Curved surface reconstruction

A method for generating polygonal approximations of objects, wherein an object is defined by a control mesh specifying vertices of polygons comprising the object, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving the control mesh of an object to processed;
• adaptively calculating resolution levels for polygons represented by the control mesh responsive to camera angle information to provide detail to polygons responsive to an appearance of the polygons in screen space;
• and
• subdividing a polygon responsive to the calculated resolution level.

A method for generating polygonal approximations of objects, wherein an object is defined by a control mesh specifying vertices of polygons comprising the object, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving the control mesh of an object to be processed;
• calculating resolution levels for polygons represented by the control mesh;
• and
• subdividing the polygons represented by the control mesh responsive to subdivision patterns stored in a pre-defined data structure.

An apparatus for subdividing polygons of an object to provide greater resolution and eliminate visual artifacts, wherein an object is defined by a control mesh specifying vertices of the polygons comprising the object, the apparatus comprising:

• a resolution level generator, coupled to receive the control mesh for calculating resolution levels for polygons represented by the control mesh;
• a polygon subdivider, coupled to the output of the resolution level generator and coupled to a subdivision optimizer, for subdividing the polygons represented by the control mesh responsive to subdivision patterns retrieved from the subdivision optimizer;
• and
• the subdivision optimizer, coupled to the polygon subdivider, for storing subdivision patterns for subdividing polygons while avoiding generation of visual artifacts.

An apparatus for generating a curved surface for at least one new polygon created by subdivision wherein an object is defined by a control mesh specifying vertices of polygons comprising the object, the apparatus comprising:

• a reconstruction data generator, coupled to receive the control mesh, for generating reconstruction data from the control mesh;
• a resolution level generator, coupled to receive the control mesh, for calculating resolution levels for polygons represented by the control mesh to provide detail to polygons responsive to an appearance of the polygons in screen space;
• a polygon subdivider, for subdividing polygons specified by the control mesh to increase resolution of the object;
• and
• a curved surface reconstruction data, coupled to receive polygons from the polygon subdivider, to generate a refined polygonal approximation to a curved surface for at least one new polygon created by the subdivision responsive to the reconstruction data.