Scientific visualization of geophysical simulation data by the CAVE VR system with volume rendering

As the size and complexity of the simulation data increase, the need to visualize the data in three-dimensional (3D) space is growing in the geophysical community. The modern virtual reality (VR) technology provides a technical solution to the demand. Among modern VR systems, the CAVE provides the most effective VR environment. We have developed a VR visualization software for the CAVE system that incorporates the volume rendering visualization method. Implementation of a high speed volume rendering using the texture-map technique in the CAVE and its applications to various geophysical simulation data produced by Earth Simulator are examined.