Joint mesh and texture compression using marginal analysis

In many computer graphic applications, a texture is mapped onto a meshed surface. Under complexity constraints, both texture and mesh need to be approximated. We present a framework for the joint simplification of texture and mesh with respect to an error measure in screen space. In order to achieve optimal operating points, we choose two efficient simplification algorithms: optimal multiresolution mesh simplification based on a quadtree structure and multiresolution view-dependent texture compression based on wavelets. Together, these two algorithms are used for joint simplification using an efficient heuristic based on marginal analysis. As an application example, we study the mapping of aerial orthophotographs onto a terrain model of the Swiss Alps, and show that the resolution of the terrain and the aerial photograph is efficiently traded-off