Method for modeling and rendering complex surfaces using local height maps

摘要

A method of modeling and rendering a three-dimensional complex surface using a triangle mesh is disclosed. The method can reduce memory requirement and rendering time by using local height maps and by assigning neighborhood coordinates to any point on a surface near the triangle mesh assigned to that surface. Barycentric coordinates are used to identify points in a triangular polygon to work with height data in the local height map associated with that triangular polygon. The local height maps allow collision detection of a ray with the three-dimensional surface. Lipshitz constants associated with the three-dimensional surfaces are used to find a point on the next ray closest to the three-dimensional surface to jump to, making the search for such collision points efficient.