The physics of volume rendering

Radiation transfer is an important topic in several physical disciplines, probably most prominently in astrophysics. Computer scientists use radiation transfer, among other things, for the visualization of complex data sets with direct volume rendering. In this article, I point out the connection between physical radiation transfer and volume rendering, and I describe an implementation of direct volume rendering in the astrophysical radiation transfer code RADMC-3D. I show examples for the use of this module on analytical models and simulation data. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/0143-0807/35/6/065028 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-107680 Accepted Version Originally published at: Peters, Thomas (2014). The physics of volume rendering. European Journal of Physics, 35(6):065028. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/0143-0807/35/6/065028 The physics of volume rendering