We introduce a novel texture-based volume rendering approach that achieves the image quality of the best post-shading approaches with far less slices. It is suitable for new flexible consumer graphics hardware and provides high image quality even for low-resolution volume data and non-linear transfer functions with high frequencies, without the performance overhead caused by rendering additional interpolated slices. This is especially useful for volumetric effects in computer games and professional scientific volume visualization, which heavily depend on memory bandwidth and rasterization power.

High performance deformation of volumetric objects is a common problem in computer graphics that has not yet been handled sufficiently. As a supplement to 3D texture based volume rendering, a novel approach is presented, which adaptively subdivides the volume into piecewise linear patches. An appropriate mathematical model based on trilinear interpolation and its approximations is proposed. New optimizations are introduced in this paper which are especially tailored to an efficient implementation using general purpose rasterization hardware, including new technologies, such as vertex programs and pixel shaders. Additionally, a high performance model for local illumination calculation is introduced, which meets the aesthetic requirements of visual arts and entertainment. The results demonstrate the significant performance benefit and allow for time-critical applications, such as computer assisted surgery.

Recently, the classic rendering pipeline in 3D graphics hardware has become flexible by means of programmable geometry engines and rasterization units. This development is primarily driven by the mass market of computer games and entertainment software, whose demand for new special effects and more realistic 3D environments induced a reconsideration of the once static rendering pipeline. Besides the impact on visual scene complexity in computer games, these advances in flexibility provide an enormous potential for new volume rendering algorithms. Thereby, they make yet unseen...

In most volume rendering scenarios implicit classification is performed manually by specification data values to visual attributes. An appropriate classification requires both specialized knowledge of the interesting structures within the data set as well as the technical knowhow of the computer scientist. Recent automatic data-driven techniques are verywell capable of separating different regions in the data set. However, their applicability in practice is limited, since they do not contain any information about the critical structures which are of interest. In this scenario we propose an efficient and reproducible way to automatically assign transfer function templates, which include individual knowledge as well as personal taste. The presented approach is based on dynamic programming and was successfully applied in medical environment. 1

This paper presents an application for semiautomatic repositioning of bone fractures that allows the merging of several fragments. This application has been developed with regard to orthopaedic surgeons who want to simulate the position and orientation of bone fragments preoperatively. The interactive algorithm includes volumetric collision detection for intuitive navigation and coarse manual positioning. Additionally, an optimization process for the mathematically exact repositioning of the bone fragments is implemented.