High-Quality Simplification with Generalized Pair Contractions

Because of its simplicity, the vertex pair contraction operation became very popular in mesh simplification. It allows for topological changes during simplification. In this paper we propose the use of the additional pair contractions of a vertex and an edge or a triangle and of two edges. The generalized contraction operations have several advantages over simple vertex pair contraction. They allow to repair cracks and self-intersections and to sew unconnected components with less error. Due to this property a simple high-quality out-of-core simplification is possible.