Automatic Generation of Simple Replacements for Groups of Objects

This report describes a method of automatically computing a simple replacement for a complex object, or set of objects. Size, shape and surface property information is extracted for the original objects either by examining their surfaces or by a sampling process. These attribute values can then be used to set the parameters deening a simple replacement object. Example replacements examined here include oriented boxes, spheroids, and transparent clouds. These replacements can then be used in level of detail (LOD) based rendering systems to make time and space savings.