Encoding and progressive transmission of progressive meshes
First Claim
1. A method of representing a three-dimensional geometric object with polygonal meshes at varying levels of detail for computer graphics, comprising the steps of:
- specifying a base polygonal mesh having a plurality of vertices and a plurality of faces that approximates the three-dimensional geometric object at a coarse level of detail; and
specifying a sequence of sets of mesh refinement transformations which, when applied successively to the base polygonal mesh, produce a succession of polygonal meshes that approximate the three-dimensional geometric object at progressively finer levels of detail, the sets of mesh refinement transformations being complete.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An efficient, lossless, continuous-resolution representation (the "PM representation") of highly detailed geometric models for computer graphics specifies a succession of progressively more detailed polygonal meshes (i.e., "progressive meshes") as a base polygonal mesh and a sequence of complete mesh refinement transformations (e.g., the vertex split transformation) that approximate the model at progressively finer levels of detail. Procedures for storing and transmitting geometric models using the PM representation address several practical problems in computer graphics: smooth geomorphing of level-of-detail approximations, progressive transmission, mesh compression, and selective refinement. An optimized mesh simplification procedure constructs the PM representation of a model from an arbitrary polygonal mesh, while preserving the geometry of the original mesh as well as its overall appearance as defined by its discrete and scalar appearance attributes such as material identifiers, color values, normals, and texture coordinates. In particular, the PM representation and these procedures preserve discontinuity curves such as creases and material boundaries of the geometric model.
92 Citations
55 Claims
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1. A method of representing a three-dimensional geometric object with polygonal meshes at varying levels of detail for computer graphics, comprising the steps of:
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specifying a base polygonal mesh having a plurality of vertices and a plurality of faces that approximates the three-dimensional geometric object at a coarse level of detail; and specifying a sequence of sets of mesh refinement transformations which, when applied successively to the base polygonal mesh, produce a succession of polygonal meshes that approximate the three-dimensional geometric object at progressively finer levels of detail, the sets of mesh refinement transformations being complete. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A computer readable data storage medium having encoded thereon a progressive meshes representation of a multi-dimensional object for computer graphics, the progressive meshes representation comprising:
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a base mesh record for specifying a base mesh representative of the object at a lowest level of detail; and a plurality of vertex split records for specifying a plurality of vertex split transformations which, when applied successively to the base mesh, yield a succession of meshes representative of the object and having progressively higher levels of detail. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A method of losslessly encoding an arbitrary initial mesh at progressive levels of detail for rendering computer graphics views of a multi-dimensional geometric object, comprising:
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encoding a base mesh record specifying a set of position coordinates and a connectivity of vertices of a base mesh, the position coordinates and connectivity of the vertices defining a plurality of faces having edges between adjacent vertices and corners at the vertices; and encoding a plurality of vertex split records specifying a split vertex identifier, two side vertex identifiers, and two resulting vertex position coordinates for each of a sequence of vertex split transformations that yield a succession of meshes at progressively increasing levels of detail and exactly reproduce the arbitrary initial mesh when applied in sequence to the succession beginning with the base mesh, each vertex split transformation introducing a new vertex and at least one new face having edges between adjacent vertices and corners at the vertices to a current mesh in the succession to yield a next mesh in the succession. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. A method of progressively transmitting a level-of-detail representation of an object from a remote site for displaying computer graphics views of the object at a computer, comprising:
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transmitting a base mesh record from the remote site defining a base mesh representing the object at a low level of detail; transmitting a stream of mesh refinement records from the remote site defining a sequence of mesh transformations for refining the base mesh into an arbitrary mesh representing the object at a high level of detail, the mesh transformations being complete; receiving the base mesh record at a computer; constructing a progressive resolution mesh at the computer from the base mesh record; rendering and displaying at the computer a first computer graphics view of the object having a lower level of detail based on the progressive resolution mesh; receiving an increment of the stream of mesh refinement records at the computer; refining the progressive resolution mesh to a higher level of detail at the computer by applying the mesh transformations defined by the mesh refinement records of the increment; and rendering and displaying at the computer a second computer graphics view of the object having the higher level of detail based on the progressive resolution mesh. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48)
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49. A system for progressively transmitting a level-of detail representation of an object from a remote site for displaying computer graphics views of the object at a computer, comprising:
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a memory at the remote site for storing a progressive resolution meshes representation of the object comprising a base mesh record and a sequence of vertex split records, the base mesh record defining a base mesh representative of the object at a low level of detail, the sequence of vertex split records defining vertex split transformations that applied successively to the base mesh refine the base mesh into an arbitrary mesh representative of the object at a high level of detail; a data transmitter at the remote site for transmitting the base mesh record and a stream of the vertex split records to the computer. - View Dependent Claims (50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55)
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Specification