Interactive rendering method for displaying shafts of light

Recently graphics hardware has increased in capability, and is, moreover, now available even on standard PCs. These advances have encouraged researchers to develop hardware-accelerated methods for rendering realistic images. One of the important elements in enhancing reality is the effect of atmospheric scattering. The scattering of light due to atmospheric particles has to be taken into account in order to display shafts of light produced by studio spotlights and headlights of automobiles, for example. The purpose of the paper is to develop a method for displaying shafts of light at interactive rates by making use of the graphics hardware. The method makes use of hardware-accelerated volume rendering techniques to display the shafts of light.