3D Texturing 3D Texturing 4

Question 1

What is the difference between a 'trim sheet' and a texture atlas in game asset production?

Accepted Answer

A trim sheet contains a set of reusable modular detail strips applied to model edges, while an atlas groups unique textures for separate objects

Answer

Trim sheets are tileable or segmented texture sheets designed to be mapped along edges and surfaces for efficient re-use, while atlases pack unique textures for multiple distinct objects.

Question 2

When using a specular-glossiness PBR workflow (as opposed to metallic-roughness), what does the specular map control?

Accepted Answer

The intensity and color of specular reflections directly

Answer

In specular-glossiness workflows, the specular map directly defines the reflectance color and intensity at 0° incidence (F0), offering fine-grained control over both conductors and dielectrics.

Question 3

What is 'texture streaming' in a real-time 3D engine?

Accepted Answer

Dynamically loading and unloading mipmap levels based on camera distance to manage GPU memory

Answer

Texture streaming loads only the mipmap levels appropriate for the current camera distance, keeping high-resolution mips only for close-up objects to stay within GPU memory budgets.

Question 4

In a tangent-space normal map, what color represents a surface normal pointing straight out (perpendicular to the surface)?

Accepted Answer

Flat blue-purple (128, 128, 255)

Answer

A tangent-space normal map encodes the X and Y perturbations in red and green, and a flat normal (pointing straight out) maps to 128, 128 in those channels and 255 in blue.

Question 5

What is 'albedo' in a physically-based rendering material?

Accepted Answer

The base color of the surface without any lighting, shadow, or specular information

Answer

Albedo (also called base color) is the raw inherent color of a surface with no baked-in lighting information, allowing the renderer to apply lighting mathematically.

3D Texturing Practice Test

3D Texturing Practice Test

3D Texturing 3D Texturing 4