I am no expert but it is my understanding that procedural textures are basically math that describes a pattern of visual attributes that can be applied to any object.
I make "Cross Cut Time Lapse" videos (my own coined name) and in doing so may have a different way of implementing textures in blender.
Play the videos at the link below to see what I am talking about.
http://www.opensourcetimelapse.org/pages/atl/atl.shtml
Would a project aimed at building a data base full of textures captured in this way be welcome?
If so I would like to start it.
Perhaps the project could be hosted by
www.opensourcetimelapse.org
of which I am the founder.