A scientific visualization renderer

Abstract

While scientific visualization systems share many requirements with other graphical applications, they also pose special requirements that make solutions based on standard rendering hardware or software not entirely satisfactory. This paper illustrates those requirements by describing the renderer used in a production scientific visualization system, Data Explorer [1], We begin by setting forth the requirements for a visualization renderer derived from our experiences. We then describe implementation techniques used to meet the requirements of parallelism, volume rendering of irregular data, clipping, and integration of rendering modalities. The renderer described is a software renderer, but it is hoped that the requirements and implementation described here might influence the design of future generations of rendering hardware.