Newbie's Corner 5

[mayito7777]

Today we are going to talk about Parallax mapping

Parallax Mapping (also, Offset Mapping or Virtual Displacement Mapping) is an enhancement of the bump mapping or normal mapping techniques applied to textures in 3D rendering applications such as video games (including open source games like Sauerbraten). To the end user, this means that textures such as stone walls, will have more apparent depth and thus greater realism with less of an influence on the performance of the simulation. Parallax mapping was introduced by Kaneko, T., et al[1] in 2001.

Parallax mapping is implemented by displacing the texture coordinates at a point on the rendered polygon by a function of the view angle in tangent space (the angle relative to the surface normal) and the value of the height map at that point. At steeper view angles the texture coordinates are displaced more, and so give the illusion of depth due to parallax effects as the view changes.

Parallax mapping described by Kaneko is a single step process that does not account for occlusion. Subsequent enhancements have been made to the algorithm incorporating iterative approaches to allow for occlusion and accurate silhouette rendering[2].

Note: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Parallax:

Parallax, or more accurately motion parallax (Greek: παραλλαγή (parallagé) = alteration) is the change of angular position of two stationary points relative to each other as seen by an observer, caused by the motion of an observer. Simply put, it is the shift of an object against a background caused by a change in observer position. If there is no parallax between two objects then they are side by side at the exact same height.

Note: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia