Clean Mesh¶
Overview¶
The Clean Mesh Stage provides several cleanup operations for the current mesh stream. This Stage is commonly used right after a load asset Stage to correct geometry errors and reduce polygon count.
Warning
Clean Mesh performs a step called ‘consolidate points’ which fuses vertices that share the same position. This is necessary to prepare for stages like Stabilize Mesh, this is likely to result in issues with existing stabilization.
Note
Several optional parameters are provided for cleaning your mesh. Not all settings are necessary for each project, but Fix Degenerate Triangles is recommended in most cases to ensure proper operation of subsequent Stages.
Parameters¶
Debride: This operation removes all triangles with two or fewer connected faces. This deletes faces bordering holes and can disconnect thin strips of geometry. This can be useful in conjunction with Remove All But Largest Component to remove excess thin strips of geometry produced in some meshing algorithms.
Enable Decimation: Enable this option to apply Decimation, a step where mesh complexity is automatically reduced to meet a target triangle count. Lower triangle counts increase compression and significantly reduce processing time in later stages. For most clips this step can be enabled without noticeable loss of quality.
Fix Degenerate Triangles: Removes Degenerate Triangles, a kind of geometry issue that can cause errors or reduced performance in many Stages.
Note
Degenerate Triangles are a concept in geometry and 3d graphics. In HoloEdit, a “Degenerate Triangle” is a triangle that has either one of the following properties: zero surface area, or one or more edges with zero length.
Minimum Component Area: This sets the minimum area (in meters) that is preserved if the Remove Small Components parameter is enabled.
Remove All But Largest Component: This operation deletes all un-connected pieces of the mesh except for the one with the largest area. This can be useful to extract the desired geometry in a clip with a lot of floating noise.
Decimation Target Tris: Target triangle count if “Decimate” is enabled
Close Holes: Seals holes in the mesh.
Warning
Close Holes can modify your geometry’s UV layout in undesirable ways causing UV overlaps. When using ‘Close Holes’ it may be necessary to process affected frames using the Generate UV’s stage.
Remove Small Components: If enabled, any detached portion of the mesh smaller than the Minimum Component Area value will be deleted
Working with Clean Mesh¶
Important
Clean Mesh should be run before running any other stages that edit the mesh stream, such as Stabilize Mesh.
Clean Mesh is a very valuable stage that provides necessary cleanup to produce good results in other stages, compression, and fixes for some common geometry issues.
When preparing a track before Stabilization, you should usually apply the Enable Decimation option with a Decimation Target Tris value around 30,000 or less. Higher triangle counts are supported, but may result in significantly longer compute times for Stabilization. (See the Stabilize Mesh for details on the Stabilize Mesh stage.)