Prototyping of visualization designs of 3D vector fields using POVRay rendering engine

There is a persistent quest for novel methods of visualization in order to get insight into complex phenomena in variety of scientific domains. Researchers, ex. VTK team, achieved excellent results; however, some problems connected with implementation of new techniques and quality of the final images still persist. Results of inspection of number of visualization styles of 3D vector field employing POVRay ray-tracing engine are discussed, i.e. hedgehogs, oriented glyphs, streamlines, isosurface component approach and texturing design. All styles presented have been tested using water molecule model and compared concerning computing time, informativeness and general appearance. It is shown in the work that Scene Description Language (SDL), domain specific language implemented in POVRay is flexible enough to use it as a tool for fast prototyping of novel and exploratory visualization techniques. Visualizations discussed in the paper were computed using selected components of API of ScPovPlot3D, i.e. templates written in the SDL language. Results are compared to designs already implemented in VTK.