   Textures and deformation
  What are the easiest methods to apply textures to deformable convex objects? The object is defined by a mesh which deforms and rendered using OpenGL, and at each  time interval I know the coordinates of the vertices making up the mesh. How can  I apply a texture file that stays affixed to the object whilst it is deforming?Thanks   
  Typically at each coordinate (or vertex) you would store a texture coordinate.  Then you simply perform a textured rendering pass, where the hardware will interpolate your texture coordinates, and look up a texture value for each rendered pixel.If you need more detail about how to do the setup, it would be a good idea to get one of the well known references, like the 'OpenGL Super Bible'.  If you're not interested in getting a book, there is probably something like this covered in the NeHe tutorials.   ;  Hi. The reference material is good for static objects. If the object being mapped to deforms, I assume that the texture or bitmap file would have to be reloaded again at each time interval. Wouldn't this be incredibly slow? Are there any faster alternatives?   ;  The actual texture data remains the same - it's the way you map it to the object which may change as the object deforms. There is no need to reload it (after all, the file on disk is still the same).What is your expected result here? Let's imagine you have a textured sphere. Now you stretch it so it is twice as high. What do you expect the texture to do? Stretch with the object? Or now be repeated twice over it? These are both options, but you need to think what you are expecting to happen.   ;  The texture should stretch WITH the object. That is the effect i'm looking for. I used the word reload but i should have been more careful and said 'map'. This continuous mapping as the object deforms is what i fear may cause problems, so i was seeking other possibilities. If there are any? Or would this method be sufficient given that the mesh defining this object is a few hundred vertices?   ;  Then there's basically nothing to it :-) You set it up as you would for a static object (with texture coordinates for each vertex). That means each vertex is fixed to a particulr point on the texture - as the vertices move the texture will stretch as you describe.   ;  Thanks. I just read through the nehe example for texturing. I will give this a try. Are there any other popular methods that have emerged over the last few years since the nehe one was written?   ;  Not really, almost all applications use one or more sets of UV coordinates per vertex. They are interpolated across the triangles each frame. It's really the standard approach to texturing. The way vertex data is stored has changed since the Nehe tutorials (vertex and index bufferes are now the most common approach) but the basic principles are the same.   