Abstract: A method of rendering one or more material properties of a surface of an object includes acquiring a medical data set as a three-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional object. A surface structure corresponding to the surface of the three-dimensional object is determined based on the medical dataset. A plurality of rendering locations are derived based on the determined surface structure. The method includes rendering, by a physically-based volumetric renderer and from the medical dataset, one or more material properties of the surface of the object at each of the plurality of rendering locations. The one or more rendered material properties are stored per rendering location. Also disclosed is apparatus for performing the method.