emCubicMapping is a Preset for XSI's Render Tree that will perform cubic texture mapping.

Later versions of XSI (e.g. 6.02) already have a built-in cubic mapping, but emCubicMapping goes a little further by interpolating between the different projections, depending on the normal vector's orientation. Therefore, you can easily texture any object with a simple bitmap without seeing any seams.

The following movie shows an object that is texture mapped in two different ways, using the above bitmap and a procedural texture for the checkerboard.

The left object in the movie is textured using standard cubic mapping, the right one is textured using emCubicMapping:

The ZIP file containing the XSI Preset can be downloaded here: download ZIP file.

1. First we need an object. It can be a polygon mesh or a surface mesh, e.g. a polygon mesh torus with some extruded polygons and some subdivision:
   
   
   
   
2. Now we give the object a new material with a Lambert shader and go into the Render Tree. There we get a "Mix 8 Colors" node and connect it to the ambient and diffuse input of the Lambert shader:
   
   
   
   
3. Double click on the "Mix 8 Colors" node to open its property page and load the Preset emCubicMapping:
   
   
   
   We now should have something like this:
   
   
   
   
4. Double click on the "ImageXY" node to open its property page and create a new Planar XY projection:
   
   
   
   
5. We do the same for the other two image nodes:
   
   -Double click on the "ImageYZ" node to open its property page and create a new Planar YZ projection.
   -Double click on the "ImageXZ" node to open its property page and create a new Planar XZ projection.
   
6. Open a Render Region, it should look like this:
   
   
   
   
7. Now replace the noIcon texture with your favorite bitmap and render again:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. You can also use three different bitmaps:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

emCubicMapping might not work well with objects whose geometry is animated (envelope, shape, deformations, etc.).
It was primary designed to texture "dead" objects.