Triangulation of polygon

Question

Im trying to triangulate a polygon for use in a 3d model. When i try using the ear method on a polygon with points as dotted below, i get triangles where the red lines are. Since there are no other points inside these triangles this is probably correct. But i want it to triangulate the area inside the black lines only. Anyone know of any algorithms that will do this?

Answer 1

There are many algorithms to triangulate a polygon that do not need partitioning into monotone polygons first. One is described in my textbook Computational Geometry in C, which has code associated with it that can be freely downloaded from that link (in C or in Java). You must first have the points in order corresponding to a boundary traversal. My code assumes counterclockwise, but of course that is easy to change. See also the Wikipedia article. Perhaps that is your problem, that you don't have the boundary points consistently organized?