Compressed Progressive Meshes

Abstract

Most systems that support the visual interaction with 3D models use shape representations based on triangle meshes. The size of these representations imposes limits on applications, where complex 3D models must be accessed remotely. Techniques for simplifying and compressing 3D models reduce the transmission time. Multi-resolution formats provide quick access to a crude model and then refine it progressively. Unfortunately, compared to the best non-progressive compression methods, previously proposed progressive refinement techniques impose a signitifant overhead when the full resolution model must be downloaded. The CPM (Compressed Progressive Meshes) appreach proposed here eliminates this overhead. It uses a new "patching" technique, which refines the topology of the mesh in batches, which each increase the number of vertices by up to 50%. Less than 4 bits per triangle encode where and how the topological refinements should be applied. We estimate the position of new vertices from the positions of their topological neighbors in the less refined mesh using a new estimator that leads to representations of vertex coordinates that are 50% more compact than previously reported progressive geometry compression techniques.