An extensible real-time visualization pipeline for dynamic spatial modeling.

Abstract

This article presents research results of an extensible visualization pipeline for real-time exploratory analysis of spatially explicit simulations. We identify software requirements and discuss the main conceptual and design issues. We propose a protocol for data serialization, a high performance monitoring mechanism, and graphical interfaces for visualization. Performance experiments show that combining multithreading and the Blackboard design pattern reduces the visualization response time by 80%, with no significant increase in memory consumption (less than 7%). The components presented in this article have been integrated in the TerraME modeling platform for simulation of terrestrial systems.