Visualization of Scanned Cave Data with Global Illumination

Abstract

3D scans of caves are acquired for virtual exploration, quantitative analysis, and communication purposes. Especially when presented to a non-professional audience, near realistic visualization is important because it improves acceptance and familiarity. A major part of realistic visualizations is the reasonable simulation of light transport, including global effects such as diffuse inter-reflections. In this paper, we present a direct visualization method for cave data that are represented as unstructured point clouds. Global light transport is approximated with a volumetric scene representation. Using hierarchical data structures, our system achieves interactive frame rates.