材质贴图，又称纹理贴图，在计算机图形学中是把存储在内存里的位图包裹到3D渲染物体的表面。纹理贴图给物体提供了丰富的细节，用简单的方式模拟出了复杂的外观。一个图像（纹理）被贴(映射)到场景中的一个简单形体上，就像印花贴到一个平面上一样。这大大减少了在场景中制作形体和纹理的计算量。例如，可以创建一个球并把脸的纹理贴上去，这样就不用处理鼻子和眼睛的形状了。

随着图形卡功能越来越强，理论上材质贴图变得越来越不必要，而三维绘制(渲染)成了常用的工具。但事实上，最近的趋势是使用更大和更多的纹理图像，再加上把多幅纹理组合到同个物体的不同角度的复杂技术。(这在实时图形学中更为重要，因为同时显示的纹理个数是可用图形内存容量的函数。)

Texture mapping is a method for adding detail, surface texture (a bitmap or raster image), or color to a computer-generated graphic or 3D model. Its application to 3D graphics was pioneered by Edwin Catmull in 1974.

Originally a method that simply wrapped and mapped pixels from a texture to a 3D surface - now more technically called diffuse mapping to distinguish it from more complex mappings - in recent decades the advent of multi-pass rendering and complex mapping such as height mapping, bump mapping, normal mapping, displacement mapping, reflection mapping, mipmaps, occlusion mapping, and many other complex variations on the technique have made it possible to simulate near-photorealism in real time, by vastly reducing the number of polygons and lighting calculations needed to construct a realistic and functional 3D scene.