I'm no 3D designer, but I think you're talking about a deformation on an
image that is compensated when that image is mapped on to a sphere. I think
the pre-deformation is called 180 or 360 panoramic, like this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Berlin_Hauptbahnhof_180_panorama_top_level.jpg
but inverted. I'm sure there is software out there that can prepare an image
so that when it is applied to a sphere, the deformation makes it look
natural again. I'm sure there are specific terms for what I'm referring to.
