Multiresolution Modelling Using Connectivity Information

Triangles meshes are the most popular standard model used to represent polygonal surfaces in Computer Graphics. Drawing these meshes as a set of independent triangles involves sending a vast amount of information to the graphic engine. The use of primitives such as triangle fans and strips, which make use of the connectivity information between the triangles in the mesh, dramatically reduces 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 up 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 and in the rendering stage. The Multiresolution Triangle Strip is compared against the Progressive Meshes multiresolution model, probably one of the best multiresolution models known. The performance of the MTS models in visualising drastically improves PM models.