View-dependent refinement of progressive meshes

Abstract

Level-of-detail (LOD) representations are an important tool for realtime rendering of complex geometric environments. The previously introduced progressive mesh representation defines for an arbitrary triangle mesh a sequence of approximating meshes optimized for view-independent LOD. In this paper, we introduce a framework for selectively refining an arbitrary progressive mesh according to changing view parameters. We define efficient refinement criteria based on the view frustum, surface orientation, and screen-space geometric error, and develop a real-time algorithmfor incrementally refining and coarsening the mesh according to these criteria. The algorithm exploits view coherence, supports frame rate regulation, and is found to require less than 15% of total frame time on a graphics workstation. Moreover, for continuous motions this work can be amortized over consecutive frames. In addition, smooth visual transitions (geomorphs) can be constructed between any two selectively refined meshes.