Texture mapping help

Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Programming/Texture mapping help

Who was John Galt? (Posted 2003) [#1]

I want to create a golf ball by mapping a texture with a circle in it onto a sphere - unfortunately it looks really naff at the top and bottom as a result of the way the texture wraps. Is there any easy way to get around this?

Ricky Smith (Posted 2003) [#2]

With Spherical mapping you will always have deformation at each pole if you use a standard texture. You can reduce this distortion to just the one pole using Shrink-Wrapping. To eliminate the distortion completely you have to use a texture that has been prepared for use as a Spherical map. This is a procedure that distorts the map prior to mapping so that when it is applied no distortion appears. You can create this type of texture with a program like Texture Maker.

Who was John Galt? (Posted 2003) [#3]

Cheers, Citizen Smiff, I'll take a look at Texture Maker. Power to the People!!!

jhocking (Posted 2003) [#4]

Depending on the polygon count you are after you can often use a subdivided cube instead of a sphere with north-south poles. By using a cube and subdividing it to smooth it into a sphere you get nice even texture coordinates.

Who was John Galt? (Posted 2003) [#5]

Joe- Sounds good-how would I go about that in broad terms?

jhocking (Posted 2003) [#6]

Depends on your modeling tool. In 3D Studio Max for example you create a cube, assign texture coordinates (this is done automatically with a checkbox,) and then apply Meshsmooth.

Who was John Galt? (Posted 2003) [#7]

TA!

Rob Farley (Posted 2003) [#8]

Or indeed use a geosphere... plonk all the triangles on top of one another and make a really simple texture that put the dimple (or a few dimples) in the middle of the triangle.

Who was John Galt? (Posted 2003) [#9]

Thanks again- plenty of avenues to explore now.