A Streamline Illumination Method for 3D Flow Fields

Illumination is an important way to provide cues for spatial perception, and special lighting models are proposed to illuminate lines in 3D space. To achieve better spatial perception of streamlines, a new streamline illumination method is proposed in this paper, which is based on the fact that a streamline is a sample of a stream surface. In our method, a view-dependent tiny surface passing through the streamline is chosen to compute the line's illumination based on the Phong/Blinn model. Compared with existing line illumination models, our method is more simple and realistic. Test results show that it can enhance spatial perception of streamlines significantly.