2.5.7 UV Mapping

All textures in POV-Ray are defined in 3 dimensions. Even planar image mapping is done this way. However, it is sometimes more desirable to have the texture defined for the surface of the object. This is especially true for bicubic_patch objects and mesh objects, that can be stretched and compressed. When the object is stretched or compressed, it would be nice for the texture to be glued to the object's surface and follow the object's deformations.

When uv_mapping is used, then that object's texture will be mapped to it using surface coordinates (u and v) instead of spatial coordinates (x, y, and z). This is done by taking a slice of the object's regular 3D texture from the XY plane (Z=0) and wrapping it around the surface of the object, following the object's surface coordinates.

Note: some textures should be rotated to fit the slice in the XY plane.

Syntax:

texture {
 uv_mapping pigment{PIGMENT_BODY} | pigment{uv_mapping PIGMENT_BODY}
 uv_mapping normal {NORMAL_BODY } | normal {uv_mapping NORMAL_BODY }
 uv_mapping texture{TEXTURE_BODY} | texture{uv_mapping TEXTURE_BODY)
}