I have experience with DirectX and am currently doing a project for a modding community (xlnation). I am new to using multiple textures on a mesh and I need some help. (My only experience is using the old fashioned "1 size fits all" texture that covers the entire surface using u,v coordinates). There are two things I am trying to figure out with this thread.
- I may or may not be able to figure out how to do it on my own but I could use some pointers on where to start.
- I am trying to decipher the data in a file that contains texture data for a spherical object's surface. I need to know what basic information is needed to draw a texture on a mesh surface; specifically a sphere (The texture does NOT cover the entire surface).
I am going to discuss the file first because in discussing it, I should be able to get answers to the first question.
The file contains the information necessary to draw the globe. The file is a binary file and has 20 bytes of information stored with each texture followed by the name of the texture file. (I am not including the 4 byte int value describing the length of the string representing the file name).
My guess is that the 20 byte section of information contains 5 floats. What information would these floating point numbers represent so that they could be used to draw a texture on the sphere that does NOT fill the entire sphere?
My original guess was:
some kind of location, (possibly the coordinate of the center of the texture), X,Y,Z
a rotation value
a scale value.
The problem I am facing with my guess is that the necessary size of the rotation value (a single float if I have guessed correctly) does not (in my mind) fit with using an x,y,z coordinate system.
So what kind of information is necessary to correctly draw a texture over a small section of a globe (or any surface for that matter)?