06/01/1994 09:00 AM
Computer Science
The advent of very fast texture mapping hardware in modern graphics workstations has warranted research into rendering techniques that use texture mapping to full advantage. We have developed a new and easy to implement method for direct volume rendering that produces high-quality images at speeds approaching two orders of magnitude faster than existing techniques, on workstations with hardware support for three-dimensional texture maps. A rectilinear data set is converted into a three-dimensional texture map containing color and opacity information. In the rendering phase, the texture map is then applied to a stack of parallel planes, which effectively cut the texture into many slices. The slices are composited to form an image of the original data set. This paper describes the theory and implementation of this technique.
