Fast generation and display of iso-surface wireframes

Abstract

The paper presents a method for generating and displaying wireframe approximations to surfaces of constant value (or iso-surfaces). Input to the method is a data grid, a volume decomposition with each of whose vertices is associated a scalar value. During a preprocessing phase, the method constructs a threshold-independent data structure based upon the given data grid. The data structure relates the edges of an iso-surface wireframe to the edges of the data grid, for all possible threshold values. During the subsequent rendering phase, the data structure supports efficient generation and display of the iso-surface wireframe corresponding to any selected threshold value. The technique is efficient enough to form the basis for an interactive software system for visualizing iso-surfaces.