Dart Throwing on Surfaces

• Published in: Computer graphics forum Vol. 28; no. 4; pp. 1217 - 1226
• Main Authors: Cline, D., Jeschke, S., White, K., Razdan, A., Wonka, P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2009
• Subjects: Algorithms; Computer graphics; Computer science; Sampling; Three dimensional imaging
• ISSN: 0167-7055; 1467-8659
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8659.2009.01499.x

In this paper we present dart throwing algorithms to generate maximal Poisson disk point sets directly on 3D surfaces. We optimize dart throwing by efficiently excluding areas of the domain that are already covered by existing darts. In the case of triangle meshes, our algorithm shows dramatic speed improvement over comparable sampling methods. The simplicity of our basic algorithm naturally extends to the sampling of other surface types, including spheres, NURBS, subdivision surfaces, and implicits. We further extend the method to handle variable density points, and the placement of arbitrary ellipsoids without overlap. Finally, we demonstrate how to adapt our algorithm to work with geodesic instead of Euclidean distance. Applications for our method include fur modeling, the placement of mosaic tiles and polygon remeshing.