Topic : A Texture Mapping Technique
Author : Joshua Cantrell
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A Texture Mapping Technique
by Joshua Cantrell


equations last updated: 4-23-97
last updated: 5-9-97





I've decided to write this page because of the lack of information on texture mapping on the WWW. When I did find information, it was usually a collection of formulae without any explanation of how they were developed. The problem with this approach is that no one can check the method if they cannot reproduce the equations. I haven't been able to reproduce the equations I found on the WWW yet, so I did my own calculations which appear to work, and I feel safer knowing that you can actually derive my result using vector math and linear algebra.





Equation of a plane

In this derivation, we require the equation of the plane that our 3D polygon will be in. This is so we can find out where the screen x and y coordinates are on this plane. Once we know what point on the plane we have, we then transform this point into texture space, which I'll show how to do later.

Some simple facts about vectors that should be known to those studying 3D graphics are the results of a dot product and cross product. A dot product, which I'll symbolize as u.v, is equal to ||u||*||v||*cos(theta) where ||u|| represents the magnitude of the vector u and theta is the angle between the vectors u and v. A cross product, which I'll symbolize as uXv results in a vector that is orthogonal (perpendicular) to the vectors involved in the operation. Because any vector orthogonal to another vector is at 90 degrees to the other angle, we can make the following statement. If u and v are on the plane and are not parallel, (uXv).w = 0, if w is a vector on the plane.

The reason for the given result, (uXv).w = 0, is that we know the resultant vector from (uXv) has to be orthogonal to both, which means it is also orthogonal to the plane they are in. Any vector orthogonal to the resultant vector would be at a 90 degree angle, and the cosine of 90 degrees is zero.

Now using this result, we can find the vector w by defining it as the displacement of a point on the plane, p = (px, py, pz), and a point that we want to test and see if it is on the plane, (x, y, z). If the chosen point is on the plane, the result of the dot product will be zero, otherwise it will be non-zero. The displacement vector is w = [x-px, y-py, z-zy].

Doing the math (which I'd show if they had a decent equation writer for a WWW browser), we end up with the equation:

(Nx*x) + (Ny*y) + (Nz*z) = (Nx*px + Ny*py + Nz*pz)

Transforming the plane space to texture space

Transforming the plane space to texture space takes more linear algebra than finding the equation of a plane. If you breezed through the "equation of a plane" discussion because you knew it already or understand it well, you are in good shape, otherwise you should probably try finding more basic discussions of vectors, and 2D/3D space calculations.

The first step we do in this process is to translate a point on our polygon which is going to be have texture position (0,0). For simplicity, it is usually just a vertex (corner) of the polygon.

Let C = Point on the polygon to be the texture map's origin.
Let P = Any Point on the polygon which will be linked to a texture coordinate.

   [1, 0, 0, -Cx]   [Px]   [Px - Cx]
   [0, 1, 0, -Cy] * [Py] = [Py - Cy]
   [0, 0, 1, -Cz]   [Pz]   [Pz - Cz]
   [0, 0, 0,  1 ]   [ 1]   [   1   ]


Now that the center of the texture map is at the origin of the 3D coordinate system, we need to rotate the polygon so that it is on the x-y plane (taking it out of 3D space). This can be done by taking three orthogonal vectors that represent the way the texture is aligned on the polygon. One is the normal to the polygon's plane, a second is the vector that points along the direction that the x-coordinates in the texture space increases, and the third is the vector that points along the direction that the y-coordinate increases. Using just two of these we can calculate the third. These also should be normalized vectors (unit vectors).

Rotating a point using three orthogonal unit vectors:

Let P = Point to be rotated around the origin.
Let N = Normalized vector that is orthogonal to the polygon's plane.
Let U = Normalized vector on the polygon's plane that points in the
         direction of increasing x in the texture space.
Let V = Normalized vector on the polygon's plane that points in the
         direction of increasing y in the texture space.

   [Ux, Vx, Nx, 0]   [Px]   [Ux*Px + Vx*Py + Nx*Pz]
   [Uy, Vy, Ny, 0] * [Py] = [Uy*Px + Vy*Py + Ny*Pz]
   [Uz, Vz, Nz, 0]   [Pz]   [Uz*Px + Vz*Py + Nz*Pz]
   [ 0,  0,  0, 1]   [ 1]   [         1           ]


A way to convince yourself that this actually works is by plugging in the points P = (1,0,0), P = (0,1,0), and P = (0,0,1). Notice that each identity point is rotated to point in the direction of one of the normalized vectors. Also notice which normalized vector goes with each point. This goes in the wrong direction since we want to move a point from the polygon space to the texture space, not the texture space to the polygon space. To fix this we take the transpose of the rotation matrix which reverses the direction of rotation.

Rotating a point from the polygon's space to texture space:

Let P = Point in polygon space.
Let N = Normalized vector that is orthogonal to the polygon's plane.
Let U = Normalized vector on the polygon's plane that points in the
         direction of increasing x in the texture space.
Let V = Normalized vector on the polygon's plane that points in the
         direction of increasing y in the texture space.

   [Ux, Uy, Uz, 0]   [Px]   [Ux*Px + Uy*Py + Uz*Pz]
   [Vx, Vy, Vz, 0] * [Py] = [Vx*Px + Vy*Py + Vz*Pz]
   [Nx, Ny, Nz, 0]   [Pz]   [Nx*Px + Ny*Py + Nz*Pz]
   [ 0,  0,  0, 1]   [ 1]   [         1           ]


Now we put them together. Translate to the origin and then rotate to get the final result of moving from polygon space to texture space. (don't forget that we are moving the polygon to the x-y plane, so the z coordinate should either be zero, or should approach zero, and it can be ignored).

Moving from polygon space to texture space:

Let P = Any Point on the polygon which will be linked to a texture coordinate.
Let C = Point on the polygon to be the texture map's origin.
Let N = Normalized vector that is orthogonal to the polygon's plane.
Let U = Normalized vector on the polygon's plane that points in the
        direction of increasing x in the texture space.
Let V = Normalized vector on the polygon's plane that points in the
        direction of increasing y in the texture space.

   [Ux, Uy, Uz, 0]   [1, 0, 0, -Cx]   [Px]  
   [Vx, Vy, Vz, 0] * [0, 1, 0, -Cy] * [Py] =
   [Nx, Ny, Nz, 0]   [0, 0, 1, -Cz]   [Pz]
   [ 0,  0,  0, 1]   [0, 0, 0,  1 ]   [ 1]

      [Ux*(Px-Cx) + Uy*(Py-Cy) + Uz*(Pz-Cz)]
      [Vx*(Px-Cx) + Vy*(Py-Cy) + Vz*(Pz-Cz)]
      [Wx*(Px-Cx) + Wy*(Py-Cy) + Wz*(Pz-Cz)]
      [                 1                  ]


Transforming from screen space to polygon space

Now let's go from screen space to polygon space. To do this, we use the equation of the plane and the equations that translate a point from 3D space to screen space.

Transforming a point from 3D space to screen space:

Let d = The distance between the screen and the focal point.
Let P = The 3D point.

   [d, 0, 0, 0]   [Px]   [d * Px]   [(d * Px) / Pz]
   [0, d, 0, 0] * [Py] = [d * Py] =

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