Texture Types

There are far too many texture types and classes of material appearances for me to enumerate them with any sort of thoroughness. Given that, there is a much smaller set of texture types that are found over and over in nature and man-made structures.

Most of the following textures are types that are used for buildings, bridges, and other man-made items in a game world.

Irregular

Irregular textures tend to have a general disorder and random appearance, like that shown in Figure 11.22. Dirt and grass are examples of irregular textures. Quite often irregular textures are combined with other, different irregular textures in order to give a weathered or damaged appearance to an area or surface.

Figure 11.22: An irregular texture.

Rough

Rough textures, as shown in Figure 11.23, sometimes have somewhat the same sense about them as irregular textures. They are often used as tiles on a surface like a sidewalk or rough concrete walls.

Figure 11.23: A rough texture.

Pebbled

Pebbled textures are another example of textures often used for paved surfaces and stone walls. Tarmacadam pavement is an example of a finely pebbled surface when viewed from a distance of about 5 or 6 feet. Figure 11.24 shows a more obvious pebbled texture that could be used for a wall or decorative planter.

Figure 11.24: A pebbled texture.

Woodgrain

Figure 11.25 shows a woodgrain texture that has many highly variant bundles of lines ranging from fine to coarse that run roughly parallel to each other, sometimes interrupted by swirls and knots. Some kinds of stone have similar appearances.

Figure 11.25: A woodgrain texture.

Smooth

We all know when something is smooth—there are no discernable bumps or irregularities to our touch. Depicting smoothness in textures can be a little difficult. We usually create a rather bland surface look and then introduce a few soft and mild irregularities in order to emphasize the smoothness. Figure 11.26 shows a smooth texture.

Figure 11.26: A smooth texture.

Patterned

Patterned textures are pretty straightforward. The intent is not necessarily to convey the contour, bumpiness, or feel of a surface, but rather to represent regular shapes or patterns that appear on an item. Figure 11.27 depicts a pattern that could be used to represent the louvers of an air duct in a wall.

Figure 11.27: A patterned texture.

Fabric

Fabric textures emulate the appearance of things like canvas or carpet. Fabrics may be woven or not, but they all tend to exhibit fine repetitive shapes. Figure 11.28 shows a woven fabric texture that could be canvas.

Figure 11.28: A fabric texture.

Metallic

Metallic textures tend to have a dominant color, with a strong dark shadow that follows the outer contours of the metallic object and a bright accent color that runs along raised surfaces. Figure 11.29 shows a texture that could be used for a metal tube.

Figure 11.29: A metallic texture.

Reflective

A reflective texture simulates the effect of a light source in the scene reflecting strongly off the surface of the textured object. Figure 11.30 is such a texture that might be depicting a bright overhead light reflecting off a window.

Figure 11.30: A reflective texture.

Plastic

Plastic textures are similar to metallic textures in their manner of shading and highlighting. Plastic tends to have more of an oily appearance to it at times, so the shading and highlights are often more sinuous. As shown in Figure 11.31, the highlights tend to be less clearly defined than with metallic textures, while the light source often appears as a distinct highlight.

Figure 11.31: A plastic texture.