MCXLAB is the native MEX version of MCX for Matlab and GNU Octave. It compiles the entire MCX code into a MEX function which can be called directly inside Matlab or Octave. The input and output files in MCX are replaced by convenient in-memory struct variables in MCXLAB, thus, making it much easier to use and interact. Matlab/Octave also provides convenient plotting and data analysis functions. With MCXLAB, your analysis can be streamlined and speed- up without involving disk files.
Because MCXLAB contains the exact computational codes for the GPU calculations as in the MCX binaries, MCXLAB is expected to have identical performance when running simulations. By default, we compile MCXLAB with the support of recording detected photon partial path-lengths (i.e. the "make det" option). In addition, we also provide "mcxlab_atom": an atomic version of mcxlab compiled similarly as "make detbox" for MCX. It supports atomic operations using shared memory enabled by setting "cfg.sradius" input parameter to a positive number.
To download MCXLAB, please visit this link. If you choose to register, you will have an option to be notified for any future updates.
The system requirements for MCXLAB are the same as MCX: you have to make sure that you have a CUDA-capable graphics card with properly configured CUDA driver (you can run the standard MCX binary first to test if your system is capable to run MCXLAB). Of course, you need to have either Matlab or Octave installed.
Once you set up the CUDA toolkit and NVIDIA driver, you can then add the "mcxlab" directory to your Matlab/Octave search path using the addpath command. If you want to add this path permanently, please use the "pathtool" command, or edit your startup.m (~/.octaverc for Octave).
If everything works ok, typing "help mcxlab" in Matlab/Octave will print the help information. If you see any error, particularly any missing libraries, please make sure you have downloaded the matching version built for your platform.
To learn the basic usage of MCXLAB, you can type
help mcxlab
in Matlab/Octave to see the help information regarding how to use this function. The help information is listed below. You can find the input/output formats and examples. The input cfg structure has very similar field names as the verbose command line options in MCX.
==================================================================== mcxlab - Monte Carlo eXtreme (MCX) for MATLAB/GNU Octave -------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c) 2011-2019 Qianqian Fang <q.fang at neu.edu> URL: http://mcx.space ==================================================================== Format: fluence=mcxlab(cfg); or [fluence,detphoton,vol,seed,trajectory]=mcxlab(cfg); [fluence,detphoton,vol,seed,trajectory]=mcxlab(cfg, option); Input: cfg: a struct, or struct array. Each element of cfg defines the parameters associated with a simulation. if cfg='gpuinfo': return the supported GPUs and their parameters, see sample script at the bottom option: (optional), options is a string, specifying additional options option='preview': this plots the domain configuration using mcxpreview(cfg) option='mcxcl': this calls mcxcl.mex* instead of mcx.mex* on non-NVIDIA hardware cfg may contain the following fields: == Required == *cfg.nphoton: the total number of photons to be simulated (integer) maximum supported value is 2^63-1 *cfg.vol: a 3D array specifying the media index in the domain. can be uint8, uint16, uint32, single or double arrays. 2D simulations are supported if cfg.vol has a singleton dimension (in x or y); srcpos/srcdir must belong to the 2D plane in such case. for 2D simulations, Example: <demo_mcxlab_2d.m> *cfg.prop: an N by 4 array, each row specifies [mua, mus, g, n] in order. the first row corresponds to medium type 0 (background) which is typically [0 0 1 1]. The second row is type 1, and so on. The background medium (type 0) has special meanings: a photon terminates when moving from a non-zero to zero voxel. *cfg.tstart: starting time of the simulation (in seconds) *cfg.tstep: time-gate width of the simulation (in seconds) *cfg.tend: ending time of the simulation (in second) *cfg.srcpos: a 1 by 3 vector, the position of the source in grid unit *cfg.srcdir: a 1 by 3 vector, specifying the incident vector; if srcdir contains a 4th element, it specifies the focal length of the source (only valid for focuable src, such as planar, disk, fourier, gaussian, pattern, slit, etc); if the focal length is nan, all photons will be launched