Luckily for us, the gameplay has been solid and fun and we’re fairly certain none of the core mechanics need further tweaking.
Hopefully the game proves as much fun to everyone else as it is to us. If it goes well, we’ll come back and work on it more adding features and creating a lot more levels for the even better Blocks 2. So, when the Luster beta launches remember to jump over to http://www.luster3d.com and give Blocks a try.
