Mesh Compression for 3D Graphics

IanDanforth writes "A new algorithm that uses successive approximations of detailed models to get significant compression has been revealed by researchers at The University of Southern California. Just as MP3s remove high frequencies we can't hear, this algorithm removes the extra triangles in flat or near flat surfaces that we can't see. Experts in the field are giving this work high praise and imply that is will be immediately applicable to 3D modeling in games, movies, CAD and more."

Comments

Proliferation of 3D Content on the Web?

[Alphanos]

Wide-spread use of graphics on the web didn't really take off until jpeg and gif compression became common. Will the easy compression of 3D models allow use of 3D content on the web to take off?

Re:Proliferation of 3D Content on the Web?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bandwidth probably isn't the problem, because 3D models can be described in ways that don't require much space. A renderman .rib file is far smaller than an image of the scene it describes, and a renderman shader can also be quite small. I'd expect something similar is the case for OpenGL.

I'd guess the bandwidth would really be taxed by the transmission of bitmaps used for textures. That won't be helped by removing triangles from the model.

I expect any acceleration would be in the processing on your computer. The CPU and/or GPU would have less work to do, because of the reduced number of triangles to render. So your game gets a higher frame rate, and/or uses fewer cycles, or can perform faster with less powerful hardware.

The real reason 3D content hasn't taken off is that it frankly isn't very useful for every-day browsing.

Patented?

[CharAznable]

So, is this something everyone can use, or will it be patented?

This has been around for many years.

[Speare]

Man, this has been around for years. I'd bet a decade. Almost all GPSes with mapping features use a 2D variant of this to store less line segment data for roads. 3D systems with multiple levels of detail choose among a number of differently-optimized models to reduce vertex transformation overhead on far-away objects. Where have you guys been?

I'd say multilevel meshes is a better answer...

[CompSci101]

The immediate problem that springs to mind for me is that current graphics cards and APIs don't produce good shading effects when the geometry is turned down. Gouraud shading (color-per-vertex interpolated across the face of the triangle) is the best that hardware acceleration will handle right now, and turning down the number of vertices will lead to problems with detailed color operations under normal circumstances (complicated lighting/shadow effects, etc.)

Shouldn't the industry be pushing further toward graphics cards that can accelerate true Phong shading, rather than shortcuts and texture mapping tricks? Or even automatic interpolation between meshes of different complexity depending on how much of the scene a particular model takes up? If that functionality was developed first, then this mesh optimization would make perfect sense. But, for now, anyway, it seems like getting rid of the geometry is going to force developers to continue to rely on tricks to get the best look out of their engines.

Not that you'd HAVE to use it, though...

C