Provided are an adaptive rendering apparatus and method using a hierarchical structure in a 3D image and a computer-readable recording medium storing a computer program for executing the adaptive rendering method. The adaptive rendering apparatus includes a cell data provision unit, which divides an original 3D image into a plurality of lattice cells that are connected to one another in a hierarchical structure according to predetermined rendering conditions and outputs a plurality of cell data of an area of the original 3D image corresponding to the lattice cells, and a rendered image generation unit, which generates a 3D rendered image by arranging the cell data output from the cell data provision unit according to the hierarchical structure. A lattice cell belonging to a particular level in the hierarchical structure is capable of being divided into a plurality of lattice cells belonging to a level directly below the particular level, and each of the lattice cells in the level directly below the particular level is smaller than the lattice cell of the particular level. A lattice cell belonging to a particular level in the hierarchical structure is capable of being divided into 8 smaller lattice cells belonging to a level directly below the particular level. Accordingly, it is possible to adjust the quality of a rendered image and the speed of generating the rendered image and to precisely render both a 3D object image and a 3D scenic image.