Mapping Types

This section provides you with detailed information on capabilities common to all the 3D textures and Advanced Materials provided with Realistic Rendering. We present you here the mapping types which are methods you can use to apply texture onto the object.

Related Topics
Modifying Material Texture Properties
Advanced Materials

Mapping Types Presentation

When accessing the Texture tab in the selected 3D texture or advanced material Rendering Properties, dialog box you can choose among six mapping types by clicking in the Type box:

The available mapping types are:



 Planar Mapping You can use it for planar geometries such as a slide projector (a picture on a wall, for instance) or for textures with two privileged directions such as a texture representing a chessboard or a wall of bricks.
Spherical Mapping You can use it for spherical geometries such as a painted light bulb or a ball, or for textures that do not have a privileged direction such as stone or raw metal.
Cylindrical Mapping You can use it for cylindrical geometries such as a can of food or a bottle, or for textures having a privileged direction such as shiny metal or marble.
Cubical Mapping You can use it for cubical geometries such as a box.
Automatic Adaptive Mapping Automatically detects the mapping that best fits.
Manual Adaptive Mapping Gathers together faces which have close normal vectors. The precision value defined using the slider modifies the tolerance used during the grouping process.


Tip: The manual mapping enables textures to cross slightly sharpen edges, thus providing higher visual quality. This mapping type is especially relevant for materials with no specific orientation such as leather or wood for example.