The power of texture blending as tool for producing realism in a 3-D scene goes beyond adding finishes and light maps to primitives. In fact, it is fair to say that not even cutting-edge researchers have yet discovered all of the possibilities that the current texture blending features offer. There are, however, common special effects that are widely used in 3-D applications. Direct3D applications provides copious support these techniques.
This section provides an overview of common uses of texture blending to produce special effects in a 3-D scene or enhance its appearance of realism. The information is divided into the following topics: