Ray traced scalar fields with shaded polygonal output

An algorithm for rendering scalar field data that reduces rendering times by as much as two orders of magnitude over traditional full resolution images is presented. Less than full-resolution sampling of the scalar field is performed using a fast ray tracing method. The sampling grid points are output as a set of screen-based Gouraud shaded polygons which are rendered in hardware by a graphics workstation. A gradient-based variable resolution algorithm that further improves rendering speed is presented. Several examples are presented.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">></ETX>