CompuServe Messages

Hello, Anthony. I left you a detailed message a couple of days ago concerning your questions about reflection mapping. Maybe it got deleted accidently — anyway, this was the jist of it… Although it goes without saying, Gary's suggestions are all excellent ways of obtaining the effect you are looking for. A thorough review of the tutorials concerning reflections should help as well. After reading your message, it seemed to me that you were trying to use a standard spherical reflection map and weren't getting enough detail off the front faces. Because the flat faces don't sample as much of the map as the curved faces do, they tend to show less detail. I have dealt with this by simply increasing the complexity of the map in a paint program, by shrinking the map and "stamping" down multiple copies, maybe an array 3×3 or so. After a little experimentation, you should get the reflective qualities you are looking for. Keep in mind you may have to use the original map for the non-flat faces, if the detail from the new map is too high for them. Good luck! -Alan Iglesias