Multiresolution modelling using connectivity information

Abstract

Triangles meshes are the most popular standard model to represent polygonal surfaces in Computer Graphics. Drawing these meshes as a set of independent triangles involves sending a vast amount of information sent to the graphic engine. The use of primitives such as fan and strip of triangles, which make use of the connectivity information between the triangles in the mesh, reduces dramatically the amount of information sent to the graphic engine. The Multiresolution Triangle Strips scheme takes advantage of this characteristic in order to represent a multiresolution model as a set of multiresolution triangle strips. A multiresolution triangle strip is made of the original strips and all of its Levels of Detail. Each of these multiresolution strips is represented as a graph that is traversed to recover the demanded LoD. A Multiresolution Triangle Strip model uses the triangle strip primitive both in the data structure as in the rendering stage. The Multiresolution Triangle Strip is compared against the Progressive Meshes multiresolution model, one of the best multiresolution models probably known. The performance of the MTS models in visualising improves drastically PM models.