Interactive visualization of non-manifold implicit surfaces using pre-integrated volume rendering

We present an interactive method of visualizing both manifold and non-manifold implicit surfaces. The implicit surfaces are directly visualized at interactive frame rates independent of surface complexity by the hardware-accelerated volume rendering method. Although conventional implicit surfaces can represent only two-manifold surfaces, we have developed a technique of representing non-manifold surfaces as implicit surfaces by applying segmented distance field. Implicit surfaces represented by this definition can be rendered by pre-integrated volume rendering using vertex generation diagrams as pre-integration table. We also developed a system for visualizing the implicit surfaces and have confirmed that it can render surfaces at sufficient quality and speed.