Efficient implementation of progressive meshes
Computers & Graphics, 22(1), 1998, 27-36.
Progressive mesh data structures compatible with GPU vertex buffers.
Abstract:
In earlier work, we introduced the progressive mesh (PM) representation, a new format for storing and
transmitting arbitrary triangle meshes. For a given mesh, the PM representation defines a continuous
sequence of level-of-detail approximations, allows smooth visual transitions (geomorphs) between these
approximations, supports progressive transmission, and makes an effective compression scheme. In this
paper, we present data structures and algorithms for efficient implementation of the PM representation and
its applications. Also, we report quantitative results using a variety of computer graphics models.
Hindsights:
The paper details the data structures of an efficient implementation of progressive meshes.
For our more recent work with Microsoft Direct3D, the data structures have changed somewhat:
(1) wedges have become D3D vertices, and
(2) coarsening/refinement is done more efficiently using half-edge collapses.
Thanks to Craig Peeper and Anuj Gosalia, this technology has been released in the D3DX library of DirectX 8.0 (see ID3DXPMesh).
A nice result in this paper is that progressive meshes can be compressed more effectively by allowing permutations of the vertex splits.
See content copyrights.