Appearance-preserving simplification

We present a new algorithm for appearance-preserving simplif i- cation. Not only does it generate a low-polygon-co unt approx i- mation of a model, but it also preserves the appearance. This is accomplished for a particular display resolution in the sense that we properly sample the surface position, curvature, and color attributes of the input surface. We convert the input surface to a representation that decouples the sampling of these three attri b- utes, storing the colors and normals in texture and normal maps, respectively. Our simplification algorithm employs a new texture deviation metric, which guarantees that these maps shift by no more than a user-specified number of pixels on the screen. The simplification process filters the surface position, while the run- time system filters the colors and normals on a per-pixel basis. We have applied our simplification technique to several large models achieving significant amounts of simplificatio n with little or no loss in rendering quality. CR Categories: I.3.5: Object hierarchies, I.3.7: Color, sha d- ing, shadowing, and texture Additional Keywords: simplification, attributes, parameter i- zation, color, normal, texture, maps