Sequential Triangle Strip Generator based on Hopfield Networks

Abstract

The important task of generating the minimum number of sequential triangle strips (tristrips) for a given triangulated surface model is motivated by applications in computer graphics. This hard combinatorial optimization problem is reduced to the minimum energy problem in Hopfield nets by a linear-size construction. In particular, the classes of equivalent optimal stripifications are mapped one to one to the minimum energy states that are reached by a Hopfield network during sequential computation starting at the zero initial state. Thus the underlying Hopfield network powered by simulated annealing (i.e. Boltzmann machine) which is implemented in a program HTGEN can be used for computing the semi-optimal stripifications. Practical experiments confirm that one can obtain much better results using HTGEN than by a leading stripification program FTSG although the running time of simulated annealing grows rapidly near the global optimum. Nevertheless, HTGEN exhibits empirical linear ...