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xyz for the semi-retro bio-punk cool factor?
MirceaKitsune But the concept could theoretically be used even with faces in conventional meshes if we interpreted them differently, such as allowing the a heightmap to change where a point on the surface is interpreted between its vertices instead of reading it as a flat triangle.
Ok, I think you are not understanding us here... We are saying that you inevitably have to decimate and rasterize to limit mesh the idealized mathematical curved surface no matter what. It's how the maths work out and the triangle is the most basic 3D element to do this with. Even CPU/Software rendered Catmull-Clark SDS still ultimately uses triangles to rasterize the limit mesh output. There's no escaping it. But as CC SDS/Reyes proved you can very successfully do 1 to 5 tris(or more even) per pixel to get a virtually infinite detail level if you have the data to render/rasterize.
Basically Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces with vector displacement would probably be for all intents and purposes what you are after here and you're just trying to reinvent the wheel here.
edit: speaking of OpenSubdiv...
https://github.com/godotengine/godot-proposals/issues/784
https://github.com/tefusion/godot-subdiv