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textures

The goal of textures is to generate quad mesh primitives from the compact specification of a regular grid, its dimension and extent. The original motivation was to use texture mapping in graphics to work with images in different coordinate systems and mapped onto arbitrary shapes.

We aim to illustrate texture mapping capability in rgl with core techniques familiar to R users, and with minimal resort to specialist code. When specialist code is required it will be brought out explicitly and explained in a single-step.

Design

Current functions are:

  • png_plot3d() - plots a PNG file in a 3D scene
  • quad() create a simple mesh3d object with 1 or more quad primitives
  • quad_texture() create a mesh3d object with 1 or more quads, and the texture coordinates and file path to a PNG file
  • set_scene() a convenience wrapper to rgl scene settings, it makes the scene look “straight-down” and locks pan and tilt so the rgl device like a zoom-in/zoom-out 2D displays
  • break_mesh() break the topology of a mesh (so that primitives can be free-floating, not tied to their neighbour’s vertices)

See design vignette.

Installation

Install from github, will require development tools for compiling code.

## install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("hypertidy/textures")

Example

A Mercator raster on a single quad. Zoom in and out but no translate or pivot.

Maps an image onto a quad from a PNG file. Run this code and zoom in and out.

library(textures)
## create a temporary file and write an image to it
tfile <- tempfile(fileext = ".png")
png::writePNG(ga_topo$img/255, tfile)

## create a quad *canvas*, a single 4-corner shape floating in 3D
## (and use the PNG file as the material to texture that canvas)
quad0 <- quad_texture(c(1, 1), extent = ga_topo$extent, texture = tfile, )


## plot it in 3D 
rgl::open3d()
rgl::plot3d(quad0, specular = "black")
set_scene()  ## this sets the plot up to appear like a 2D image

Maps are fun but R is not just about geography.

library(ggplot2)
library(rgl)
## create a plot and save it
g <- ggplot(mpg, aes(displ, fill = drv)) + 
  geom_histogram(binwidth = 0.5) + 
  facet_wrap(~drv, ncol = 1)
g

tfile <- tempfile(fileext = ".png")
ggsave(tfile, g)


library(textures)
quad0 <- quad_texture(dimension = c(92, 102), texture = tfile)

ex <- -20
## flip it (fixme later)
quad0$vb[1L, ] <- 1-quad0$vb[1L, ]
quad0$vb[2L, ] <- 1-quad0$vb[2L, ]

quad0$vb[1L,] <- scales::rescale(quad0$vb[1,], to = c(-1, 1) * ex)
quad0$vb[2L,] <- scales::rescale(quad0$vb[2L,], to = c(-1, 1) * ex)

f <- function(x, y) { r <- sqrt(x^2+y^2); 10 * sin(r)/r }  ## ?persp
quad0$vb[3L, ] <- f(quad0$vb[1L,], quad0$vb[2L,])

## not working atm ...
#quad0 <- addNormals(quad0)  ## we are still in rgl scope, so everything is available
## plot it in 3D 
rgl::open3d()
rgl::plot3d(quad0, specular = "black")
rgl::aspect3d(1, 1, .3)
#set_scene(phi = 15, interactive = TRUE)
par3d(windowRect  = c(0, 0, 1024, 1024))

Code of Conduct

Please note that the textures project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By contributing to this project, you agree to abide by its terms.

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Version

Install

install.packages('textures')

Version

0.1.0

License

GPL-3

Issues

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Maintainer

Michael D. Sumner

Last Published

July 21st, 2026

Functions in textures (0.1.0)

quad_spec

Compact quad mesh specification
png_plot3d

Plot a PNG bitmap in 3D
quad

Quad mesh objects
plot.mesh3d

Plot (2D) for mesh3d
set_scene

rgl defaults
break_mesh

Break mesh, expand vertex instances
ga_topo

Topographic image
textures-package

textures: quad mesh primitives and texture mapping for grids
quad_index

Quad mesh primitives