Vector solid textures

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a compact random-access vector representation for solid textures made of intermixed regions with relatively smooth internal color variations. It is feature-preserving and resolution-independent. In this representation, a texture volume is divided into multiple regions. Region boundaries are implicitly defined using a signed distance function. Color variations within the regions are represented using compactly supported radial basis functions (RBFs). With a spatial indexing structure, such RBFs enable efficient color evaluation during real-time solid texture mapping. Effective techniques have been developed for generating such a vector representation from bitmap solid textures. Data structures and techniques have also been developed to compactly store region labels and distance values for efficient random access during boundary and color evaluation.