Three-dimensional shape display program, three-dimensional shape display method, and three-dimensional shape display apparatus

A method for displaying the shape of an object in a three-dimensional space with a computer, the method comprising:

• determining a subdivision number for each edge of a face constituting a three-dimensional shape on the basis of three-dimensional shape data that defines the three-dimensional shape;
• determining a surface of the face on the basis of coordinates of vertices of the face vectors at the vertices which are defined in advance in the three-dimensional shape data;
• subdividing the determined surface according to the subdivision number determined for each edge and thereby generating a plurality of subdivided faces on surface;
• and
• displaying the subdivided faces to represent the three dimensional shape, wherein
• said subdivision number determining rounds the subdivision number of each edge to a power of 2,
• said subdividing recursively repeats a process of applying a predefined subdivision pattern until the determined subdivision number of each edge is reached, and
• when subdividing a triangle, said predefined subdivision pattern is selected from among three parameters in (N, N, N), (N, N, 1) and (N, 1, 1), wherein, the three parameters in the parentheses represent subdivision numbers of three edges of the triangle, and wherein N is a power of 2 and N is greater than 1.

An apparatus for displaying the shape of an object in a three-dimensional space, the apparatus comprising:

• a subdivision number determination section determining a subdivision number for each edge of a face constituting a three-dimensional shape on the basis of three-dimensional shape data that defines the three-dimensional shape;
• a surface determination section determining a surface of the face on the basis of coordinates of vertices of the face and normal vectors at the vertices which are defined in advance in the three-dimensional shape data;
• a face generation section for subdividing the surface determined by the surface determination section according subdivision number determined for each edge and thereby generating a plurality of subdivided faces on the surface;
• and
• a display section displaying the subdivided faces to represent the three-dimensional shape, wherein
• said subdivision number determination section rounds the subdivision number of each edge to a power of 2,
• said face generation section recursively repeats a process of applying a predefined subdivision pattern until the determined subdivision number of each edge is reached, and
• when subdividing a triangle, said predefined subdivision pattern is selected from among three parameters in (N, N, N), (N, N, 1) and (N, 1, 1), wherein the three parameters in the parentheses represent subdivision numbers of three edges of the triangle, and wherein N is a power of 2 and N is greater than 1.