Hughes/Computer Graphics, 3/E

Chapter 20. Textures and Texture Mapping

20.1. Introduction

As we said in Chapter 1, texture mapping can be used to add detail to the appearance of an object. Texture mapping has little to do with either texture (in the sense of the roughness or smoothness you feel when you touch something) or maps; the term is an artifact of the early history of graphics.

Why is it called texture mapping? Informally speaking, a long time ago small details of models, whether geometric or color-related, were represented in the model of the object by “painting” them onto the model, as in a trompe l’oeil painting. You could paint a tiny bright spot on a model to look like a highlight, regardless of the lighting in the scene. These details were called texture, and ...