In-situ visualization: state-of-the-art and some use cases

Marzia Rivi (Cineca), Luigi Calori (Cineca), Giuseppa Muscianisi (Cineca), Vladimir Slavnic (IPB)

In this paper we present an investigation about techniques and frameworks supporting in situ-visualization. With this term we mean that visualization is coupled with simulation and it occurs whilst the simulation is running. By coupling these together we can utilize the high performance computing for post processing, and we can circumvent the bottlenecks associated with storing and retrieving data in disk storage. Moreover it allows monitoring the simulation in-situ, performing not only visualization, but analysis of the incoming data as it is generated so that the simulation may be stopped or modified, thereby conserving CPU resources. In particular we have tested two techniques, by exploiting different visualization tools on two applications. The first one is the astrophysics code Pluto instrumented by using a ParaView plug-in called ICARUS, the second one is the neural simulator code BrainCore instrumented by using a library of VisIt.

Read more: PRACE whitepaper