RE: [Visualpython-users] Planned work for Fall '01

[David S. <dsc...@vy...>]

> i haven't thought seriously about the kind of interfaces that 
> would be nice for texturing the existing primitives, and i 
> want to get peoples' input. i always assumed that there isn't 
> a good consistent interface, and that some primitives (faces, 
> box) will want to take a list of texture coordinates, while 
> things like sphere have only one reasonable texturing scheme 
> (especially because sphere may change detail levels).

I can see a few basic approaches:

 (1) Think in terms of "skins": pick a texture coordinate mapping for
each built-in object, and draw a "template" texture with lines showing
where the faces (or whatever) fall in the texture.  People edit the
texture to their satisfaction and then use it.

 (2) Think in terms of projection: you can take *any* object and apply a
texture projectively using a mapping mode such as planar, cubic,
cylindrical, etc.  This might be more useful for "scientific"
applications where textures are being built procedurally.

 (3) Texture coordinates.  These are only usable in cases where the
vertices of the object are accessible to the programmer!  The only
cvisual primitives that meet this test are faces, convex, and hexahedron
(and curve, in one dimension).

Dave