Illuminating the fourth dimension

A family of techniques for creating intuitively informative shaded images of 4-D mathematical objects is proposed. The rendering of an object in a 4-D world is described by considering step-by-step how objects might be rendered into images in simpler worlds. The mathematical principles needed to compute projected images of objects and their shadows in D dimensions are outlined. The issues involved in producing shaded images of objects in four dimensions, including extending rendering from 3-D to 4-D, smooth shading, and specularity, are discussed. Results of rendering a Steiner surface, torus, and knotted sphere in four dimensions are presented.<>