Adjust Triangulation

Webster's Dictionary defines tessellation as:

1 a: mosaic b: a covering of an infinite geometric plane without gaps or overlaps by congruent plane figures of one type or a few types
2: an act of tessellating : the state of being tessellated

Any shape can be used to create a tessellation, a triangle, square, hexagon, octagon, or a non-geometric shape (think Escher). Bryce uses triangles so "triangulation" and "tessellation" can be used interchangeably within Bryce.

You can create two types of tessellations in the Export Terrain Lab: Grid and Adaptive.

Grid tessellates the original height field with a grid. In order to achieve a good mesh representation of the source terrain, selecting Grid requires a large number of polygons. This method is suitable for geometric shapes.
Adaptive achieves much lower polygon counts with good representation of the terrain. This is an excellent choice when the terrain models natural landscapes.

The default triangulation method is Grid Triangulation. The initial tessellation is set to 7,938 polygons for the default terrain resolution (512). The default number of polygons and the range of polygons differs depending on the terrain resolution. For Adaptive, the allowable range of polygons is shown on the far left and right of the polygon slider.

To switch between Grid and Adaptive tessellations, click on the triangle to the left of the previewer and select the tessellation type.

You will get a Tessellating Progress dialog as the mesh is converted:

When using Adaptive Triangulation, you can effectively double the number of polygons by selecting Add Polygons in the drop down menu at the right bottom corner of the previewer.

To adjust the polygon count, move the slider below the previewer. This changes the quality of your mesh. The number of polygons in the mesh is displayed in the right bottom corner of the previewer.

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