I have a very simple 3D world which consists of a sphere which is meant to represent the Earth. While a single texture file, like the ones which come with the DirectX SDK are good for when the whole world is being viewed, it is no good viewing it up close. Is there any way to have multiple texture files relating to specific points on a sphere, so that if for example I have a more detailed image of New Zealand, I can overlay that portion of the sphere with that detailed image, and leave the rest of the sphere with the standard texture
I am relatively new to graphical programming so I'm a little lost as to which way I should be looking... any help would be greatly appreciated.
Managed DirectX, C# & and large textures
Bagles1
Thanks!
I managed to get that up and running fairly easily for a trial run, however I have run into some more problems as a result of this...
I created a sphere made of 4 quarters, and gave each one a diffrent colour texture. This looks fine when I first start the program, but when I rotate around the sphere the pieces seem to interfere with one another. I am not sure what would cause this.. maybe because the quaters are exactly alligned with one another
Anyway, you can see the problem with these screenshots: www.hol.net.nz\3d\front.jpg and www.hol.net.nz\3d\top.jpg
Once again, thanks for your help.
prog
You have to split the whole sphere in multiple parts and use different textures to render these parts. As a sphere is very symmetrical you don’t need an own mesh for every part because the same part can reuse.
Anyway you should use some level of detail depending on the distance to the world. If you far away the whole sphere with one texture will be fine. The next level can be a split in 8 parts than 64 and so on as example.
You should take a look at World Wind: http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/ You can find the source code in the download section.