Direct, gradient-based volume rendering of large-scale biomedical data for immersive displays
Joerg Meyer, Huan Nguyen · 2007
We present a texture-based volume rendering method that uses multi-dimensional transfer functions that can be interactively changed in order to explore both homogeneous and heterogeneous areas in large-scale volumetric data sets. The use of look-up tables for the transfer functions and the linear complexity of the texture buffer recalculation enables the user to actively change the optical properties of the rendered materials, while maintaining interactive frame rates. This provides a significant improvement over traditional iso-surfacing or raycasting algorithms and other non-texture-based direct volume rendering algorithms.