Wang Tiles in Computer Graphics

Many complex signals in computer graphics, such as point distributions and textures, cannot be efficiently synthesized and stored. This book presents tile-based methods based on Wang tiles and corner tiles to solve both these problems. Instead of synthesizing a complex signal when needed, the signal is synthesized beforehand over a small set of Wang tiles or corner tiles. Arbitrary large amounts of that signal can then efficiently be generated when needed by generating a stochastic tiling, and storing only a small set of tiles reduces storage requirements. A tile-based method for generating a complex signal consists of a method for synthesizing the signal over a set of Wang tiles or corner tiles, and a method for generating a stochastic tiling using the set of tiles. The method for generating a stochastic tiling using the set of tiles is independent of the signal. This book covers scanline stochastic tiling algorithms and direct stochastic tiling algorithms for Wang tiles and corner tiles. The method for synthesizing the signal over a set of tiles is dependent on the signal. This book covers tile-based methods for texture synthesis and for generating Poisson disk distributions. This book also explores several applications such as tile-based texture mapping and procedural modeling and texturing. Although the methods for constructing a complex signal over a set of Wang tiles or corner tiles are dependent on the signal, the general idea behind these methods generalizes to other kinds of signals. The methods presented in this book therefore have the potential to make the generation and storage of almost any complex signal efficient.