Datails Level

Try and search for some information into LOD terrain methods. It invloves subdiving triangles depending on the required Level Of Detail, this method can easily be adapted to other models.

You might find some info on LOD here.

You could also try viewing the model from many angles, and store a visible triangle list from each direction...

Bye

Matt



Check out my project at:www.btinternet.com/~Matthew.Bennett

Hi!

3dModelMan:

I don''t think Pavel''s looking for terrain techniques ... besides, ''viewing'' a model from different sides also won''t work, since you can never cover all cases.

Pavel Krupets:

I think what you want is a dynamic LOD algorithm. Do a search for the name "Stan Melax" ... he''s done some work on this and written an article for GameDevMag. Also try

Hugues Hoppe, "Efficient Implementation of Progressive Meshes"

it''s a paper you can find on the net (with google).

The basic idea is to look at the mesh and find an edge, which you can remove. This process is called an edge-collapse. You remove the edge, by ''merging'' the start and end vertex of that edge. This also eliminates two faces from the mesh (the face on the left of the edge and on the right). The hard part of this algorithm is finding the correct edge to remove. You do this by looking at neighboring faces (normal orientation, shading attributes, etc...).

You should not do this at run-time, of course. What you do is build a small tool, which converts your regular mesh to a LOD-Mesh. Then you start reconstructing higher detail meshes from the lowest detail representation.

This should get you started,

MK42

Thx.

Researchindex is your friend.