This isn't quite impossible using only POV...

If I'm not mistaken, POV has some vector-function
which returns the rgb of a given pigment. Using
image-maps (these "slices"), you could somehow
sample the maps and get the "outer hull". Since
next layers should either line up when there
are multiple hulls present, the sampled points could
be connected using triangles, and otherwise there should be
some method to find if two hulls merge in a next layer...

But its a quite difficult process I believe. Perhaps making
Heightfields from image-maps, placing them, then tracing
samples could be another approach (though probably not
very accurate, but perhaps sufficient?)...

Ah, just mumbling about, don't mind me...


--
Tim Nikias
Homepage: http://www.digitaltwilight.de/no_lights/index.html
Email: Tim### [at] gmxde

> It sounds like what you want to do is map images with
> transparency to planes. Should be easy enough to do.
> Then you render stereoscopic pairs of the stacked planes
> to view. Nice idea. You would have to be very precise
> in registration of the images on the planes, and no
> doubt you would have to play around with the levels
> of transparency to get it to work.
>
> Then again to really use the power of a ray tracer you
> would want to transform the data into a true three
> dimensional model. That would be a real challenge and
> has been accomplished by Voxel and other companies
> that charge huge sums of money for the process.
>
>  HB
>
>

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