Patent ID: 6057849
Filing Date: 2000-05-02
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
Method of displaying geometric object surfaces with a variable level of detail on an output device (4), which comprises the following steps:generating surface data of at least one object and storing the surface data in a first memory area (1a),generating data records for all surface data stored in said first memory area (1a) and storing the data records in a second memory area (1b),generating additional surface data for the representation of object segments with a lower level of detail and storing same in said first memory area (1a),and generating and storing a hierarchical data structure with several data records addressable via pointer addresses for the representation of one part of the object surface, as well as a specified level of detail in a second memory area (1b),storing the pointer addresses of those data records stored in said second memory area (1b) which are not referenced by any pointer addresses stored in other data records,computing a minimum level of detail for the representation of the object segment in an arithmetic unit (2), comparing the computed minimum level of detail for each data record whose address is stored in said third memory area (1c), with the level of detail stored in the data record,evaluating the results of the comparison for each data record, with the pointer addresses referencing surface data elements of data records having a stored level of detail which is at least equal to the computed minimum level of detail being copied into a fourth memory area (1d) and with the pointer addresses stored in the other data records being copied into said third memory area (1c), and erasing the pointer addresses referencing the data record from said third memory area (1c), and output of the surface data elements addressed in said fourth memory area (1d) to the output device (4) for the geometric display of the object.