Volume ray casting

Volume ray casting, sometimes called volumetric ray casting, volumetric ray tracing, or volume ray marching, is an image-based volume rendering technique. It computes 2D images from 3D volumetric data sets (3D scalar fields). Volume ray casting, which processes volume data, must not be mistaken with ray casting in the sense used in ray tracing, which processes surface data. In the volumetric variant, the computation doesn't stop at the surface but 'pushes through' the object, sampling the object along the ray. Unlike ray tracing, volume ray casting does not spawn secondary rays. When the context/application is clear, some authors simply call it ray casting. Because raymarching does not necessarily require an exact solution to ray intersection and collisions, it is suitable for real time computing for many applications for which ray tracing is unsuitable. Volume ray casting, sometimes called volumetric ray casting, volumetric ray tracing, or volume ray marching, is an image-based volume rendering technique. It computes 2D images from 3D volumetric data sets (3D scalar fields). Volume ray casting, which processes volume data, must not be mistaken with ray casting in the sense used in ray tracing, which processes surface data. In the volumetric variant, the computation doesn't stop at the surface but 'pushes through' the object, sampling the object along the ray. Unlike ray tracing, volume ray casting does not spawn secondary rays. When the context/application is clear, some authors simply call it ray casting. Because raymarching does not necessarily require an exact solution to ray intersection and collisions, it is suitable for real time computing for many applications for which ray tracing is unsuitable. The technique of volume ray casting can be derived directly from the rendering equation. It provides results of very high quality rendering. Volume ray casting is classified as an image-based volume rendering technique, as the computation emanates from the output image and not the input volume data, as is the case with object-based techniques.