
                         
                          Enviroment Mapping Tutorial
                              by Frenzy / TeSkO
 
 Hiya reader. This is a small tutorial to help people understand how simple
 enviroment mapping really is :) I'm assuming you have expirence with 3d
 graphics and have done Gouraud shading and texture mapping. Also, I'm
 assuming you have knowledge of or have used fixed point maths namly 8.8
 fixed point. If your answer is yes to all the above then this doc should
 tell you what you need to know, otherwise I'd suggest you leech some other
 tutors from ftp.cdrom.com or othersuch site..

 THE ENVIROMENT MAP:
 
 First things first, the enviroment map. This is just a texture map. It
 can be any size but for simplicity I'm going to assume a 256x256 texture
 map. This enviroment map can be anything you like. However, depending on
 how your enviroment map looks depends on how your env mapping will look.
 What I'm trying to say is this. If you have a good map your objects will
 look a lot kewler. You can also simulate phong using env mapping just by
 making an appropiate enviroment map. A sample enviroment map is given
 called 'PHONG.PCX'. Its just a simple map that will make your objects
 phong shaded. Once you have seen this you should get the basic idea on
 what an enviroment map should look like. There is also one called
 'METAL.PCX' which will make your objects look metalic/chrome. Looks very
 nice. I got this from somewhere, dunno where. But it looks good and it
 demonstrates what the enviroment maps should look like. BTW, this METAL.PCX
 looks rather like a face.. How bizarre, I really would like to know where
 it came from :-) 

 HOW TO ENVIROMENT MAP:
 
 Well, you've read the above and seen the .PCX files and you are still with
 me. Good, here comes actual env mapping technique. 

 You have vertex normals for each vertex in your object right? Just like
 in gouraud. Well, the way we use them is a bit different. In gouraud you
 took the dot product of the light vector with each vertex normal. Well, in
 env mapping you have to calculate the U,V coordinates so you can texture
 map with them. Remember, env mapping is a straight texture map. The only
 difference is the way you get your U,V coordinates. What you do is this:-

 You must have your vertex normals in 8.8 fixed point!!!

 For every vertex normal in your object compute its U,V coordinate by taking
 the X and Y components and dividing by 2. This gets them in the range of
 -128..128, then add 128 to that. That then gives you them in the range of
 0..256 which just so happens to be the dimensions of your texture map :)
 So, you have this:-

 U = (x / 2) + 128;
 V = (y / 2) + 128;

 Now, once you have done that you can simply texture map as normal using
 these U,V coordinates... Simple eh? Why, did you expect it to be hard??

 OPTIMIZATIONS:
 
 Of course, make your texture mapper fast. Also, you don't need to rotate
 the vertex normals. This saves a lot of time. I won't go into this as you
 might already know. If not then just ask. There is also another way to
 find your U,V coordinates using spherical coordinates. However, this is
 not necessary. 

 FINAL WORDS:
 
 Well, thats that done. A good 5mins read? if it didn't help then sorry
 but it works for me.. If ya have any other questions then just ask. Your
 surely have some.

 Oh yes, I threw together a small example called 'DEMO.EXE' to show you
 what it should look like. Its crude but its only an example. Don't know
 how fast it will be on your machine but on a dx4 120 it runs at 51 fps.
 My env mapping is not fully optimised at the moment :(
 
 Byeeee

 Signed,
 Paul aka Frenzy
 EMAIL: p.adams@wlv.ac.uk

