Real-Time Rendering——Chapter 12 Polygonal Techniques

Up to this point, we have assumed that the model we rendered is available in exactly the format we need, and with just the right amount of detail. in reality, we are rarely so lucky. modelers and data capture devices have their own particular quirks 嗜好，怪癖 and limitations, giving rise to ambiguities and errors within the data set, and so within renderings. this chapter discusses a variety of problems that are encountered within polygonal data sets, along with some of the fixes and workarounds for these problems. in addition, techniques to efficiently render polygonal models are presented.
the overarching goals for polygonal representation (or any other representation, for that matter) in computer graphics are visual accuracy and speed. “accuracy” is a term that depends upon the context: for a machine part, it may mean that the model displayed falls within some tolerance range; for an aircraft simulation game, what is important is the overall impression. the way a model is used is a key differentiator. an engineer wants to control and position a part in real time and wants every bevel and chamfer on the machine part visible at every moment. compare this to a game, where if the frame rate is high enough, minor errors or inaccuracies in a given frame are allowable since they may not occur where attention is focused, or may disappear in the next frame. in interactive graphics 交互式图形学 work it is important to know what the boundaries are to the problem being solved, since these determine what sorts of techniques can be applied.

the main topics covered in this chapter are tessellation, consolidation 整合, optimization, and simplification. polygons can arrive in many different forms and may have to be split into more tractable 容易处理的 primitives, such as triangles or quadrilaterals四边形; this process is called triangulation or, more generally, tessellation.