A History of Rendering the Future with Computer Graphics & Applications
By CG&A Editor-in-chief, Pak Chung Wong, and AEICs Mike Potel, Chi-Wing Fu (Philip), Takeo Igarashi, and Wei Zeng on
In our continuing series for the Computer Society's 80th anniversary, the CG&A Editor-in-Chief highlights a seminal article published in the early years of the magazine, which has had a significant impact on the industry.
For 80 years, the IEEE Computer Society has advanced computing for the benefit of humanity, and IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications (CG&A) embodies this mission by translating foundational advances in graphics, visualization, VR, and interactive technology into accessible, practice-driven insights that shape how science, medicine, engineering, and society see, explore, and interact with the world.
Laying a Foundation for the Future
One of the clearest expressions of the CG&A mission is “Display of Surfaces from Volume Data” [1] by Mark Levoy, widely regarded as one of the most influential papers ever published in IEEE CG&A. Its impact stems not only from its technical contributions, but also from how precisely it reflects the magazine’s role at the intersection of theory, practice, and real-world applications.
The paper laid essential groundwork for surface extraction and rendering from volumetric scalar fields. Levoy’s formulation of direct volume rendering, gradient-based shading, and practical rendering considerations provided a rigorous yet accessible framework for transforming raw volume data into meaningful geometric representations. These ideas became foundational to volume visualization, influencing decades of work in medical imaging, scientific visualization, and later GPU-based rendering pipelines. Today, the concepts introduced in this paper remain embedded in visualization toolkits, medical scanners, and simulation software.
Beyond its technical influence, the paper exemplifies how CG&A communicates enduring ideas. Rather than emphasizing narrow algorithmic novelty, Levoy presented a coherent, application-driven view of volumetric rendering that addressed practical adoption, image quality, and computational constraints. In doing so, the article spoke simultaneously to researchers, practitioners, and application scientists, making complex concepts broadly accessible without oversimplification.
Levoy’s paper stands as a model of lasting impact. It is intellectually rigorous, practically grounded, and widely influential, reflecting CG&A’s long-standing commitment to advancing computer graphics and visualization by connecting deep technical insight with real-world relevance.
Explore the Article
- Marc Levoy, “Display of Surfaces from Volume Data,” IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 29–37, May/June 1988, doi: 10.1109/38.511.
About CG&A
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications publishes research from the forefront of computer graphics and its wide-ranging applications, from and for the benefit of professionals and researchers across STEM fields, the arts, education, business, and beyond. IEEE Computer Society staff thanks the CG&A Editor-in-Chief, Pak Chung Wong, and the CG&A editorial board for contributing this post.
