LukasKalbertodt / masters-thesis

My master's thesis about writing the polygon mesh library `lox` in Rust

Designing and Implementing a Polygon Mesh Library: Can Rust Improve the Status Quo in the Domain of Geometry Processing?

My master's thesis. Abstract:

Polygon meshes can be represented in various ways using different data structures, each varying in its capabilities, memory consumption and performance characteristics. However, instead of attempting to abstract over several data structures, most popular geometry processing libraries only implement one. The open-source library lox, developed as part of this thesis, provides such an abstraction using the trait system of the Rust programming language. Comparing lox to the existing libraries OpenMesh and PMP regarding factors such as execution speed shows that the trait-based abstraction did not incur any significant runtime overhead, making lox's core design a viable option for geometry processing libraries. While choosing Rust as the programming language mostly benefited the project, some of its limitations, like the lack of generic associated types, notably slowed down the development of lox.

Links:

• Download thesis as PDF
• Repository of polygon library lox