used in the lighting calculation. This creates the effect that the object is reflective. HEALPix mapping HEALPix environment mapping is similar to the other polyhedron mappings, but can be hierarchical, thus providing a unified framework for generating polyhedra that better approximate the sphere. This allows lower distortion at the cost of increased computation. History Precursor work in texture mapping had been established by Edwin Catmull, with refinements for curved surfaces by James Blinn, in 1974. Blinn went on to further refine his work, developing environment mapping by 1976. Gene Miller experimented with spherical environment mapping in 1982 at MAGI Synthavision. Wolfgang Heidrich introduced Paraboloid Mapping in 1998. Emil Praun introduced Octahedron Mapping in 2003. Mauro Steigleder introduced Pyramid Mapping in 2005. Tien-Tsin Wong, et al. introduced the existing HEALPix mapping for rendering in 2006. See also Skybox (video games) References External links The Story of Reflection mapping by Paul Debevec NVIDIA's paper Cube Environment Mapping Approximation of reflective and transparent objects with environmental maps 3D rendering Demo effects