Texture mapping 3D models of real-world scenes

Texture mapping has become a popular tool in the computer graphics industry in the last few years because it is an easy way to achieve a high degree of realism in computer-generated imagery with very little effort. Over the last decade, texture-mapping techniques have advanced to the point where it is possible to generate real-time perspective simulations of real-world areas by texture mapping every object surface with texture from photographic images of these real-world areas. The techniques for generating such perspective transformations are variations on traditional texture mapping that in some circles have become known as the Image Perspective Transformation or IPT technology. This article first presents a background survey of traditional texture mapping. It then continues with a description of the texture-mapping variations that achieve these perspective transformations of photographic images of real-world scenes. The style of the presentation is that of a resource survey rather than an in-depth analysis.