Multi-volume rendering using depth buffers for surgical planning in virtual reality

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Balázs Faludi, Marek Zelechowski, Maria Licci, Norbert Zentai, Attill Saemann, Daniel Studer, Georg Rauter, Raphael Guzman, Carol Hasler, Gregory F. Jost, Philippe C. Cattin

Published: 2025, Last Modified: 28 Feb 2026Int. J. Comput. Assist. Radiol. Surg. 2025EveryoneRevisionsBibTeXCC BY-SA 4.0
Abstract: Planning highly complex surgeries in virtual reality (VR) provides a user-friendly and natural way to navigate volumetric medical data and can improve the sense of depth and scale. Using ray marching-based volume rendering to display the data has several benefits over traditional mesh-based rendering, such as offering a more accurate and detailed visualization without the need for prior segmentation and meshing. However, volume rendering can be difficult to extend to support multiple intersecting volumes in a scene while maintaining a high enough update rate for a comfortable user experience in VR.