Abstract Direct Volume Rendering (DVR) provides the possibility to visualize volumetric data sets as they occur in many scientific disciplines. With DVR semi-transparency is facilitated to convey the complexity of the data. Unfortunately, semi-transparency introduces challenges in spatial comprehension of the data, as the ambiguities inherent to semi-transparent representations affect spatial comprehension. Accordingly, many techniques have been introduced to enhance the spatial comprehension of DVR images. In this paper, we present our findings obtained from two evaluations investigating the perception of semi-transparent structures from volume rendered images. We have conducted a user evaluation in which we have compared standard DVR with five techniques previously proposed to enhance the spatial comprehension of DVR images. In this study, we investigated the perceptual performance of these techniques and have compared them against each other in a large-scale quantitative user study with 300 participants. Each participant completed micro-tasks designed such that the aggregated feedback gives insight on how well these techniques aid the user to perceive depth and shape of objects. To further clarify the findings, we conducted a qualitative evaluation in which we interviewed three experienced visualization researchers, in order to find out if we can identify the benefits and shortcomings of the individual techniques.