Quadratic-Order Geodesics on Meshes
Graphics
2026-03-04 v1
Abstract
We introduce a novel representation and optimization framework for discrete geodesics on triangle meshes that reduces artifacts of linear methods on uneven and coarse discretizations. Our method computes squared geodesic distances from point and curve sources using piecewise-quadratic elements, exactly reproducing flat distances regardless of mesh quality while improving accuracy over existing approaches on curved meshes. The formulation naturally supports sources placed anywhere on the mesh, not just at vertices.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.03231,
title = {Quadratic-Order Geodesics on Meshes},
author = {Yue Ruan and Albert Chern and Tzu-Mao Li and Kartic Subr and Amir Vaxman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.03231},
year = {2026}
}