isotropically regardless of the srcdir direction. == MC simulation settings == cfg.seed: seed for the random number generator (integer) [0] if set to a uint8 array, the binary data in each column is used to seed a photon (i.e. the "replay" mode) Example: <demo_mcxlab_replay.m> cfg.respin: repeat simulation for the given time (integer) [1] if negative, divide the total photon number into respin subsets cfg.isreflect: [1]-consider refractive index mismatch, 0-matched index cfg.bc per-face boundary condition (BC), a strig of 6 letters for bounding box faces at -x,-y,-z,+x,+y,+z axes; overwrite cfg.isreflect if given. each letter can be one of the following: '_': undefined, fallback to cfg.isreflect 'r': like cfg.isreflect=1, Fresnel reflection BC 'a': like cfg.isreflect=0, total absorption BC 'm': mirror or total reflection BC 'c': cyclic BC, enter from opposite face cfg.isnormalized:[1]-normalize the output fluence to unitary source, 0-no reflection cfg.isspecular: 1-calculate specular reflection if source is outside, [0] no specular reflection cfg.maxgate: the num of time-gates per simulation cfg.minenergy: terminate photon when weight less than this level (float) [0.0] cfg.unitinmm: defines the length unit for a grid edge length [1.0] Example: <demo_sphere_cube_subpixel.m> cfg.shapes: a JSON string for additional shapes in the grid Example: <demo_mcxyz_skinvessel.m> cfg.gscatter: after a photon completes the specified number of scattering events, mcx then ignores anisotropy g and only performs isotropic scattering for speed [1e9] == GPU settings == cfg.autopilot: 1-automatically set threads and blocks, [0]-use nthread/nblocksize cfg.nblocksize: how many CUDA thread blocks to be used [64] cfg.nthread: the total CUDA thread number [2048] cfg.gpuid: which GPU to use (run 'mcx -L' to list all GPUs) [1] if set to an integer, gpuid specifies the index (starts at 1) of the GPU for the simulation; if set to a binary string made of 1s and 0s, it enables multiple GPUs. For example, '1101' allows to use the 1st, 2nd and 4th GPUs together. Example: <mcx_gpu_benchmarks.m> cfg.workload an array denoting the relative loads of each selected GPU. for example, [50,20,30] allocates 50%, 20% and 30% photons to the 3 selected GPUs, respectively; [10,10] evenly divides the load between 2 active GPUs. A simple load balancing strategy is to use the GPU core counts as the weight. cfg.isgpuinfo: 1-print GPU info, [0]-do not print == Source-detector parameters == cfg.detpos: an N by 4 array, each row specifying a detector: [x,y,z,radius] cfg.maxdetphoton: maximum number of photons saved by the detectors [1000000] cfg.srctype: source type, the parameters of the src are specified by cfg.srcparam{1,2} Example: <demo_mcxlab_srctype.m> 'pencil' - default, pencil beam, no param needed 'isotropic' - isotropic source, no param needed 'cone' - uniform cone beam, srcparam1(1) is the half-angle in radian 'gaussian' [*] - a collimated gaussian beam, srcparam1(1) specifies the waist radius (in voxels) 'planar' [*] - a 3D quadrilateral uniform planar source, with three corners specified by srcpos, srcpos+srcparam1(1:3) and srcpos+srcparam2(1:3) 'pattern' [*] - a 3D quadrilateral pattern illumination, same as above, except srcparam1(4) and srcparam2(4) specify the pattern array x/y dimensions, and srcpattern is a floating-point pattern array, with values between [0-1]. if cfg.srcnum>1, srcpattern must be a floating-point array with a dimension of [srcnum srcparam1(4) srcparam2(4)] Example: <demo_photon_sharing.m> 'pattern3d' [*] - a 3D illumination pattern. srcparam1{x,y,z} defines the dimensions, and srcpattern is a floating-point pattern array, with values between [0-1]. 'fourier' [*] - spatial frequency domain source, similar to 'planar', except the integer parts of srcparam1(4) and srcparam2(4) represent the x/y frequencies; the fraction part of srcparam1(4) multiplies 2*pi represents the phase shift (phi0); 1.0 minus the fraction part of srcparam2(4) is the modulation depth (M). Put in equations: S=0.5*[1+M*cos(2*pi*(fx*x+fy*y)+phi0)], (0<=x,y,M<=1) 'arcsine' - similar to isotropic, except the zenith angle is uniform distribution, rather than a sine distribution. 