Hierarchical face clustering on polygonal surfaces

Many graphics applications, and interactive systems in particular, rely on hierarchical surface representations to efficiently process very complex models. Considerable attention has been focused on hierarchies of surface approximations and their construction via automatic surface simplification. Such representations have proven effective for adapting the level of detail used in real time display systems. However, other applications such as ray tracing, collision detection, and radiosity benefit from an alternative multiresolution framework: hierarchical partitions of the original surface geometry. We present a new method for representing a hierarchy of regions on a polygonal surface which partition that surface dinto a set of face clusters. These clusters, which are connected sets of faces, represent the aggregate properties of the original surface at different scales rather than providing geometric approximations of varying complexity. We also describe the combination of an effective error metric and a novel algorithm for constructing these hierarchies. CR Categories: I.3.5 [Computer Graphics]: Computational Geometry and Object Modeling—surface and object representations