1. A method for generating a hierarchical continuous level of detail (H-CLOD) tree data structure for three-dimensional (3D) model rendering, the method comprising: storing a raw 3D mesh of the 3D model to a root node of an unsimplified tree data structure; iteratively adding nodes to the unsimplified tree data structure from the raw 3D mesh by, for each lowest-level node of the tree data structure, until each lowest-level node has an associated mesh that is smaller than a predetermined bucket size: partitioning the candidate mesh according to a candidate splitting plane determined for the lowest-level node to generate at least two child meshes; storing the candidate splitting plane to the set of local splitting planes; and storing each of the at least two child meshes to a respective child node added to the lowest-level node, such that each child node becomes a lowest-level node in a respective branch of the unsimplified tree data structure; and iteratively generating an H-CLOD tree data structure from the unsimplified tree data structure by, for each non-leaf child node of the unsimplified tree data structure: combining all meshes stored by children nodes of the non-leaf child node to form a pre-simplified mesh; and computing a simplified mesh from the pre-simplified mesh by removing a portion of 3D coordinate points only from polygons of the pre-simplified mesh that do not span any of the set of local splitting planes associated with the non-leaf child node.