Smooth hierarchical surface triangulations

Abstract
Presents a new method to produce a hierarchical set of triangle meshes that can be used to blend different levels of detail in a smooth fashion. The algorithm produces a sequence of meshes /spl Mscr//sub 0/, /spl Mscr//sub 1/, /spl Mscr//sub 2/..., /spl Mscr//sub n/, where each mesh /spl Mscr//sub i/ can be transformed to mesh /spl Mscr//sub i+1/ through a set of triangle-collapse operations. For each triangle, a function is generated that approximates the underlying surface in the area of the triangle, and this function serves as a basis for assigning a weight to the triangle in the ordering operation, and for supplying the point to which the triangles are collapsed. This technique allows us to view a triangulated surface model at varying levels of detail while insuring that the simplified mesh approximates the original surface well.

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