TriangleCaster: extensions to 3D-texturing units for accelerated volume rendering

We discuss hardware extensions to 3D-texturing units, which are very small but nevertheless remove some substantial performance limits typically found when using a 3D-texturing unit for volume rendering. The underlying algorithm uses only a slight mod$cation of existing method, which limits negative impacts on application software. In particular, the method speeds up the compositing operation, improves texture cache eflciency and allows for early ray termination and empty space skipping. Early ray termination can not be used in the traditional approach. Simulations show that, depending on data set properties, the performance of readily available, low-cost PC graphics accelerators is already suflcient for real-time volume visualization. Thus, in terms ofperformance, the TRIANGLECASTER-extensions can make dedicated volume rendering accelerators unnecessary. CCS