Texture mapping is critically important for efficient visualization of 3D seismic data volumes. Lastly, we look at time or depth slices, which are perpendicular to both inlines and crosslines. So you wind up with three mutually orthogonal sets of planes to animate and visualize as we navigate through the cube. These surfaces, or horizons, may represent key reflectors associated with subsurface interfaces or components of a velocity model. Perhaps millions of triangles are necessary to define a surface in sufficient detail.
Dynamic visualization is essential for understanding what's there.
In order to really grasp three-dimensional relationships within the data, the processor needs to either animate through the cube, rotate it in three space, or both at the same time. To obtain sufficiently smooth motion, the frame rate needs to be at least ten frames per second, and generally the faster the better. In other words, the graphic engine has only one tenth of a second at the most to render the visible planes of texture data plus many millions of triangles. Add all that up and you have an extremely demanding set of requirements for a graphics board. From what we have seen during the beta program, Expert3D is more than capable of meeting those requirements.