<p>I have an isosurface/mesh (generated via marching cubes) of a micro-CT scan. Originally the surface looks very noisy, which becomes prevalent when the mean curvature is visualized:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/Xa4aIm.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Xa4aIm.jpg" alt="unedited surface" /></a></p>
<p>To reduce the noise I've applied Gaussian smoothing to the imagedata and regenerated the mesh. This time, artificial looking rings appear:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/NIsalm.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/NIsalm.png" alt="surface after smoothing" /></a></p>
<p>I would like to reduce these circles/rings/terracing artifacts to obtain a more smooth distribution of the curvature values.</p>
<p>I was wondering if anybody would know the name of this problem since I'm struggling to find anything similar online. All help is appreciated!</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-30T12:55:44.770Z
It's possible that it is something specific to marching cubes. Looks like aliasing or ringing.
lightxbulb
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-30T14:01:12.020Z
I was thinking that too. So I ran Dual Marching Cubes and SurfaceNets on a voxelized sphere (also with Gaussian smoothing) but these rings kept appearing (although less apparent for SurfaceNets)
Steven
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-30T14:39:57.760Z
Try ray marching this with a high resolution (zoom into the problematic region). If the rings disappear you know it's the discretization. If they do not disappear, then it's a feature if your surface.
lightxbulb
<mesh><artifacts>
Reducing artificial rings in mean curvature of mesh
Steven
# Reducing artificial rings in mean curvature of mesh

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-06-30)

I have an isosurface/mesh (generated via marching cubes) of a micro-CT scan. Originally the surface looks very noisy, which becomes prevalent when the mean curvature is visualized:

[![unedited surface](https://i.sstatic.net/Xa4aIm.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/Xa4aIm.jpg)

To reduce the noise I've applied Gaussian smoothing to the imagedata and regenerated the mesh. This time, artificial looking rings appear:

[![surface after smoothing](https://i.sstatic.net/NIsalm.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/NIsalm.png)

I would like to reduce these circles/rings/terracing artifacts to obtain a more smooth distribution of the curvature values.

I was wondering if anybody would know the name of this problem since I'm struggling to find anything similar online. All help is appreciated!

**Tags:** mesh, artifacts

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: It's possible that it is something specific to marching cubes. Looks like aliasing or ringing.  
> **username_0**: I was thinking that too. So I ran Dual Marching Cubes and SurfaceNets on a voxelized sphere (also with Gaussian smoothing) but these rings kept appearing (although less apparent for SurfaceNets)  
> **username_1**: Try ray marching this with a high resolution (zoom into the problematic region). If the rings disappear you know it's the discretization. If they do not disappear, then it's a feature if your surface.  

---

## 0 answers

