Block and Quadtree based Simplification in Tiled Blocks Terrain Algorithms

With the advent of modern graphic processors, rendering a complex terrain in real time was suddenly possible. However the constant struggle between rendering quality and real time performance is still demanding more that we can actually get. Terrains are a prime example of that, the sheer amount of geometry and the constant need to achieve higher standards in image quality are always taking the graphical processors to their limits. Level of detail techniques, are therefore very important in this area and were used in multiple algorithms through the years. Tiled blocks are a category of terrain algorithms where the terrain is partitioned into square patches that are tessellated at different resolutions. This paper describes and compares two of the most common approaches used in the simplification process: block based simplification, where the simplification is local to the block, and quadtree based simplification, which uses the spatial partitioning principle of the quadtree to perform the simplification.