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Discrete differential operators on polygonal meshes

Published: 12 August 2020 Publication History

Abstract

Geometry processing of surface meshes relies heavily on the discretization of differential operators such as gradient, Laplacian, and covariant derivative. While a variety of discrete operators over triangulated meshes have been developed and used for decades, a similar construction over polygonal meshes remains far less explored despite the prevalence of non-simplicial surfaces in geometric design and engineering applications. This paper introduces a principled construction of discrete differential operators on surface meshes formed by (possibly non-flat and non-convex) polygonal faces. Our approach is based on a novel mimetic discretization of the gradient operator that is linear-precise on arbitrary polygons. Equipped with this discrete gradient, we draw upon ideas from the Virtual Element Method in order to derive a series of discrete operators commonly used in graphics that are now valid over polygonal surfaces. We demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of our resulting operators through various numerical examples, before incorporating them into existing geometry processing algorithms.

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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Graphics
ACM Transactions on Graphics  Volume 39, Issue 4
August 2020
1732 pages
ISSN:0730-0301
EISSN:1557-7368
DOI:10.1145/3386569
Issue’s Table of Contents
Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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Publication History

Published: 12 August 2020
Published in TOG Volume 39, Issue 4

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Author Tags

  1. discrete differential operators
  2. geometry processing
  3. polygonal meshes

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