ABSTRACT
THIS BOOK COVERS two seemingly very different applications of volume graphics: on the one hand, “special effects” and realistic rendering of clouds, smoke, fire, and similar effects for computer games, movie production, and so forth; on the other hand, the scientific visualization of volumetric data. How do these different fields fit together, and why are they covered in the same text?
The simple answer is that both fields rely on the same underlying physical models and therefore use identical, or at least very similar, rendering techniques. This chapter focuses on the physical model for volume rendering, discussing its fundamental mathematical description and its approximations typically used for real-time volume rendering. The basic idea is to model light transport in gaseous materials such as clouds or fog. Therefore, volume graphics targets the same goal as computer graphics in general: the simulation of light propagation in order to produce images as recorded by a virtual camera.
