Environment map

Environment Map

A method of texture mapping that simulates the look of reflections in a shiny surface, like chrome or glass. The texture is usually painted to look like an all-encompassing world. In this example, the sky texture on the far right has been used on the donut. This can also be used to fake the look of specular highlights on an object, by painting only the light sources into the environment texture. Also called reflection mapping.

A common method is a Cube map which maps six textures of a panorama to the faces of a cube.