Abstract: | This paper presents a novel progressive modelling algorithm for 3D models to generate progressive meshes. We propose a forest clustering simplification method to generate a progressive mesh of a model with the efficient and smooth transitions between meshes at different resolutions. Our approach can also integrate and balance the appearance attributes to preserve features of a model in the simplification process. We have applied our progressive modelling technique to several different kinds of input models and results show that our approach only generates efficient and smooth progressive meshes of a given model, but also preserves the features. The proposed method is very suitable for progressive transmission and real‐time rendering of 3D models in networked virtual environments. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |