ABSTRACT
THE POWER OF CURRENT CONSUMER GRAPHICS HARDWARE increasingly allows the integration of truly volumetric graphics into applications with very high real-time demands. Computer and video games are certainly the prime example. In many traditional volume-rendering applications, such as medical volume rendering, frame rates between 10 and 20 frames per second are usually considered to be sufficient. In games, however, the overall frame rate needs to be much higher than that, including all the simulation and rendering for the entire scene, of which volumetric effects are but a small part.
This chapter describes approaches for integrating volume graphics into game engines and provides an overview of recent developments in simulating and rendering volumetric effects with very high frame rates. It is also intended as a guide to the other chapters of this book from a game developer’s perspective.
