Fast decimation of polygonal models

Abstract

A fast greedy algorithm for automatic decimation of polygonal meshes is proposed. Two important components of an automatic decimation algorithm are: the measure of fidelity and the iterative framework for incrementally and locally simplifying a polyhedra. The proposed algorithm employs vertex-based greedy framework for incrementally simplifying a polygonal model. Exploiting the normal field of one-ring neighborhood of a vertex, a new measure of fidelity is proposed that reflects the impotence of the vertices and is used to guide the vertex-based greedy procedure. A vertex causing minimum distortion is selected for removal and it is eliminated by collapsing one of its half-edges that causes minimum geometric distortion in the mesh. The proposed algorithm is about two times faster than QSlim algorithm, which is considered to be the fastest state-of-the-art greedy algorithm that produces reliable approximations; it competes well with QSlim in terms of Hausdorff distance, and preserves visually important features in a better way. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008.