Chapter Four

The Truth About Texture Mapping

March 1990

u04-01-9781558608603

This article was originally written in 1990 to document something I did in 1980. Since then, timing numbers have changed (computers are almost 1000 times faster now) and the names given to elements of the memory hierarchy have changed (for “disk” read “cache”), but the principle remains the same: locality of reference is good.

Texture mapping is a good, cheap way to make a picture look more realistic than it really is. Most of my texture mapping has been devoted to making pictures of the outer planets. Astrologers tell us that the planets control our destinies. That may not be true for everyone, ...

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