This paper presents all the details regarding the talk, titled Volume-Aware Extinction Mapping, we did at SIGGRAPH in 2012.
We introduce Boundary-Aware Extinction Maps for interactive rendering of massive heterogeneous volumetric datasets. Our approach is based on the projection of the extinction along light rays into a boundary-aware function space, focusing on the most relevant sections of the light paths. This technique also provides an alternative representation of the set of participating media, allowing scattering simulation methods to be applied on arbitrary volume representations. Combined with a simple out-of-core rendering framework, Boundary-Aware Extinction Maps are valuable tools for interactive applications as well as production previsualization and rendering