Conformal Texture Mapping

Abstract

A new class of geometric mappings is introduced to computer graphics, and the utility of this class is illustrated by applying it to texture mapping. When mapping a texture onto a surface such as a polygon, the entire texture can rarely be mapped without some clipping or non-linear transformation. Is it possible to map a texture bijectively to an arbitrary polygon such that the entire texture is mapped? This paper presents a solution to this problem. A new class of mapping techniques based on conformal mapping is proposed. The technique allows one to construct a continuous, bijective map from a polygonal texture space (e.g., a square) to an arbitrary convex polygon. The resulting map is texture-independent. The theory and .an implementation of conformal texture mapping is discussed, and several simple filtering techniques to support it are outlined. Conformal mapping extends the range of geometric mapping techniques, and is pertinent to many areas of computer graphics. Other examples of the potential utility of conformal mappings are also discussed.