Multi-object volume rendering algorithm by octree projection

Abstract

In this paper, we present a new volume rendering algorithm for visualizing multiple objects from separate volume datasets. Octree volumes are defined to represent volumetric objects encspsulated in regular volume datasets. An adaptive space subdivision is used to extract target blocks from the final volumetric scene to optimize the reconstruction computation and minimize the amount of empty space in the target blocks. A template-based block projection process then projects all the target blocks onto the projection plane to generate the image. Both raycasting and hardware assisted 3D texture mapping schemes are implemented. The algorithm is efficient interms of both speed and memory requirements.