Introduction

The Shadow Framework 4.0 will be out next summer. This documentations is a growing draft and you may find many incomplete parts. The full documentation will be ready when the project is out. I actually plan to make some videos to make key points clear. That said, some pages are complete, and may help you understand what's going on here.

This software framework is based upon a specific surface model that I call the Curved Polygons Net, and its simplified version that I call Polylines Net. This models extend the Mesh scheme, commonly used in Computer Graphics, which is a subset of them, with some interesting features. Furthermore, Curved Polygons Nets can be (must be) converted into Meshes after the definition of a set of Tessellation Parameters, therefore each Curved Polygons Net is a (infinite) set of meshes on its own.

ShadowFramework 4.0 contains all the software tools needed to store a Curved Polygons Net or a Polyline Net and convert (decompress) it into a mesh, or more meshes if you are looking for a set of distinguished levels of detail. The output meshes are generated with a format which is compatible with modern graphical API (this was, since the beginning, an OpenGL based framework). Also, I'm working on porting of the same procedures in multiple programming languages, with extensions to make them available on many platforms.

In this guide we will start showing the structure of Curved Polygons Nets and Polylines Nets. Than, we will define data formats and specifications. In the end, we will discuss the main algorithms and components in the framework and we will understand how to customize it for your needs.

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General Principles

Introduction

Polylines Nets

Curved Polygons Nets

Guides and Geometric Interfacing

Introduction