A FLEXIBLE ENVIRONMENT FOR THE VISUALIZATION OF 3-DIMENSIONAL BIOLOGICAL STRUCTURES

''Ducky'' is a flexible and versatile software system for processing, rendering, and animating 3D datasets. The system is based on a powerfu l runtime interpreted language similar to C. The language includes man y built-in functions for animation, rendering, shading, surface defini tion, and the creation of interactive menu and window-based visualizat ion environments. Both volume and surface rendering methods are provid ed and may be combined in a single visualization. Ducky can create ani mations of a sequence of different views of a structure either within a 3D volume or across a series of volumes. Scripts implementing severa l common visualization tasks are provided. The system is readily exten dible. Existing scripts can be modified or new scripts written to crea te additional interactive environments and processes. (C) 1996 Academi c Press, Inc.