13 - Real-time procedural solid texturing

Abstract

Procedural solid texturing is a powerful tool for production-quality image synthesis. Dynamic animated textures like fire and explosions can be represented efficiently as procedural textures. Objects sculpted from a textured medium, like wood or stone, can be textured using solid texturing. Solid texturing is also easier than surface texturing because it does not require a surface parameterization. With the advent of programmable shading hardware in modern graphics accelerators, procedural solid texturing has become a useful tool for real-time graphics elements in video games and virtual environments. Procedural solid textures are compact and can be synthesized dynamically on demand. They can provide video games and virtual environments with a vast variety of textures that require little additional storage, at a resolution limited only by machine precision. This chapter describes how to integrate procedural solid texturing into real-time systems using features already available in current graphics programming libraries. These techniques can also be used to create an interactive procedural solid texturing design system with real-time feedback.