N.: Direct volume visualization of three-dimensional vector fields

Current techniques for direct volume visualization offer only the ability to examine scalar fields. However most scientific explorations require the examination of vector and possibly tensor fields as well as numerous scalar fields. This paper describes an algorithm to directly render three-dimensional scalar and vector fields. The algorithm uses a combination of sampling and splatting techniques, that are extended to integrate the display of vector field data within the image. Additional Keywords: vector field, flow field, volume rendering, vector filter, compositing, scalar field, climate modeling