Dpt. Information Technologies and Communications, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT), Cartagena, Murcia, Spain.
Institute of Electronics, Microelectronics and Nanotechnology (IEMN), University of Lille, Lille, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.
PLoS One. 2021 Nov 17;16(11):e0260060. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260060. eCollection 2021.
Accurate characterization and simulation of electromagnetic propagation can be obtained by ray-tracing methods, which are based on a high frequency approximation to the Maxwell equations and describe the propagating field as a set of propagating rays, reflecting, diffracting and scattering over environment elements. However, this approach has been usually too computationally costly to be used in large and dynamic scenarios, but this situation is changing thanks the increasing availability of efficient ray-tracing libraries for graphical processing units. In this paper we present Opal, an electromagnetic propagation simulation tool implemented with ray-tracing on graphical processing units, which is part of the Veneris framework. Opal can be used as a stand-alone ray-tracing simulator, but its main strength lies in its integration with the game engine, which allows to generate customized 3D environments quickly and intuitively. We describe its most relevant features and provide implementation details, highlighting the different simulation types it supports and its extension possibilites. We provide application examples and validate the simulation on demanding scenarios, such as tunnels, where we compare the results with theoretical solutions and further discuss the tradeoffs between the simulation types and its performance.
通过射线追踪方法可以获得对电磁传播的精确描述和模拟，该方法基于对麦克斯韦方程的高频近似，并将传播场描述为一组传播射线，在环境元素上反射、衍射和散射。然而，由于图形处理单元上高效射线追踪库的日益普及，这种方法通常计算成本过高，无法用于大型和动态场景。在本文中，我们介绍了 Opal，这是一个基于图形处理单元上的射线追踪的电磁传播模拟工具，它是 Veneris 框架的一部分。Opal 可以用作独立的射线追踪模拟器，但它的主要优势在于与游戏引擎的集成，这允许快速直观地生成定制的 3D 环境。我们描述了它的最相关功能并提供了实现细节，重点介绍了它支持的不同模拟类型及其扩展可能性。我们提供了应用示例，并在具有挑战性的场景（如隧道）中对模拟进行了验证，在这些场景中，我们将结果与理论解决方案进行了比较，并进一步讨论了不同模拟类型及其性能之间的权衡。
