Patent ID: 7034826

Claim:
A method for generating at least a part of a geodesic dome for use in a graphic environment, comprising the steps of: (a) defining a base geometry of a polyhedron, said polyhedron having a plurality of faces, each of which is a polygon, said base geometry including a plurality of vertices of the faces, at selected locations on the polyhedron; (b) based upon the plurality of vertices at the selected locations and using a plurality of transformation matrices, generating vertices and indices for a plurality of triangles comprising the faces of the geodesic dome, by successively processing the successive faces of the polyhedron, in successive different sections of the polyhedron; (c) preparing a triangle construct using said vertices and indices that are generated, wherein the triangle construct comprises one of; (i) a triangle strip that includes vertices and indices for adjacent triangles comprising the geodesic dome, said triangle strip spiraling around each section of the polyhedron and including degenerate triangles used to produce the triangle strip; and (ii) a triangle list that specifies vertices and indices for adjacent triangles in each different section of the geodesic dome; (d) storing the vertices and indices for the triangle construct as geometric data that define the at least the part of the geodesic dome; and (e) enabling input of a plurality of parameters to control generating the at least the part of the geodesic dome, said input including an election to use one of the triangle strip and the triangle list for the triangle construct, said parameters including a radius of the geodesic dome, and a tessellation order of the geodesic dome.