Introduction to volume rendering

1. Introduction. What Is Volume Rendering? Volume Rendering Applications. Volume Acquisition. Acquisition Techniques. Volume Rendering Pipeline. File Format. For Further Study. 2. Volume Rendering Framework. Spatial Transforms and Linear Algebra. Matrix Representations and Transformation Operations. Rasterization and Rendering a Volume. Compositing of Multiple Volumes and Other Primitives. Perspective and Orthographic Projections. For Further Study. 3. Illumination and Shading. The Gradient. More Gradient Operators. Gouraud and Phong Shading. Difference between Gouraud and Phong Shading. Using Shading in Volume Rendering. For Further Study. 4. Classification. Histograms. Transfer Functions. Coloring and Shading. Segmentation. For Further Study. 5. Interpolation. Interpolation Kernels. Volume Rendering Example. Conclusions. For Further Study. 6. Compositing. The Ray Casting Integral. Discretization of the Ray Casting Integral. Front-to-Back Compositing. Back-to-Front Compositing. Using Opacity instead of Transparency. Partial Ray Compositing. Opacity Correction when Oversampling. Opacity Weighted Color Interpolation. Other Compositing Operations. For Further Study. 7. Volume Slicing. For Further Study. 8. Trade-offs. A High-Performance Volume Visualization System. Image Quality Improvements. Speedup Techniques. For Further Study. Appendix: Volume Rendering Resources. Periodicals. Organizations and Conferences. Internet Resources. Searchable Databases. Public Domain Software. Volume Rendering Extensions for OpenGL. Table of Contents. Introduction. Terminology. Capability Queries. Volume Data Definition. Drawing a Volume. Visibility Testing. Compute Gradients. Classification. Lighting. Projection. Sampling. Interpolation. Ordering. Fragment Operations. Attribute Queries. Utilities. Usage Notes. Futures. Glossary. References. Index.