I noticed that csTriangleMeshTools doesn't have a Triangulate() 
function.  Would this be something useful to add?

~Scott


Jorrit Tyberghein wrote:
> Quick answer: csPolygonMeshTools is indeed deprecated (and clearly
> marked that way as well in the api docs). csTriangleMeshTools is the
> new one.
>
> Greetings,
>
> On 6/28/07, Scott Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>   
>> Hi Everyone.
>>
>> Sorry, this is somewhat of a long email, but I wanted to poll the CS
>> user community.
>>
>> I learned yesterday that the <p> tag inside the Crystal Space file
>> format is going to be going away, and that <t> (triangles) are soon
>> going to be the only way to place polygons into a CS file.  This isn't a
>> big problem, but it did send me for somewhat of a loop with the COLLADA
>> conversion stuff.  The problem I'm encountering is that there is a
>> general <p> tag inside COLLADA.  Thus, any polygons using this tag would
>> need to be triangulated before converting to CS format.  Again, this
>> isn't a major problem- I'm well versed in the magic of Delaunay
>> Triangulations ;).  The problem I'm having is deciding HOW I should
>> attack this.  I have come up with probably three somewhat different
>> solutions:
>>
>> 1. Create a separate interface, iTriangulator, and implement the
>> triangulation method within this (either using an external LGPL-covered
>> library, or implement my own).  The problem with this approach is the
>> data structure.  Typically, Delaunay Triangulation algorithms are run on
>> a data structure called a DCEL (Doubly-Connected Edge List), which is
>> essentially a set of linked lists over the vertices and edges of a
>> polygon.  Unfortunately, as I can tell, CS doesn't really implement this
>> (unless I just didn't see it in my looking over the API) - at least not
>> directly (it might be implemented inside some class somewhere, but not
>> that I saw on looking over the API).  I could add this data structure as
>> either an internal data structure to iTriangulator, or possibly as an
>> external interface, iDCEL.  This might get too low-level, though, and
>> possibly might not be useful to the general public.
>>
>> 2. Write an internal routine into the COLLADA convertor that utilizes a
>> data structure, and then just converts for the sake of the COLLADA
>> conversion library.  This is probably the quickest method, but my
>> intuition tells me that a triangulation system, once written, might be
>> useful to others.  Thus the reason I thought maybe I should separate it
>> into another library, so others can use it.
>>
>> 3. Attempt to convert polygons to an existing internal CS data
>> structure, such as csPolygonMeshTools, and then use the existing
>> Triangulate() function on it.  This, at first glance, appears to be the
>> best method, but when I last checked, it said something about being
>> deprecated (which I can't seem to find now - I may have been half
>> asleep), which makes me nervous.  I bring this up because I don't know
>> enough about this interface to know whether or not it's going to go away
>> in the near future (as I found out about <p> hehe - although in all
>> consolation, it wouldn't have worked, anyway...so it was good to know.
>> Thanks, res!)
>>
>> So, this leads us to my major question - which of these methods (or
>> possibly a method I didn't list) would be the best approach?  Once I get
>> started, I think I could probably implement this in a matter of 2-3
>> days, so I don't anticipate that this will set my schedule back too
>> terribly much.  One thing that concerns me, however, is the
>> implementation.  I would rather use an existing implementation, since
>> it's a known algorithm, and I've heard there are a lot of little demons
>> to contend with when implementing DT.  Thus, it would probably be better
>> in this case not to re-invent the wheel (although I am fond of doing
>> that ;)  ).  In addition, I don't want to add a lot of bloat to the CS
>> engine by creating additional data structures which already exist in
>> another form.
>>
>> Thanks for any suggestions/comments/questions you can relate on this issue!
>>
>> ~Scott
>>
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>
>
>   

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