In computer graphics, sphere mapping (or spherical environment mapping) is a type of reflection mapping that approximates reflective surfaces by considering the environment to be an infinitely far-away spherical wall.

Mar 5, 2025 · High dynamic range space sphere maps, for when your project needs an image based lighting or global illumination solution. Quick links: Nebula Spheremaps | Planetary Spheremaps | Local Star Spheremaps | Asteroid Spheremaps

In mathematics, a stereographic projection is a perspective projection of the sphere, through a specific point on the sphere (the pole or center of projection), onto a plane (the projection plane) perpendicular to the diameter through the point.

Spherical environment maps, or sphere maps, are special textures that contain an image of the scene surrounding an object, or the lighting effects around the object. Unlike cubic environment maps, sphere maps don't directly represent an object's surroundings.

The sphere map contains information about the front and back of the environment about a point. Calculating where this crossover occurs in helpful in understand how much information is stored in which parts of the map, and therefore gives an idea of what resolution map is

Sphere mapping represents the sphere of incident illumination as though it were seen in the reflection of a reflective sphere through an orthographic camera. The texture image can be created by approximating this ideal setup, or using a fisheye lens or via prerendering a scene with a spherical mapping.

Jul 26, 2005 · One such method for generating texture coordinates from geometry is known as spherical mapping. The basis of this mapping technique is to treat the object as if it were a sphere, and mapping coordinates based by determining the position on …

In computer graphics, sphere mapping (or spherical environment mapping) is a type of reflection mapping that approximates reflective surfaces by considering the environment to be an infinitely far-away spherical wall.

Acquiring a Sphere Map…. Take a picture of a shiny sphere in a real environment Or render the environment into a texture (see next slide)

Equirectangular, panoramic space sphere maps which can be used with a variety of 3D applications and game engines. All the downloads on this site are free to use, for both personal and commercial projects.