page_title: Voxel
hierarchical_section_title: Voxel
context_page_description: In 3D computer graphics, a voxel represents a value on a regular grid in three-dimensional space. As with pixels in a 2D bitmap, voxels themselves do not typically have their position explicitly encoded with their values. Instead, rendering systems infer the position of a voxel based upon its position relative to other voxels.
  In contrast to pixels and voxels, polygons are often explicitly represented by the coordinates of their vertices. A direct consequence of this difference is that polygons can efficiently represent simple 3D structures with much empty or homogeneously filled space, while voxels excel at representing regularly sampled spaces that are non-homogeneously filled.
  Voxels are frequently used in the visualization and analysis of medical and scientific data. Some volumetric displays use voxels to describe their resolution. For example, a cubic volumetric display might be able to show 512×512×512 voxels.
  The word voxel originated analogously to the word "pixel", with vo representing "volume" and el representing "element"; similar formations with el for "element" include the words "pixel" and "texel".
context_section_description: In 3D computer graphics, a voxel represents a value on a regular grid in three-dimensional space. As with pixels in a 2D bitmap, voxels themselves do not typically have their position (i.e. coordinates) explicitly encoded with their values. Instead, rendering systems infer the position of a voxel based upon its position relative to other voxels (i.e., its position in the data structure that makes up a single volumetric image).
  In contrast to pixels and voxels, polygons are often explicitly represented by the coordinates of their vertices (as points). A direct consequence of this difference is that polygons can efficiently represent simple 3D structures with much empty or homogeneously filled space, while voxels excel at representing regularly sampled spaces that are non-homogeneously filled.
  Voxels are frequently used in the visualization and analysis of medical and scientific data (e.g. GIS). Some volumetric displays use voxels to describe their resolution. For example, a cubic volumetric display might be able to show 512×512×512 voxels.
  The word voxel originated analogously to the word "pixel", with vo representing "volume" and el representing "element"; similar formations with el for "element" include the words "pixel" and "texel".
caption: A series of voxels in a stack, with a single voxel shaded