This node tessellates geometry into triangles and groups those triangles into longer strips. Tristripped geometry is defined as strips of alternating points rather than a list of faces with corresponding points.

A triangulated (non-tristripped) polygon mesh of 4 triangles is defined as a list of triangles and their corresponding points like this:

Polygon 0: (Point 0, Point 1, Point 2)
Polygon 1: (Point 1, Point 2, Point 3)
Polygon 2: (Point 2, Point 3, Point 4)
Polygon 3: (Point 3, Point 4, Point 5)

A tristrip of those same 4 triangles is stored like this:

Tristrip: (Point 0, Point 1, Point 2, Point 3, Point 4, Point 5)

It’s very rarely possible to create a single strip for a piece of geometry, so tristripped geometry of complex objects usually consists of many strips of varying lengths.

• Most editing functions in Houdini cannot work with tristrips.

• Triangle strips are faster to display and require less memory than the equivalent triangles. When manipulating heavy pieces of polygonal geometry in the viewport, you can improve interactivity by appending a tristrip to create proxy geometry.

• Tristrip geometry takes up less room on disk. The longer the strip, the greater the savings in storage and computation.

• Most GPUs and game engines can take advantage of tristrips. Using this SOP before exporting your geometry to your target platform can optimize your geometry for manipulation and display in real time environments.

• You can convert tristrips back to triangles with the Convert node.

• If you are tristripping geometry which has changing topology, the Tri Strip node may triangulate polygons differently in different frames, causing popping of non-planar polygons. If this is a problem, triangulate non-planar polygons first with the Divide node.