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The procedural texture patterns in DarkTree can be either two dimensional (2D) or three dimensional (3D). A 2D texture varies in two dimensions (x and y) but not in the third (z).
A 3D texture varies in all three dimensions (x, y, and z). Typically, 3D textures are easier to apply to complex 3D shapes while 2D textures only apply well to the three common mapping types: sphere, cylinder, or plane. When using DarkTree to create bitmaps, it doesn't matter whether you use 2D or 3D textures since your resulting bitmap only needs to be 2D.
A good way to visualize and understand procedural textures and their dimensionality is to think of the texture as big block of material.
When the texture is applied to a 3D object, the 3D shape is cut out of the block of material just like a sculptor cuts a statue out of a solid block of stone. Figure F1 shows an example of a sphere being cut out of a block of the 3D Agate texture.
2D patterns are also texture volumes but as stated above, they only vary in two dimensions. This doesn't mean
that these 2D textures cant be used on 3D shapes but it does mean you will get straight lines or stretching along the third axis. Figure F2 below shows a sphere cut out of a block of the 2D version of Polyhedra.
2D patterns can be made 3D by combining them with other 3D textures or Deform class components.
As you may have noticed, most of the 2D patterns in DarkTree allow cylindrical and spherical mappings. These
are just like the planar 2D version except they use different axis. The cylindrical projections varies the pattern in the y-axis and the angle around the y-axis (q) but doesn't vary with the distance from the y-axis (r). The spherical mapping varies the texture along the surface that's equidistant from the origin (q,f) but does not vary with the distance from the origin(r). In other words, Cylindrical works well on cylinders and Spherical works well
on spheres :-)
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