Orientation of a texture w.r.t. a sphere

[jkidd08]

I am attempting to apply a texture of a diffuse image of the Earth to a sphere and have the scene render with the Earth's north pole aligned with the body/local +Z axis. However, I can't seem to implement this. Below is a playground scenario I put together for the scene.

I've attempted to achieve this with the following lines (26 - 33 of the playground scene). 

    earthSurface.diffuseTexture.uAng = 0;
    earthSurface.diffuseTexture.vAng = 0;
    earthSurface.diffuseTexture.wAng = 0;
    earthSurface.diffuseTexture.uScale = 1.0;
    earthSurface.diffuseTexture.vScale = 1.0;
    earthSurface.diffuseTexture.wScale = 1.0;

http://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#634KR1

[Wingnut]

Hi @jkidd08, welcome to the forum.

https://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#634KR1#1

I don't know if that is what you wanted, but its a try.  I didn't do any texture-shifting.  Instead, in lines 39/40, I rotated the sphere, and then "baked" that rotation into the mesh.  BakeCurrentTransformIntoVerticies() sort-of "naturalizes" the mesh to that orientation.  Rotation, position, and scaling values get re-initialized. 

I hope this helps.  Other forumers, with other ideas, are nearby.  Stay tuned. 

And thx for providing a playground demo scene.  Cool!

[GameMonetize]

Here we are: https://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#634KR1#2

(I added a parameter to texture construction on line #23 in order to prevent the engine to invert V coordinate)

 

BTW, @Wingnut's idea works as well but using a geometrical approach