A code sample has been uploaded with a Visual Studio 2010 project, with source code and shaders, to illustrate the process of loading an image with the DevIL API and creating a texture in OpenGL.
The GLSL Core Tutorial has a new section for image texturing. Images are commonly used as wallpaper applied to 3D shapes to create a variety of effects. In this section we focus on the OpenGL and GLSL typical scenario of texture usage, and explore a few new GLSL functions, such as textureSize
, textureQueryLod
, and textureQueryLevels
.
JHT’s Planetary Pixel Emporium is a site devoted to planetary texture maps. Here you can find hi-res texture maps, bump maps, and normal maps, for all the planets in the solar system as well as some moons. Most of these are free to download, read the copyright info if you intent to use them.
Based only on texture coordinates some interesting shaders can be built. In this new section of the GLSL Core Tutorial, a few common shaders, namely the stripes and grid shaders, will be explored. Basic antialising and GLSL functions mix and smoothstep will also be discussed. Source code and a VS2010 solution are also provided.
Metal Barrels – ShareCG. This model comes with a set of colour textures to provide lots of different looks, as well as four bump maps.
The blog Lost in the Triangles has an interesting article on appropriate texture dimensions. The discussion that follows is also worth reading.
ShareCG is a site with a huge amount of modelling tutorials, 3D models for download, and textures.
Spiral Blog: Paper World Texture Set.
An unusual texture set that allows you to create scenes that look like they’ve been mocked up from arts and crafts materials.
Blender and Gimp Tutorials. On the Blender side it focus on precision modelling. GIMP is then used to create a texture for a machined metal gear.
Textures library – A very large set of free textures. The collection includes many categories including bump maps.