GPU-Based Multiresolution Deformation Using Approximate Normal Field Reconstruction

Multiresolution shape editing performs global deformations while preserving fine surface details by modifying a smooth base surface and reconstructing the modified detailed surface as a normal displacement from it. Since two non-trivial operators (deformation and reconstruction) are involved, the computational complexity can become too high for real-time deformations of complex models. We present an efficient technique for evaluating multiresolution deformations of high-resolution triangle meshes directly on the GPU. By precomputing the deformation functions as well as their gradient information we can map both the deformation and the reconstruction operator to the GPU, which enables us to reconstruct the deformed positions and sufficiently close approximations of the normal vectors in the vertex shader in a single rendering pass. This allows us to render dynamically deforming 3D models several times faster than on the CPU. We demonstrate the application of our technique to two modern multiresolution approaches: one based on (irregular) displaced subdivision surfaces and the other one on volumetric space deformation using radial basis functions.