An Algorithm for LOD by Merging Near Coplanar Faces Based on Gauss Sphere

LOD (Level of Detail) models are widely used recently to accelerate the rendering of 3D scenes. An algorithm that creates multiple levels of detail for 3Dscene by merging near-coplanar faces is presented in this paper. Firsta Gauss sphere is defined for the model of scene and it is divided intomeshes near-uniformly. Then, the faces of objects are attached to therespective spherical meshes according to their normal direction. Iffaces attached to the same mesh are connected with each other, theyare merged to form a near coplanar patch (Superface). Isolatedvertices inside the patch are removed and the patch is retriangulated.To further improve the simplification, vicinity vertices on theboundary of the surface patch are merged. In the algorithm, a planarseparate rule planar-enneatree is adopted to set up a hierarchicalstructure of the Gauss sphere, which is used to support thehierarchical model of the scene (LOD). The experimental result showsthat the algorithm can achieve desired simplification effects.