Sphere mapping

In computer graphics, sphere mapping is a technique that takes a two dimensional texture coordinate and returns a texel from a texture map that is painted (or photographed) to resemble what a mirrored sphere would look like if placed into a particular environment. This texture coordinate is a vector that specifies which way to look from the center of the sphere mapped sphere to get the desired texel.

The result looks like the environment is reflected in the surface of the object that is being rendered.

See also

• Cube mapping
• Skybox (video games)
• Reflection mapping