Superfaces: polygonal mesh simplification with bounded error

The algorithm presented simplifies polyhedral meshes within prespecified tolerances based on a bounded approximation criterion. The vertices in the simplified mesh are a proper subset of the original vertices. The algorithm, called Superfaces, makes two major contributions to the research in this area: it uses a bounded approximation approach, which guarantees that a simplified mesh approximates the original mesh to within a prespecified tolerance (that is, every vertex v in the original mesh will lie within a user specified distance /spl epsiv/ of the simplified mesh); its face merging procedure is efficient and greedy-that is, it does not backtrack or undo any merging once completed and thus, the algorithm is practical for simplifying very large meshes.