A three-dimensional shape is displayed at a high speed on the basis of compressed data. A subdivision pattern for at least one face that forms the three-dimensional shape is determined on the basis of three-dimensional shape data that defines the three-dimensional shape by the face. At the same time a curved face shape of the face is determined on the basis of the position of the vertices of the face and the direction of normals at the vertices defined in advance in the three-dimensional shape data. Then the determined curved face shape is subdivided according to the determined subdivision pattern and a plurality of faces are generated on the curved face shape. A three-dimensional shape formed by the plurality of faces generated is displayed.