System and method for environment mapping

1. A method for environment mapping, comprising the steps of:

determining a surface normal vector n at a point P on a surface of a reflective object;

determining an observation vector e from the point P to an observer; and

using a modified reflection formula to compute a reflection vector r based on the surface normal vector n and the observation vector e, the modified reflection formula based on reflection about a pseudo-normal vector n′ at the point P on the surface.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pseudo-normal vector n′ bisects an angle subtended by the surface normal vector n and a reference observation vector e o , the reference observation vector e o directed from the point P to the observer located directly in front of the point P.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modified reflection formula is r=e−(e·[nx, ny, nz−1])[nx, ny, nz−1]/(1−nz), where nx, ny, and nz are the components of the surface normal vector n.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the point P on the surface of the reflective object is located at a vertex of a polygon.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of transforming the reflection vector r to texture coordinates (s,t).

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising the step of rendering the reflective object based on the texture coordinates (s,t) associated with each point P on the surface of the reflective object.

7. An electronic-readable medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a machine to perform method steps for environment mapping, the method steps comprising:

determining a surface normal vector n at a point P on a surface of a reflective object;

determining an observation vector e from the point P to an observer; and

using a modified reflection formula to compute a reflection vector r based on the surface normal vector n and the observation vector e, the modified reflection formula based on reflection about a pseudo-normal vector n′ at the point P on the surface.

8. The electronic-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the pseudo-normal vector n′ bisects an angle subtended by the surface normal vector n and a reference observation vector e o , the reference observation vector e o directed from the point P to the observer located directly in front of the point P.

9. The electronic-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the modified reflection formula is r=e−(e·[nx, ny, nz−1])[nx, ny, nz−1]/(1−nz), where nx, fly, and nz are the components of the surface normal vector n.

10. The electronic-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the point P on the surface of the reflective object is located at a vertex of a polygon.

11. The electronic-readable medium of claim 7 , further comprising the step of transforming the reflection vector r to texture coordinates (s,t).

12. The electronic-readable medium of claim 11 , further comprising the step of rendering the reflective object based on the texture coordinates (s,t) associated with each point P on the surface of the reflective object.

13. A system for environment mapping of a reflective object, comprising:

a memory configured to store a modified reflection model, the modified reflection model based on reflection about pseudo-normal vectors located at points on a surface of the reflective object, wherein the modified reflection formula is r=e−(e·[nx, ny, nz−1])[nx, ny, nz−1]/(1−nz), where nx, ny, and nz are components of a surface normal vector n at a point P on the reflective surface, and e is an observation vector directed from the point P to an observer;

a vector processing unit configured compute reflection vectors using the modified reflection model; and

a graphics processing unit configured to render the reflective object in an image, the quality of the image dependent upon the computed reflection vectors.

14. A system for environment mapping of a reflective object, comprising:

a memory configured to store a modified reflection model, the modified reflection model based on reflection about pseudo-normal vectors located at points on a surface of the reflective object, wherein a pseudo-normal vector n′ bisects an angle subtended by a surface normal vector n at a point P on the reflective surface and a reference observation vector e o , the reference observation vector e o directed from the point P to an observer located directly in front of the point P;

a vector processing unit configured to compute reflection vectors using the modified reflection model; and

a graphics processing unit configured to render the reflective object in an image, the quality of the image dependent upon the computed reflection vectors.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the vector processing unit is further configured to process each computed reflection vector to generate texture coordinates (s,t).

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the graphics processing unit uses the texture coordinates to render the reflective object as an image.

17. A system for environment mapping, comprising:

mean for determining a surface normal vector n at a point P on a surface of a reflective object;

means for determining an observation vector e from the point P to an observer; and

means for using a modified reflection formula to compute a reflection vector r based on the surface normal vector n and the observation vector e, the modified reflection formula based on reflection about a pseudo-normal vector n′ at the point P on the surface.