Direct Rendering Algorithms for Complex Volumetric Scenes

This paper concerns a new sub-field of computer graphics, namely volume graphics, which aims to develop voxel-based modelling and rendering techniques for general purpose graphics in addition to its original playing field, volume visualisation. Building upon our recent work on the modelling of graphics scenes composed of multiple volumetric datasets, we present three different algorithms for rendering such scenes. The results have shown that traditional single-volume rendering methods, such as direct volume rendering by ray-casting and splatting, can be effectively extended to multi-volume environments. The work has thereby demonstrated the feasibility and the potential of using voxel-based representations in computer graphics.