In the previous chapter, we covered colors, multiple lights, and important concepts about depth and alpha testing for various blending techniques. So far, we've added details to our scene with geometry, vertex colors, and lighting; but often, that won't be enough to achieve the results we're looking for. Wouldn't it be great if we could "paint" additional details onto our scene without needing additional geometry? We can! This requires us to use a technique called texture mapping. In this chapter, we'll examine how we can use textures to make our scene more detailed.

In this chapter, you will do the following:

• Learn how to create a texture.
• Learn how to use a texture when rendering.
• Learn about filter and wrapping modes and how they affect the texture's use.
• Learn how to use multi-texturing.
• Learn about cube mapping.