Lesson plan

SGI algorithm

The SGI algorithm creates triangle strips from a set of triangles. It was published by K. Akeley, P. Haeberli, and D. Burns as a C program named "tomesh.c" for use with Silicon Graphics' IRIS GL API. The algorithm operates on the set of triangles that have not yet been added to a triangle strip, starting with the entire set of input triangles. Triangles are greedily added to a strip until no triangle is available that can be appended to the strip; a new strip will be started in this case. When choosing a triangle for starting or continuing a triangle strip, the selection is based on a triangle's degree (i.e. the number of triangles adjacent to it), with smaller degrees being preferred. If implemented using a priority queue to quickly identify triangles that can start a new strip, the algorithm runs in linear time.

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Article summary

The SGI algorithm creates triangle strips from a set of triangles. It was published by K. Akeley, P. Haeberli, and D. Burns as a C program named "tomesh.c" for use with Silicon Graphics' IRIS GL API. The algorithm operates on the set of triangles that have not yet been added to a triangle strip, starting with the entire set of input triangles. Triangles are greedily added to a strip until no triangle is available that can be appended to the strip; a new strip will be started in this case. When choosing a triangle for starting or continuing a triangle strip, the selection is based on a triangle's degree (i.e. the number of triangles adjacent to it), with smaller degrees being preferred. If implemented using a priority queue to quickly identify triangles that can start a new strip, the algorithm runs in linear time.

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  3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

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