27 Dec 2017 • Mesh generation checklist

This post contains a comprehensive checklist documenting all the steps you need to go through to generate meshes in code for use in any kind of real time or offline renderer.

1. Kind of guess what the code should look like. Get it wrong.
2. Guess again. Still wrong.
3. Draw for a bit.
4. Make a more informed guess. Still wrong.
5. Realise you were drawing the wrong thing. Draw some more.
6. Try again. It looks pretty good, but there are some random stray triangles and/or missing triangles.
7. Comb the code for ages to find the off by ones. This step often involves drawing.
8. Vow to never touch the code again.
9. At some point in the future, notice more random stray triangles and/or holes.
10. Comb the code for ages to find the off by ones.
11. Vow to never touch the code again.