'disk' [*] - a uniform disk source pointing along srcdir; the radius is set by srcparam1(1) (in grid unit) 'fourierx' [*] - a general Fourier source, the parameters are srcparam1: [v1x,v1y,v1z,|v2|], srcparam2: [kx,ky,phi0,M] normalized vectors satisfy: srcdir cross v1=v2 the phase shift is phi0*2*pi 'fourierx2d' [*] - a general 2D Fourier basis, parameters srcparam1: [v1x,v1y,v1z,|v2|], srcparam2: [kx,ky,phix,phiy] the phase shift is phi{x,y}*2*pi 'zgaussian' - an angular gaussian beam, srcparam1(0) specifies the variance in the zenith angle 'line' - a line source, emitting from the line segment between cfg.srcpos and cfg.srcpos+cfg.srcparam(1:3), radiating uniformly in the perpendicular direction 'slit' [*] - a colimated slit beam emitting from the line segment between cfg.srcpos and cfg.srcpos+cfg.srcparam(1:3), with the initial dir specified by cfg.srcdir 'pencilarray' - a rectangular array of pencil beams. The srcparam1 and srcparam2 are defined similarly to 'fourier', except that srcparam1(4) and srcparam2(4) are both integers, denoting the element counts in the x/y dimensions, respectively. For exp., srcparam1=[10 0 0 4] and srcparam2[0 20 0 5] represent a 4x5 pencil beam array spanning 10 grids in the x-axis and 20 grids in the y-axis (5-voxel spacing) source types marked with [*] can be focused using the focal length parameter (4th element of cfg.srcdir) cfg.{srcparam1,srcparam2}: 1x4 vectors, see cfg.srctype for details cfg.srcpattern: see cfg.srctype for details cfg.srcnum: the number of source patterns that are simultaneously simulated; only works for 'pattern' source, see cfg.srctype='pattern' for details Example <demo_photon_sharing.m> cfg.issrcfrom0: 1-first voxel is [0 0 0], [0]- first voxel is [1 1 1] cfg.replaydet: only works when cfg.outputtype is 'jacobian', 'wl', 'nscat', or 'wp' and cfg.seed is an array -1 replay all detectors and save in separate volumes (output has 5 dimensions) 0 replay all detectors and sum all Jacobians into one volume a positive number: the index of the detector to replay and obtain Jacobians cfg.voidtime: for wide-field sources, [1]-start timer at launch, or 0-when entering the first non-zero voxel == Output control == cfg.issaveexit: [0]-save the position (x,y,z) and (vx,vy,vz) for a detected photon Example: <demo_lambertian_exit_angle.m> cfg.issaveref: [0]-save diffuse reflectance/transmittance in the non-zero voxels next to a boundary voxel. The reflectance data are stored as negative values; must pad zeros next to boundaries Example: see the demo script at the bottom cfg.outputtype: 'flux' - fluence-rate, (default value) 'fluence' - fluence integrated over each time gate, 'energy' - energy deposit per voxel 'jacobian' or 'wl' - mua Jacobian (replay mode), 'nscat' or 'wp' - weighted scattering counts for computing Jacobian for mus (replay mode) for type jacobian/wl/wp, example: <demo_mcxlab_replay.m> and <demo_replay_timedomain.m> cfg.session: a string for output file names (only used when no return variables) == Debug == cfg.debuglevel: debug flag string, one or a combination of ['R','M','P'], no space 'R': debug RNG, output fluence.data is filled with 0-1 random numbers 'M': return photon trajectory data as the 5th output 'P': show progress bar cfg.maxjumpdebug: [10000000|int] when trajectory is requested in the output, use this parameter to set the maximum position stored. By default, only the first 1e6 positions are stored. fields with * are required; options in [] are the default values Output: fluence: a struct array, with a length equals to that of cfg. For each element of fluence, fluence(i).data is a 4D array with dimensions specified by [size(vol) total-time-gates]. The content of the array is the normalized fluence at each voxel of each time-gate. detphoton: (optional) a struct array, with a length equals to that of cfg. Starting from v2018, the detphoton contains the below subfields: detphoton.detid: the ID(>0) of the detector that captures the photon detphoton.nscat: cummulative scattering event counts in each medium detphoton.ppath: cummulative path lengths in each medium (partial pathlength) one need to multiply cfg.unitinmm with ppath to convert it to mm. detphoton.mom: cummulative cos_theta for momentum transfer in each medium detphoton.p or .v: exit position and direction, when cfg.issaveexit=1 detphoton.w0: photon initial weight at launch time detphoton.prop: optical properties, a copy of cfg.prop detphoton.data: a concatenated and transposed array in the order of [detid nscat ppath mom p v w0]' "data" is the is the only subfield in all mcxlab before 2018 vol: (optional) a struct array, each element is a preprocessed volume corresponding to each instance of cfg. Each volume is a 3D int32 array. seeds: (optional), if give, mcxlab returns the seeds, in the form of a byte array (uint8) for each detected photon. The