Its computation is independent of the level of detail of the surroundings. In environment mapping, the object is surrounded by a closed three dimensional surface onto which the environment is projected. Reflected rays are traced from the object, hit the surface and then index onto the map. It is essentially the sam e as chrome mapping except that the map consists of an image of the environment as seen from the center of the space to be environment mapped.
Let us now look at a few examples of environment mapping
This figure shows a vase against a background.
This figure shows a vase which is highly transparent against a background.
This figure shows chrome mapping with soft shadows.
Copyright - Sudhir R Kaushik (sudhir@cs.wpi.edu)