ATI Technologies FireGL V7300, User Manual

Page: 64 / 72

58
Specular Highlight
The bright, usually small, intense light reflected from a 3D surface with a
high refraction value. From the intensity and spread of this highlight users
can differentiate between a “hard,” smooth surface, such as metal or
porcelain, or a “soft,” textured surface, such as fabric or skin.
Texel
Short for “texture element,” the 3D equivalent of a pixel, describing the
base unit of the surface of a 3D object, such as a sphere; for a 2D object,
such as a circle, the base unit is a pixel.
Texture Mapping
In computer graphics, two-dimensional textured surfaces are referred to as
texture maps. Texture mapping is the process by which a two-dimensional
surface gets wrapped around a three-dimensional object so that the 3D
object takes on the same texture qualities. For example, if you take a 2D
textured surface that looks like cloth and wrap it around a 3D sphere, the
sphere will now appear to have a cloth-like surface.
Texture Preference
Texture Preference is a feature enabling the user to select the texture quality
level for the surface of a 3D object. Selecting the highest quality possible
will provide the most realism, although it may also have some impact on
the performance of any 3D intensive application.
Trilinear Filtering
A sampling method used to produce realistic-looking 3D objects. Trilinear
filtering averages one of the bilinear filter mipmap levels along with the
standard mipmap samples.