Estimation and Modeling of Actual Numerical Errors in Volume Rendering

In this paper we study the comprehensive effects on volume rendered images due to numerical errors caused by the use of finite precision for data representation and processing. To estimate actual error behavior we conduct a thorough study using a volume renderer implemented with arbitrary floating-point precision. Based on the experimental data we then model the impact of floating-point pipeline precision, sampling frequency and fixedpoint input data quantization on the fidelity of rendered images. We introduce three models, an average model, which does not adapt to different data nor varying transfer functions, as well as two adaptive models that take the intricacies of a new data set and transfer function into account by adapting themselves given a few different images rendered. We also test and validate our models based on new data that was not used during our model building.