Publications

A fast high accuracy volume renderer for unstructured data

Moreland, Kenneth D.; Angel, Edward

In this paper, we describe an unstructured mesh volume renderer. Our renderer is interactive and accurately integrates light intensity an order of magnitude faster than previous methods. We employ a projective technique that takes advantage of the expanded programmability of the latest 3D graphics hardware. We also analyze an optical model commonly used for scientific volume rendering and derive a new method to compute it that is very accurate but computationally feasible in real time. We demonstrate a system that can accurately produce a volume rendering of an unstructured mesh with a first-order approximation to any classification method. Furthermore, our system is capable of rendering over 300 thousand tetrahedra per second yet is independent of the classification scheme used. © 2004 IEEE.