Occlusion culling for object-order volume rendering
AssigneeVital Images, Inc.
InventorKarel Zuiderveld
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Computerized systems and methods provide occlusion culling for efficiently rendering a three dimensional image. The systems and methods calculate a set of occluder shields in a voxel dataset using a transparency value associated with each voxel of the dataset. Next, the occluder shields are applied to the dataset to identify regions of the voxel data that do not contribute to the final image. Finally, the voxel data set can be rendered, excluding regions that do not contribute to the final image.
Claims33
A computerized method for rendering a three dimensional image, the method comprising:
- calculating a set of occluder shields in a voxel dataset using a transparency value associated with each voxel of the dataset, said calculation including:
- dividing the voxel data into a plurality of contextual regions, each of said contextual regions comprising a plurality of voxels, each of said voxels having a transparency value, and a position value;
- and
- for each contextual region performing the tasks of:
- opacity mapping the contextual region;
- determining if a zero order occluding shield is present;
- and
- if no zero order occluding shield is present, then determining if higher order occluding shields are present;
- applying the occluder shields to identify regions of the voxel data that do not contribute to the final image;
- and
- rendering the voxel dataset, said rendering excluding regions that do not contribute to the final image.
A computerized system, comprising:
- a processor;
- a memory;
- and
- a rendering module that is operable on the computerized system to:
- calculate a set of occluder shields in a voxel dataset using a transparency value associated with each voxel of the dataset, said calculation including operations to:
- divide the voxel data into a plurality of contextual regions, each of said contextual regions comprising a plurality of voxels, each of said voxels having a transparency value, and a position value;
- and
- for each contextual region perform the tasks of:
- opacity map the contextual region;
- and
- determine if a zero order occluding shield is present;
- if no zero order occluding shield is present, then determine if higher order occluding shields are present;
- apply the occluder shields to identify regions of the voxel data that do not contribute to the final image;
- and
- render the voxel dataset, said rendering excluding regions that do not contribute to the final image.
A computer readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method for rendering three dimensional images, the method comprising:
- calculating a set of occluder shields in a voxel dataset using a transparency value associated with each voxel of the dataset, said calculation including:
- dividing the voxel data into a plurality of contextual regions, each of said contextual regions comprising a plurality of voxels, each of said voxels having a transparency value, and a position value;
- and
- for each contextual region performing the tasks of:
- opacity mapping the contextual region;
- determining if a zero order occluding shield is present;
- and
- if no zero order occluding shield is present, then determining if higher order occluding shields are present;
- applying the occluder shields to identify regions of the voxel data that do not contribute to the final image;
- and
- rendering the voxel dataset, said rendering excluding regions that do not contribute to the final image.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.