[Paraview] Efficient Drawings

[Kent Eschenberg]

Note: Mesa users, please ignore the VTK- and ParaView-specific questions.

vtkStructuredGrid can blank cells and vertexes but vtkDataSetSurfaceFilter pays 
no attention. I've fixed that on our local version with a new section of code 
that generates quads. This filter could generate many millions of quads so it 
makes sense to think about efficiency.

Do modern graphics cards and Mesa draw quads as fast as the equivalent two 
triangles?

If I generate triangles do modern graphics cards and Mesa work that much faster 
using triangle strips?

If I generate strips how does this interact with the ParaView option to 
generate triangle strips (under "3D View Properties" in 2.6.1)?

TIA!
Kent
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center