An Enhanced Implementation of the Marching Cubes Algorithm

摘要

The Marching Cubes algorithm is a widely used volume rendering technique. It creates an isosurface representation of a volumetric dataset by means of a clever classification of the possible cell configurations (i.e., sets of eight adjacent voxels). This technique is quite straightforward to implement, and exhibits an outstanding performance. However, some problems were detected in the algorithm, when in some cases ambiguously classified cells produce isosurfaces with cracks or holes. The solutions proposed for this problem reduce but not eliminate the cases where cracks arise, and also produce a significant time overhead. This paper describes an enhanced classification schema for the marching cubes algorithm. It is based on the consideration of a fictitious "diagonal" face across the cell. This does not lead to a proliferation of configurations, thus retaining the efficiency of the original algorithm. It produces an adequate output in all the cases.