NEW! See the
bottom of the page to read about the downloadable pre-alpha release of
the Simplifikator.
Welcome to the Simplifikator Home Page. The Simplifikator is a new and unique
automatic reduction tool for complex static 3D models. Its main goal is to optimize
a static model for display at a specific screen resolution. Only
vertices and texture data that is required for that resolution make it into the final model.
In contrast to current mesh
reduction tools, the Simplifikator can reduce scenes with multiple meshes and
any number of textures. It works on organic forms as well as on man made
forms like buildings and machinery. It is an ideal tool for many situations where reduced
versions of complex scenes are required, and other vertex reduction tools do not
deliver adequate results.
What does the Simplifikator do?
The following images show the result of a simplification of a detailed 3D
model of a church. It has been modeled for rendering purposes in 3D Studio
MaxTM. The church model is used with kind permission by Christian
Begand (http://www.3d-rekonstruktionen.de/).
Click on the images to view them at a larger size.
The left image shows the original scene which contains 252718 triangles and many
different textures. The right image shows the same scene reduced to 6954 triangles and
one single texture.
This image shows a closeup of the reduced model. The artifacts
introduced by the simplification step are almost invisible when the model is rendered
at a smaller resolution (as seen above).
This image shows the texture map of the reduced model.
How does it Work?
The Simplifikator is a remeshing tool that samples a complex 3D model at a
fixed resolution. The geometry is rebuild based on the sampled points,
resulting in a mesh where the triangle count depends mainly on the sampling
resolution, not on the number of triangles in the original model.
The resulting mesh is simplified, and a texture is reconstructed based on the
texture maps of the original model. The original model may have any number of textures,
but the resulting mesh does have just one single texture.
The original data is handled as a triangle soup, so object hierarchies are
ignored. Currently only VRML1 (SGI InventorTM) files are supported, support for
VRML97, X3D and other file formats is under development.
You may download the reduced church model in VRML97
(154KB) format. The single texture map can be downloaded
here (220KB). Please put them into the same directory and use a VRML viewer. I do
recommend the Octaga VRML Player for best results.
As can be seen in the texture map and the reduced geometry, there is a lot of
potential to further reduce the amount of data required to faithfully reproduce
the scene. A further reduction by a factor of three is deemed realistic.
Future versions will show improved results.
See the gallery for more images of reduced scenes.
Advantages
Combined reduction of geometry and texture
Fully automatic process with few parameters
Works on complex models with any number of parts, textures and meshes
Applications
Generation of LOD models for real-time 3D Systems
Generation of meshed impostors for large scenes
Generation of real-time models from high-resolution models
Generation of lower resolution models for the web and mobile devices
Planned Improvements
Support of more file formats (3DS, VRML97, X3D)
Generation of normal maps
Generation of light maps (with global illumination)
Generation of material maps (support of per-texel material attributes)
Improved geometry reduction
Improved texture quality
Generation of triangle strips
Handling of point clouds for laser scanned geometry
The Simplifikator is release in its current state (pre-alpha) to demonstrate
its technology. You may download and use it for your projects. Please note that
it is Feedbackware: If you use it in your projects, please take a moment
and send me an email to
If you evaluate the
Simplifikator, please keep in mind that it is a quickly evolving tool, and many
aspects of it will improve in future versions. If you have need for a tool like
the Simplifikator, please let me know what improvements or features you do need
for your application.
Please visit this page from time to time to get news and updates.
You may download the pre-alpha release of the Simplifikator
here. The self extracting archive contains the Simplifikator executable, the Open
InventorTM DLL and a file README.TXT. Please store (keep) them in the same folder.
The Open InventorTM library is taken from the binary distrbution created by Felix
Ritter at MeVis. Please see http://www.mevislab.de/inventor/
for more information.
Installation
The Simplifikator does not need to be installed. Just unzip the folder and
keep the Open Inventor DLL and the Simplifikator executable in the same directoy (folder).
Future versions will feature an installer.
Getting Started
Loading the Model
All you need is a VRML1 file. Since the selection of file formats is currently
pretty small (VRML1 only), this place is great for
sample models and textures.
(If you have a specific model you would like to test, but you have problems
converting it to VRML format, please contact me.
I might be able to convert it using PolyTransTM here.)
Just open the VRML file using the "Open File..." menu item.
Setting Reconstruction Parameters
On the right hand side of the main window you can set the parameters for the
reconstruction:
Resolution
The sampling resolution specifies at how many points
the model is sampled along every axis.
Reconstruction Precision
The higher the precision, the closer the new vertices
are to the original model. The higher the precision, the slower the process.
Reconstruction Quality
The "Fast" mode is a lot faster on complex models, but
it may lead to jaggy edges along single polygons.
Simplification Precision
The larger the number, the less triangles are reduced.
Texture Quality
The mode "Fast" is very fast even on complex models,
but might introduce some artifacts. Using the mode "Better" yields better
results,. The mode "Best" is recommended for production use.
Texture Sampling Rate
A texture sampling rate of 1 delivers one texel per
"Sampling Resolution". This is the minimum setting, but might be too blurry.
Higher values increase the number of texels (pixels of the texture image), and
will make the texture image appear sharper. But higher values will also
increase texture size. The maximum texture size is set to 2048x2048.
Texture Size
Specifies the size of the final texture. The setting "Auto" is recommended, since
it automatically chooses the minimum texture size.
Starting the Reconstruction
Just press the "Simplify" button to start the reconstruction process. Depending on the
complexity of the model and the chosen Parameters (and, of course, the processing power
of your PC) this process might take a second or many minutes.
You might interrupt the process at any time.
Saving the Reconstructed Model
You may save the model in one of three file formats: VRML1, VRM97 and X3D.
You have the choice to save the texture as in PNG or JPEG format, as well
as specifying normals in the model or not.
The filename of the texture becomes the filename of the exported
geometry file with the correct extension of the texture image file added, eg.: myfile.wrl and myfile.wrl.jpg. I do recommend to use the PNG
image file format for textures, since the JPEG compression artifacts may lead to visible borders
along triangle edges.
Limitations
Model Features
Due to the sampling nature of the Simplifikator, small
features may be missed.
If you sample very simple models, the number of
triangles in the reconstructed version of the model might actually be higher.
This applies to many manually built models for realtime graphics.
Since the resulting model uses only one material, the
appearance of the model might differ from the original depending on the
lighting situation.
The result does have normals, but may not be rendered using back face culling.
Known Bugs
The triangle reduction may introduce holes by removing required triangles.
This Simplifikator(Pre Alpha Version)
is copyright (c) Stefan Dachwitz 2005. All rights reserved.
WARRANTY DISCLAIMER AND INDEMNIFICATION DISCLAIMER:
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.
ANY USE OF THE SOFTWARE AND OUTPUT IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT
PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, Stefan Dachwitz DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES AND
CONDITIONS, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED
WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE,
AND NON-INFRINGEMENT WITH RESPECT TO THE SOFTWARE OR ITS OUTPUT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL Stefan Dachwitz BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY
SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, WITHOUT
LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS
OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, OR ANY OTHER PECUNIARY LOSS) ARISING OUT OF USING
THE SOFTWARE OR THE OUTPUT.
