Visualization of large terrain using non-restricted quadtree triangulations

Abstract

This paper presents a set of new techniques oriented towards the realtime visualization of large terrains. These techniques are mainly focused on semiregular triangulations of non-restricted quadtree terrain representations. Despite the fact that the paper shows that triangulations based on non-restricted quadtrees are as simple and efficient as those based on restricted quadtrees, the new triangulations avoid discontinuity problems among the boundaries of different patches without the need for tree balancing and extra triangles addition. Another important feature of the proposed triangulation is that it incorporates an efficient method for building triangle strips and triangle fans for the efficient rendering of the final triangle mesh. © Springer-Verlag 2004.