<p>The purpose behind this thesis is to develop a software (SceneServer) that can generate data such as images and vertex lists from computer models. These models are placed in a virtual environment and they can be controlled either from a graphical user interface (GUI) or from a MATLAB client. Data can be retrieved and processed in MATLAB. By creating a connection between MATLAB and a 3D environment, computer vision algorithms can be designed and tested swiftly, thus giving the developer a powerful platform. SceneServer allows the user to manipulate, in detail, the models and scenes to be rendered. </p><p>MATLAB communicates with the SceneServer application through a Java library, which is connected to an interface in SceneServer. The graphics are visualised using Open Scene Graph (OSG) that in turn uses OpenGL. OSG is an open source cross-platform scene graph library for visualisation of real-time graphics. OpenGL is a software interface for creating advanced computer graphics in 2D and 3D.</p>

The purpose behind this thesis is to develop a software (SceneServer) that can generate data such as images and vertex lists from computer models. These models are placed in a virtual environment and they can be controlled either from a graphical user interface (GUI) or from a MATLAB client. Data can be retrieved and processed in MATLAB. By creating a connection between MATLAB and a 3D environment, computer vision algorithms can be designed and tested swiftly, thus giving the developer a powerful platform. SceneServer allows the user to manipulate, in detail, the models and scenes to be rendered. MATLAB communicates with the SceneServer application through a Java library, which is connected to an interface in SceneServer. The graphics are visualised using Open Scene Graph (OSG) that in turn uses OpenGL. OSG is an open source cross-platform scene graph library for visualisation of real-time graphics. OpenGL is a software interface for creating advanced computer graphics in 2D and 3D.

Theoretical part of this project is focused on rendering of volumetric data. It compares and appraise individual methods and thus readers get a good basic knowledge of commonnest causes of problems. Texture Mapped Volume Rendering and Volume Ray-casting methods are described in detail and the latter method is used in implementation of graphic system designed in this thesis. Secondary goals of this work are usage of less powerful hardware for volume-rendering, methods of optimization and dynamic change of output quality.