Patent ID: 7561166

Claim:
A computer program product comprising a computer useable storage medium having executable computer program logic recorded thereon for enabling a processor to render a computer scene by performing operations comprising: generating a texture map comprising texels, which store reflection vector data of an object, wherein the generating a texture map comprises storing the reflection vector data as red, green, and blue color values in the texture map texels; sampling the texture map by: obtaining a first texture sample from the texture map; and applying the first texture sample to the object, wherein the obtaining the first texture sample comprises obtaining the red, green, and blue color values from the texture map by using texture coordinates of a polygon of the object, and wherein the applying the first texture sample comprises rendering the object using the obtained the red, green, and blue color values to color pixel of the object; generating an environment map; and sampling the environment map by: obtaining a second texture sample from the environment map; and applying the second texture sample to the object, wherein the obtaining the second texture sample comprises using the red, green, and blue color values of the pixel as respective X, Y, and Z component values of a reflection vector to obtain the second texture sample.