Texture mapping and distortion in digital graphics

Texture mapping is a method commonly used to increase the visual complexity of computer generated images while maintaining simplicity in the underlying geometric models. Texture maps are generally defined in two dimensional space; thus, a primary problem when applying textures to objects is determining a mapping transformation from the three dimensional space of the object to the two dimensional space of the map. A method for mapping complex polygonal geometries is presented. The algorithmunfolds the object polygon by polygon and projects the texture map onto the resulting two dimensional geometry. Enhancements to the basic unfolding algorithm either (1) control the location of map distorition introduced at areas of severe curvature or (2) average distortions over a larger area.