Interactive VR and Desktop Environment for HI Data Cube Exploration- A First Step

Abstract

We present an immersive multi-user virtual reality (VR) sys tem aimed at enabling collaborative exploration of large-scale neutral hy drogen (HI) spectral-line data cubes in radio astronomy. By integrating an external native rendering plugin with Unity and a partially GPU accelerated source finding pipeline based on SoFiA-2, our system facil itates interactive filtering and visualization of radio data cubes beyond traditional size constraints. While real-time filtering remains limited to a standalone desktop variant, the VR system allows users to inspect pre filtered data in high fidelity jointly. Our work addresses key challenges in scaling volume rendering for large data sets, reducing filtering latency through GPU acceleration, and enabling co-located scientific discussion in virtual space. We outline the system architecture, describe the GPU porting efforts of SoFiA, and position our work in the context of current astronomical visualization tools and workflows.