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Demonstration Video

Voxler 2 - Part 4
Creating and Editing VolRenders
PART 1
1. Introduction
2. Creating a VolRender
3. Editing VolRender Properties

1. Welcome to the Golden Software demonstration video for Voxler 2 – Part 4. This demonstration video will cover
creating and editing VolRender maps.

2. VolRenders use direct volume rendering to display voxels directly on the screen. A voxel is a volume pixel, or the
smallest cube-shaped part of a 3D image. Volume rendering of voxels can be described as a three dimensional
display of data that simulates the interaction of light through these points in the volume. In Voxler, simulated light
rays are cast through the volume, where particles within the volume simultaneously emit and absorb light. The
color of an individual pixel on the screen is computed by combining the contributions from each particle
intersecting the ray. This allows for the visualization of objects that are being modeled at the same component or
C–value. The appropriate adjustment of the opacity of the VolRender can aide in the volume display.

To create a VolRender, load a data file and grid it or load a lattice. Attach the VolRender to either the gridder or
lattice with the Create | Graphics Output | VolRender command. I’m going to close the existing window using
the File | New command. When prompted to save the file, I’ll select No.

a. Let’s load a data file. Choose File | Load Data. Select the GoldConcentration.dat file, located in the
Voxler Data directory. Click Open.

b. The default settings are appropriate for loading the data, so click OK in both the Data Import Options
and the Select Data Columns dialogs. The data appears in the network window.

c. Click on the data file to select it. Choose Create | Computational | Gridder.

d. Click on the Gridder module to select it. In the properties window, click the Begin Gridding button.

e. When the gridding is complete, choose Create | Graphics Output | VolRender. Initially, all of the gridded
data is shown in the VolRender. This makes the object look like a solid cube.

3. To change the properties of the VolRender, select it in the Network window and move to the Property Inspector.
a. The Connected to option shows that the module is connected to the Gridder.

b. The Render Method is the method that is used to draw the VolRender on the screen. Choices include 2D
Texture and 3D Texture. The availability of the 2D Textures and 3D Textures is a function of your video
graphics card and driver. Different cards and drivers have different features available. So, some features
are emulated in software and are much slower than features that are enabled by hardware.

c. The ColorMap allows you to map each value to a specific color. You can use one of the predefined color
maps by clicking the GrayScale color bar and choosing another color from the drop down list.

You can define additional color maps or change the properties of the currently selected color map by
clicking the ellipses (…) button to the right of the color scale bar. This opens the ColorMap Editor. This
dialog will be discussed in a future video.

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d. The Opacity option controls the opacity, or transparency, of the VolRender. The larger the value, the
more opaque the Isosurface is. A value of 1 is fully opaque. A value of 0 is fully transparent. To change
the Opacity value, click and drag the dragger to a new value. Alternatively, highlight the existing value,
and type in a new value. Again, the values range from zero to one.

e. The Composition option controls how the voxels are composited along the viewing rays. Maximum
Intensity uses the brightest pixel along each viewing ray, resulting in a display similar to an X-ray image.
Note that there is no shading effect in this method and the opacity setting may have to be adjusted. Sum
Intensity adds the values of the pixels along each ray. Alpha Blending combines the pixels using a
blending function.

f. The Interpolation option controls the process of estimating the height of a surface in areas where no
original data points exist. Nearest Neighbor applies the closest grid node value on the original grid to the
grid node value in the new grid. This is the fastest resampling method. But, it can result in distorted output
if the original grid and output grid differ in size. Trilinear interpolation uses a weighted average of eight
input nodes to interpolate a new value. Some lattice node values in the original grid may be applied to
more than one output lattice node. Some of the input lattice nodes may not be used at all. This produces
a smoother result.

g. The Legend section controls the display of the legend. To display the legend, check the box next to
Show. The legend properties section will be discussed in a future video.

This concludes my demonstration of the VolRender creation and properties in Voxler.

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