What is the correct definition of the word Texture?

EliasWick

Hello wonderful people! I would like to excuse myself if I have posted this in the wrong thread.

Alright, I've been working as a 3D artist for a couple of years now but, just yesterday realized that I may have used the word Texture incorrect.

For me; a texture is the collection of maps. For example, having a Diffuse, normal and specular map together is a texture for me.

Is that correct or incorrect?

Count Vertsalot

They're all individually and together a texture. A texture is just surface detail, normals, AO, and diffuse all provide surface detail. When combined you get a complete surface detail. Originally, diffuse was the only form of applying texture, by changing the color of the pixels of the rendered polygons.

Froyok

I usually define it like that :
- Texture = individual bitmap file.
- Texture Set = a collection of bitmap files.

I'm not sure how correct this is, but this the naming convention that I use with my colleagues without any problems.

Dan Powell

I usually define it as followed:

Texture: A single image file acting as a variable in a material. Such as an Albedo texture, which contains the colour variables.

Material: A collection of texture passes which together make up a completed material. In a PBR system, usually a Material would require an Albedo, Normal, Metalness and Glossiness texture.

Froyok

Careful as a "material" can also refer to an instance of shader in addition to its textures.
(That's why I use a "texture set" to designate only the textures and avoid any confusions.)

Mcbeardo

Froyok, what do you call those grey balls in the material editor of your 3d software?

Lt_Commander

Let's not forget there's 'texture' as in the surface property of an object, as in 'The texture of the rubber ball is rough but soft' or 'His chin had a rough texture by the end of the day.'

I've also seen texture used as a non-pattern overlay, as in images you'd download from cgtextures, the more generalized form of a 'pattern' that may or may not be tiled.

It's a confusing nomenclature that uses the same word a couple of times and lacks a standardized definition -for anyone that doesn't author textures, it's not a real issue either. Any time I get into semantics with non-artists, I generally get something like 'Just make that thing that goes on the model that makes it not boring looking'

Eric Chadwick

A texture has always meant a bitmap, when talking with other game artists.

Shader is the code which controls how those textures are applied to the model, what kind of user-adjustable settings are available for the surface, what kind of specular equation is allowed, etc.

Material is the settings you can adjust for a surface. Which textures are being used, what colors are set, what numerical values you control for specular etc.