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                                                        325
SECTION 4.6                                                                                                     Patterns



Shaded Triangle Meshes)” on page 314 for further details on the format of the da-
ta.

As in free-form triangle meshes (type 4), each patch has an edge flag that indi-
cates which edge, if any, it shares with the previous patch. An edge flag of 0 begins
a new patch, unconnected to any other. This must be followed by 12 pairs of co-
ordinates, x1 y1 x2 y2 … x12 y12 , which specify the Bézier control points that
define the four boundary curves. Figure 4.22 shows how these control points cor-
respond to the cubic Bézier curves C1 , C2 , D1 , and D2 identified in Figure 4.20 on
page 322. Color values are given for the four corners of the patch, in the same or-
der as the control points corresponding to the corners. Thus, c1 is the color at co-
ordinates (x1 , y1 ), c2 at (x4 , y4 ), c3 at (x7 , y7 ), and c4 at (x10 , y10 ), as shown in the
figure.


                                          Use this side when next f = 1.

                                                   5
                                                                                   c3
                                                        C2                     7
                                    c2
                                              4              6
                                                  3              8

   This side already attached
   to previous patch. Start a             D1                                   D2       Use this side when next f = 2.
   new patch when next f = 0.

                                                                                        9
                                                  12
                                2
                                          1                               10
                                                                                   c4
                                     c1                C1
                                                                     11
                                          Use this side when next f = 3.



              FIGURE 4.22 Color values and edge flags in Coons patch meshes


Figure 4.22 also shows how nonzero values of the edge flag (f = 1, 2, or 3) connect
a new patch to one of the edges of the previous patch. In this case, some of the
previous patch’s control points serve implicitly as control points for the new patch
as well (see Figure 4.23), and therefore are not explicitly repeated in the data
stream. Table 4.35 summarizes the required data values for various values of the
edge flag.

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