column number of seed equals that of detphoton. trajectory: (optional), if given, mcxlab returns the trajectory data for each simulated photon. The output has 6 rows, the meanings are id: 1: index of the photon packet pos: 2-4: x/y/z/ of each trajectory position 5: current photon packet weight 6: reserved By default, mcxlab only records the first 1e7 positions along all simulated photons; change cfg.maxjumpdebug to define a different limit. Example: % first query if you have supported GPU(s) info=mcxlab('gpuinfo') % define the simulation using a struct cfg.nphoton=1e7; cfg.vol=uint8(ones(60,60,60)); cfg.vol(20:40,20:40,10:30)=2; % add an inclusion cfg.prop=[0 0 1 1;0.005 1 0 1.37; 0.2 10 0.9 1.37]; % [mua,mus,g,n] cfg.issrcfrom0=1; cfg.srcpos=[30 30 1]; cfg.srcdir=[0 0 1]; cfg.detpos=[30 20 1 1;30 40 1 1;20 30 1 1;40 30 1 1]; cfg.vol(:,:,1)=0; % pad a layer of 0s to get diffuse reflectance cfg.issaveref=1; cfg.gpuid=1; cfg.autopilot=1; cfg.tstart=0; cfg.tend=5e-9; cfg.tstep=5e-10; % calculate the fluence distribution with the given config [fluence,detpt,vol,seeds,traj]=mcxlab(cfg); % integrate time-axis (4th dimension) to get CW solutions cwfluence=sum(fluence.data,4); % fluence rate cwdref=sum(fluence.dref,4); % diffuse reflectance % plot configuration and results subplot(231); mcxpreview(cfg);title('domain preview'); subplot(232); imagesc(squeeze(log(cwfluence(:,30,:))));title('fluence at y=30'); subplot(233); hist(detpt.ppath(:,1),50); title('partial path tissue#1'); subplot(234); plot(squeeze(fluence.data(30,30,30,:)),'-o');title('TPSF at [30,30,30]'); subplot(235); newtraj=mcxplotphotons(traj);title('photon trajectories') subplot(236); imagesc(squeeze(log(cwdref(:,:,1))));title('diffuse refle. at z=1'); This function is part of Monte Carlo eXtreme (MCX) URL: http://mcx.space License: GNU General Public License version 3, please read LICENSE.txt for details
We provided several examples to demonstrate the basic usage of MCXLAB, as well as to perform validations of MCX algorithm using both simple homogeneous and heterogeneous domains. These examples are explained below:
In this example, we show the most basic usage of MCXLAB. This include how to define the input configuration structure, launch MCX simulations and interpret and plotting the resulting data.
In this example, we validate MCXLAB with a homogeneous medium in a cubic domain. This is exactly the example shown in Fig.5 of [Fang2009].
You can also use the alternative optical properties that has a high g value to observe the similarity between the two scattering/g configurations.
In this example, we validate the MCXLAB solver with a heterogeneous domain and the analytical solution of the diffusion model. We also demonstrate how to use sub-pixel resolution to refine the representation of heterogeneities. The domain is consisted of a 6x6x6 cm box with a 2cm diameter sphere embedded at the center.
This test is identical to that used for Fig. 3 in [Fang2010].
In this example, we demonstrate how to use sub-pixel resolution to represent the problem domain. The domain is consisted of a 6x6x6 cm box with a 2cm diameter sphere embedded at the center.
In this example, we simulate a 4-layer brain model using MCXLAB. We will investigate the differences between the solutions with and witout boundary reflections (both external and internal) and show you how to display and analyze the resulting data.
To compile MCXLAB for Matlab, you need to cd mcx/src directory, and type
make mex
from a shell window. You need to make sure your Matlab is installed and the command mex is included in your PATH environment variable. Similarly, to compile MCXLAB for Octave, you type
make oct
The command mkoctfile must be accessible from your command line and it is provided in a package named "octave3.x-headers" in Ubuntu (3.x can be 3.2 or 3.4 etc).
If your graphics card is a Fermi-class or newer, you can compile MCXLAB with make fermimex or fermioct. The output mex file can determine the level of atomic operations using the cfg.sradius settings.
Screenshot for using MCXLAB in Matlab:
Screenshot for using MCXLAB in GNU Octave:
[Yu2018] Leiming Yu, Fanny Nina-Paravecino, David Kaeli, Qianqian Fang, "Scalable and massively parallel Monte Carlo photon transport simulations for heterogeneous computing platforms," J. Biomed. Opt. 23(1), 010504 (2018).
[Fang2009] Qianqian Fang and David A. Boas, "Monte Carlo simulation of photon migration in 3D turbid media accelerated by graphics processing units," Opt. Express 17, 20178-20190 (2009)