This should be in p.n-u, but here we go,

Could someone explain to me the difference between a procedural texture
and a texture, are they the same?? Boy, I am so confused lately ;-)

Thanks a lot.

-paul

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Paul <pdj### [at] psuedu> wrote:
: Could someone explain to me the difference between a procedural texture
: and a texture, are they the same?? Boy, I am so confused lately ;-)

  "Texture" is a generic term for all types of textures. Perhaps you meant
textures in image files (such as jpg, png, etc)?

  The difference between an image and a procedural texture is that the image
is just that, an image. You just take colors from the image and apply them
to the surface of the object.
  Procedural texturing is, however, calculated "on the fly". That is, from
the coordinates of the surface point we want to texture, a color and other
parameters are calculated with a mathematical function.

  The advantage of procedural texturing is that you get unlimited accuracy
(specially when scaling the texture very large) and it's easy to modify
the texture by modifying some parameters or the function itself. Procedural
textures don't take memory at all (except a bit for the function itself).
With images you get pixelation, you can't easily modify the texture and they
take lots of memory.
  The disadvantage of procedural texturing is speed and the fact that some
specific textures are very hard to produce with a mathematical function.

-- 
char*i="b[7FK@`3NB6>B:b3O6>:B:b3O6><`3:;8:6f733:>::b?7B>:>^B>C73;S1";
main(_,c,m){for(m=32;c=*i++-49;c&m?puts(""):m)for(_=(
c/4)&7;putchar(m),_--?m:(_=(1<<(c&3))-1,(m^=3)&3););}    /*- Warp -*/

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