GPU-based real-time deformation with normal reconstruction

Real-time deformation plays an important role in interactive applications such as video games. A new method of real-time dynamic deformation based on linear modal analysis is introduced in this paper. Compared to the existing techniques using the vertex program of the GPU to calculate vertex positions, our approach stores the modal displacement matrix in a series of 2D floating-point textures and the fragment program calculates vertex positions. We also encode the mesh neighbourhood information as an index form, and store it as textures. With a texture containing vertex positions, the fragment program can calculate vertex normals by local averaging. Experiments show that the proposed technique fully utilizes the parallel processing ability of the GPU, and it is suitable for the applications of real-time deformation.