Making a realistic scene on the web is easier than you think with Three.js, a cross-browser JavaScript library and API that uses WebGL to create and display animated 3D computer graphics in a web browser.

Texture mapping is a method for defining high-frequency detail, surface texture, or color information on a computer-generated graphic or 3D model. Using texture mapping techniques allow for the simulation of a more realistic 3D scene in realtime with a dramatically smaller number of polygons and lighting calculations.


Here is a pretty neat use of normal mapping.

