Procedural textures aren' t really new. In fact they' ve been in use for a long time in conjunction with painted or photographed bitmap textures.
They' re often used to mask the visible tiling that occurs with a photographic texture. A layered shader will be created. One layer will be a photograph, and then another layer will be a procedural texture which is semi-transparent. A good way to see an example of this is to start a multiplayer game on Halo 2. In the match, go to your friends list. Then, as you emerge from the friends list back into active play, you will see the environment with only the procedural textures and color vectors in effect for about a half a second before the photographic textures pop back into place.
Procedurals are great for natural patterns, such as areas of snow and exposed rock on a mountaintop. They' re even often used for very regular patterns such as a chain link fence. What they can' t really be used for are things that are human-designed, like signs with text or, say for example, complex ordered designs like the decorative detailing in the iron radiator next to my apartment window.
Edit: another common example of a layered texture with both procedural and photographic elements is the field in a football game. As it gets worn throughout the game, that is done with a procedural layer of dirt that becomes visible through the photographed or painted grass & paint on the field.
< Message edited by Zoy -- 7 Oct 06 1:14:42 >