Remodelling of Botanical Trees for Real-Time Simulation

Abstract

This paper proposes a technique to use virtual trees created with an industry recognised modelling tool. Initially the skeletal structure is extracted and processed to generate a continuous mesh suitable for high quality, real-time rendering and simulation. Utilising the inherent hierarchical structure of botanical trees, the bone system is calculated from existing, low quality geometry. Once an ordered skeleton is available, a low resolution surface is created around the form as a single continuous mesh providing smooth, continuous connections where branches diverge, avoiding artefacts introduced by overlaid surfaces. Creation of the vertices relative to the skeletal structure ensures no miss-classification in assigning bone influence, allowing for realistic animation and effective mesh refinement introduced dynamically using GPU based techniques.