Re: [Algorithms] mesh optimisation/simplification

[Thatcher U. <tu...@tu...>]

On Jan 12, 2005 at 04:39 -0000, Bob Dowland wrote:
> 
> On the other hand, I can't help wondering whether PM isn't overkill
> for the application - I've no need for the "progressive"ness either
> for LOD or anything else and secondly I can't have any loss of
> detail in boundary features eg "facet" verts and edges. Are there no
> "boundary walking" approaches for just the planar stuff..(?)

Hm.  If you have a planar polygon with N boundary verts, and you don't
specifically need interior verts (for color/texture attributes or
whatever), then the minimum number of faces in the mesh is N-2, and
you can tesselate it without using any interior verts.

So, if you can't get rid of any boundary verts, and you don't need any
interior verts, then you could just keep collapsing interior verts
until they're all gone.

On the other hand, if you don't have any interior verts to start with,
and you can't get rid of boundary verts, then there's nothing you can
do; you should already be at the minimal mesh.

If you are allowed to get rid of boundary verts, then you can go ahead
and apply error metrics etc.

-- 
Thatcher Ulrich
http://tulrich.com