Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!ames!ai.etl.army.mil!richr
From: richr@ai.etl.army.mil (Richard Rosenthal)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Polygon Representation of a Sphere's Surface
Message-ID: <270@ai.etl.army.mil>
Date: 22 Mar 89 20:26:49 GMT
Reply-To: richr@ai.etl.army.mil. (Richard Rosenthal)
Organization: USAETL, Fort Belvoir, Virginia
Lines: 23

I want to have in 3-D space (x, y, z) a polygon near-representation
of the surface of a sphere where each polygon is identical
and regular (if that's the word).

Is an icosahedron the right place to start?

I would like to be able to generate the representation with
increasing numbers of polygons, say first 20, and then
say 80.

Ultimately, I would like to divide up the Earth's surface into
pieces that uniformly tile a sphere's surface with, say,
64,00 tiles (preferable triangles) but maybe upto 233 million tiles!

Any comments, algorithms, or reference suggestions?

/s/ Rich

-- 
Richard Rosenthal                 Internet:  richr@ai.etl.army.mil
Engineer Topographic Labs             UUCP:  ...!ames!ai.etl.army.mil!richr
Ft. Belvoir, VA 22060-5546          BITNET:  richr%ai.etl.army.mil@CUNYVM
+1 202 355 3653                      CSNET:  richr%ai.etl.army.mil@RELAY.CS.NET