John VanSickle <evi### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
: The algorithm that comes to mind as I sit here is to slice up 3-d
: space into cubes, and identify which cubes have edges which intersect
: the surface of the object in question.  The patch of surface that is
: contained by each cube could then be replaced with a handful of
: triangles (probably no more than 12, likely averaging about four per
: cube).

: The smaller the cubes, the better the approximation.  The
: time taken varies inversely with the volume of the cubes.

  That's the so-called "marching cubes algorithm".
  I think it's patented in some countries where patenting these kind of
things is possible.

  AFAIK the marching triangles algorithm gives a better result and is free
everywhere.

-- 
#macro M(A,N,D,L)plane{-z,-9pigment{mandel L*9translate N color_map{[0rgb x]
[1rgb 9]}scale<D,D*3D>*1e3}rotate y*A*8}#end M(-3<1.206434.28623>70,7)M(
-1<.7438.1795>1,20)M(1<.77595.13699>30,20)M(3<.75923.07145>80,99)// - Warp -

Post a reply to this message