A novel method of automatically generating texture atlas for triangular meshes

Texture Atlas is a kind of large image consisting of many sub-images, which are usually used to store surface texture in realistic rendering. In order to reach a higher capacity rate for the atlas, a novel method of automatically generating texture atlas for triangular meshes is presented. Each triangular is rotated until its longest edge is in horizontal direction, so that the area of its bounding box is effectively reduced. According to the order of the area descending, each triangle bounding box is packed into atlas space through the collision test. The experimental results show that our approach has the advantage of storing texture without deformation, and can substantially increase the capacity rate of atlas without increase of the running time.