Simplifying massive datasets with color and texture in 3D real time games engine development

Abstract

Computational demanding paradigm like three dimensional interactive applications always requires the simulation and display of a virtual environment (VE) at interactive frame rates. Even with the use of powerful graphics workstations, a complex VE can involve a vast amount of computation, inducing a noticeable lag into the system. This lag can severely compromise the display quality. Therefore, a lot of techniques have been proposed to overcome the delay of the display. It includes motion prediction, fixed update rate, visibility culling, frameless rendering, Galilean antialiasing, level of detail, world subdivision or even employing parallelism (Reddy 1997). Level of detail is certainly a great way in resolving this problem. A long time ago, programmers have used Level of Detail (LOD) techniques to improve the performance and quality of their graphics systems. The LOD approach involves retaining a set of representations of each polygonal object, each with different levels of triangle resolution. During the animation rendering stage, objects deemed to be less important are displayed with a lowresolution representation. Whereas object of higher importance is displayed with higher details (Figure 2.1).