Rendering a volumetric dataset – MCML simulation

In this section, we will demonstrate the rendering of a 3D volumetric dataset generated from a Monte Carlo simulation of light transport in biological tissue, called Monte Carlo for multi-layered media (MCML). For simplicity, the simulation output file is included with the code bundle for this chapter so that readers can directly run the demo without setting up the simulation code. The source code for the Monte Carlo simulation is described in detail in a series of publications listed in the See also section and the GPU implementation is available online for interested readers (https://code.google.com/p/gpumcml/).

Light transport in biological tissue can be modeled with the radiative transport equation (RTE), which has proven difficult to solve analytically for complex geometry. The time-dependent RTE can be expressed as:

Here is the radiance [W m⁻²sr⁻¹] defined as the radiant power [W] crossing an infinitesimal area...