Texture Mapping in VRML

by Cindy Ballreich

The purpose of this page is to describe how textures ought to work if you follow the VRML specifications, not necessarily how they actually do work. Many of the browsers out there only support part of the spec, and a few probably don't support it correctly. The examples posted here for VRML 1.0 have been tested with WebSpace 1.1 for SGI and the examples for VRML 2.0 have been tested with CosmoPlayer beta2 for SGI. Both of these browsers seem to support the spec fairly well. If you encounter problems displaying any of these examples, you've probably uncovered a browser related problem. I'll try to point out areas that cause problems with browsers when I can.

Whenever you see the word "example" highlighted on the page, you can click on it to see a VRML illustration of the process being discussed. I've put copies of the examples in the text to make it easier to see the syntax. I would suggest that you save the examples to your disk and modify them to help you understand the concepts we'll be talking about. Several people have asked me to make an archive containing all of the examples available for downloading. The archive for the VRML 1.0 section is called tex-examples.tar.gz.

There are several good books about VRML on the market and all of them discuss texture mapping. I would suggest that anyone interested in VRML get one or two and read up on the subject. Rest assured that any book you find will be at least partially out of date by the time it's published, but the basic information will still be very useful.

The VRML 1.0 section of this page is based on Version 1.0C dated January 29, 1996.
The VRML 2.0 section is based on the final draft dated August 4, 1996
No browser specific extensions are discused in this page.

Finally, a huge thanks to (and a small plug for) my employers 3Name3D who have given me the time to create this page and space on the server to display it!

This page is dedicated to everyone on the www-vrml mailing list.

Contents:

1. Understanding How Textures Work
2. Texture Mapping in VRML 1.0
3. Texture Mapping in VRML 2.0
4. A Discusion of Image File Types

Note: Texture mapping in VRML is basicly the same as texture mapping in all other areas of 3D graphics. It's all based on the same fundamental concepts. Understanding the concepts behind the practical applications will make your life as a VRML artist a lot easier. I strongly urge you to take the time to read the section on Understanding How Textures Work before you start in on the other sections.