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Show HN: Data-viz project for ray-tracing the Moon model

72 points by ray_gray 7y ago

pplonski86 7y ago
What hardware did you use to produce such photos?
- ray_gray 7y ago
  PlotOptiX requires NVIDIA GPU. I used GTX1060/6GB on a laptop for most of the work. Tested also on a desktop RTX1070/8GB, much better fps, of course. Video is done on RTX. In Google Cloud, on V100, runs even faster, but GUI is more convenient on local machine.
ray_gray 7y ago
Ray-tracing is done in a Python notebook. Data originates from NASA public resources. I searched for the highest resolution data to make the Moon almost touchable. So it is made of 118m elevetion model and 480m surface color. There is also 59m elevation model, but this 22GB does not really fit into my laptop's GPU. Code can run on GCP instance. Laptop/desktop is more convenient, though. If you'd like to go straight to pictures: https://www.behance.net/gallery/84326717/Making-of-the-Moon https://www.behance.net/gallery/84326717/Making-of-the-Moon or tutorial: https://medium.com/@sulej.robert/the-moon-made-twice-at-home-a2cb73b3f1e8 https://medium.com/@sulej.robert/the-moon-made-twice-at-home...
- jszymborski 7y ago
  pretty photos, and nice work! more than anything, though, thanks for introducing me to PlotOptiX! It looks like a great way to plot scientific data in 3D :D
dvh 7y ago
Do you use Lola data? What resolution and from where?
- ray_gray 7y ago
  Yes, 118m resolution, it is from: https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/search/details/Moon/LRO/LOLA/Lunar_LRO_LOLA_Global_LDEM_118m_Mar2014/cub https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/search/details/Moon/LRO/LOLA/L... All other sources (surface color, star map in the background) are referenced in notebooks, gallery, and tutorial as well.
rcarmo 7y ago
The video is very nice, although the bump/displacement seems a little too strong - craters should look a little shallower :)
- Zelizz 7y ago
  The Medium article says that was intentional: > That gives the elevation spread of about 1.15% of the mean radius. I’ll use a bit higher value of 2%, so the terrain features are more prominent.
  - rcarmo 7y ago
    I missed that bit, thanks!
ray_gray 7y ago
Thanks to all for the feedback and comments! @rcarmo Yes, bumps are enhanced, to make the surface more dramatic. This scale is a parameter in the notebook, it can be set to the realistic 1.15% of the mean radius. On another forum, someone pointed out that the Lambertian shading makes the Moon surface too smooth. So the diffuse material roughness will come in the next PlotOptiX release, in a few days. :)
ReD_CoDE 7y ago
Maybe this help with: https://github.com/x3dom/x3dom https://github.com/x3dom/x3dom As I heard it's based on explicit DOMs. Have anyone tried X3DOM?

72 points by ray_gray 7y ago

pplonski86 7y ago

What hardware did you use to produce such photos?

ray_gray 7y ago
PlotOptiX requires NVIDIA GPU. I used GTX1060/6GB on a laptop for most of the work. Tested also on a desktop RTX1070/8GB, much better fps, of course. Video is done on RTX. In Google Cloud, on V100, runs even faster, but GUI is more convenient on local machine.

ray_gray 7y ago

Ray-tracing is done in a Python notebook. Data originates from NASA public resources. I searched for the highest resolution data to make the Moon almost touchable. So it is made of 118m elevetion model and 480m surface color. There is also 59m elevation model, but this 22GB does not really fit into my laptop's GPU. Code can run on GCP instance. Laptop/desktop is more convenient, though. If you'd like to go straight to pictures: https://www.behance.net/gallery/84326717/Making-of-the-Moon https://www.behance.net/gallery/84326717/Making-of-the-Moon or tutorial: https://medium.com/@sulej.robert/the-moon-made-twice-at-home-a2cb73b3f1e8 https://medium.com/@sulej.robert/the-moon-made-twice-at-home...

jszymborski 7y ago
pretty photos, and nice work! more than anything, though, thanks for introducing me to PlotOptiX! It looks like a great way to plot scientific data in 3D :D

dvh 7y ago

Do you use Lola data? What resolution and from where?

ray_gray 7y ago
Yes, 118m resolution, it is from: https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/search/details/Moon/LRO/LOLA/Lunar_LRO_LOLA_Global_LDEM_118m_Mar2014/cub https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/search/details/Moon/LRO/LOLA/L... All other sources (surface color, star map in the background) are referenced in notebooks, gallery, and tutorial as well.

rcarmo 7y ago

The video is very nice, although the bump/displacement seems a little too strong - craters should look a little shallower :)

Zelizz 7y ago
The Medium article says that was intentional: > That gives the elevation spread of about 1.15% of the mean radius. I’ll use a bit higher value of 2%, so the terrain features are more prominent.
- rcarmo 7y ago
  I missed that bit, thanks!

ray_gray 7y ago

Thanks to all for the feedback and comments! @rcarmo Yes, bumps are enhanced, to make the surface more dramatic. This scale is a parameter in the notebook, it can be set to the realistic 1.15% of the mean radius. On another forum, someone pointed out that the Lambertian shading makes the Moon surface too smooth. So the diffuse material roughness will come in the next PlotOptiX release, in a few days. :)

ReD_CoDE 7y ago

Maybe this help with: https://github.com/x3dom/x3dom https://github.com/x3dom/x3dom As I heard it's based on explicit DOMs. Have anyone tried X3DOM?