Efficient evaluation of continuous signed distance to a polygonal mesh

Abstract

An efficient representation of a polygonal mesh by a signed continuous distance field is the main focus of this work. We compare different approaches to implementing such a representation and choose the most efficient one. Several optimizations to the existing methods are presented including the new traversal technique for the BVH-based signed distance evaluation and packet queries. We also discuss details of the GPU implementation of the efficient signed distance evaluation. Several application examples are presented such as blending set operations, linear metamorphosis, space-time blending and microstructure generation for polygonal meshes.