Dual contouring of hermite data

Tao Ju, Frank Losasso, Scott Schaefer, Joe D. Warren

Abstract: This paper describes a new method for contouring a signed grid whose edges are tagged by Hermite data (i.e; exact intersection points and normals). This method avoids the need to explicitly identify and process "features" as required in previous Hermite contouring methods. Using a new, numerically stable representation for quadratic error functions, we develop an octree-based method for simplifying contours produced by this method. We next extend our contouring method to these simpli£ed octrees. This new method imposes no constraints on the octree (such as being a restricted octree) and requires no "crack patching". We conclude with a simple test for preserving the topology of the contour during simplification.