Method and system for progressive mesh storage and reconstruction using wavelet-encoded height fields

A method for progressive mesh storage, comprising the steps of:

• reading raster height field data;
• reading raster texture map data;
• processing the raster height field data and texture map data with a discrete wavelet transform to generate wavelet-encoded terrain fields and texture map fields respectively, the wavelet-encoded fields each having a quadtree structure, at least one section of one of the quadtree structures having at least one different level of detail than another section;
• and
• storing the wavelet-encoded terrain fields to correspond to related stored texture map fields in a respective manner.

A software product comprising instructions, stored on computer-readable media, wherein the instructions, when executed by a computer, perform steps for progressive mesh storage, comprising:

• instructions for reading one of raster height field data and texture map data as input data;
• instructions for processing the input data with a discrete wavelet transform to generate wavelet-encoded data;
• instructions for selecting a terrain data block from the processed raster height field data at a power-of-two level of detail, where each block at a higher level of detail contains higher frequency components with respect to a block at a lower level of detail;
• and
• instructions for using the selected data block to reconstruct original source terrain mesh data.

A method for progressive mesh storage, comprising the steps of:

• reading raster height field data;
• processing the raster height field data with a discrete wavelet transform into a quadtree structure to generate wavelet-encoded height fields, at least one section of the quadtree structure having a different level of detail than another section of the quadtree structure;
• selecting a terrain data block from the processed quadtree structure at a power-of-two level of detail particular to a selected section of the quadtree structure;
• and
• using the selected data block to reconstruct original source terrain mesh data.

A method for progressive mesh storage, comprising the steps of:

• reading raster height field data;
• processing the raster height field data with a discrete wavelet transform to generate wavelet-encoded height fields;
• selecting terrain data blocks from the processed raster height field data at a power-of-two level of detail;
• and
• reconstructing original source terrain data into a continuous terrain mesh from the selected terrain data blocks, the continuous terrain mesh having a regular, grid-shape comprising rows and columns of equally-sized data fields.

A method for progressive mesh storage, comprising the steps of:

• reading original raster height field data as a first regular grid of contiguous rows and columns;
• processing the raster height field data with a discrete wavelet transform to generate wavelet-encoded height fields;
• selecting terrain data blocks from the processed raster height field data at a power-of-two level of detail;
• and
• reconstructing the selected terrain data blocks into second regular grid that matches the first grid identically, or by a reduced power-of-two for corresponding rows and columns.