Need help- best way to map a half-sphere?

Darksun

Does anyone know a good way to texture map half a sphere?
here is what I am trying to map:


The greay rim around the object looks bad.. is there a good way to map it?

scanning_factor

I would actually recommend creating a new sphere and rotating so the polar axis is pointing forward rather than up. Then when you delete one half of it, you'll have a strip of quads you can map the border to easily.

Darksun

Oh me of little brains! I have a pretty low budget (as you can see) But I'll see what I can do, thanks Factor!

KDR_11k

I just use planar mapping and make sure to draw straight lines between the edges instead of a real circle (as you can see a real circle causes problems).