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Terrian Painting
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
Terrian Painting // Roundtable
Post by dononeton // May 28, 2007, 11:26am
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dononeton
Total Posts: 81
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Ok I am able to build a terrian in TS7.5 using a plain object with a size of 25 by 25 with 25 with 25 segments then subd 1 time. I am using the SoftPaint brush and the Soft Selection tools to shape the terrian. Its a low poly terrian(5000 triangles). Now to my question, terrian painting. The 3d paint tools seems to work but takes along time to update. Then there is to apply a planar projection to the terrian and take it into Photoshop and paint it. Which one would be better for a game, I am using DarkBasic Pro. I dont want to buy a terrian program. Is there a script to use in TS7.5 that lets you apply a textuers in layers and select what layer you are on and lets you paint on a alpha using various blacks and whites to show and hide the texture that is underneath it
Don |
Post by Jack Edwards // May 28, 2007, 11:31am
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Photoshop for sure. :)
For larger maps you're going to need to use some kind of engine specific multi-texturing approach like "splatting".
-Jack. |
Post by dononeton // May 28, 2007, 12:03pm
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dononeton
Total Posts: 81
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Thanks Jack Edwards for the reply
Whats "splatting"?
Well I want to use a super texture so I am going to use a large texture 1024x1024 or 2048x2048 texture for the terrain. So I guess I will make 4-6 terrian textures at the size of the terrian on different layers and use layer masks to show and hide the different areas of the super texture then flatten
Don |
Post by 3dvisuals dude // May 28, 2007, 1:29pm
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3dvisuals dude
Total Posts: 1703
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Thanks Jack Edwards for the reply
Whats "splatting"?
Well I want to use a super texture so I am going to use a large texture 1024x1024 or 2048x2048 texture for the terrain. So I guess I will make 4-6 terrian textures at the size of the terrian on different layers and use layer masks to show and hide the different areas of the super texture then flatten
Don
Hi Don,
I was reading this and had a thought that may help with this depending on your needs, and that is utilizing the new multi-texture options of the DX9 Shaders on Workplace side of TS7.5.
I'm just beginning to explore this stuff myself after reading the following thread here about it:
http://forums1.caligari.com/truespace/showthread.php?t=3064
Sounds like it may be just what you need and a lot easier than what you are currently planning to do.
Hope this helps, :)
- 3dvisuals dude |
Post by RAYMAN // May 28, 2007, 1:40pm
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RAYMAN
Total Posts: 1496
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By the way, there is a small program that I like to use for
terrain painting that exports to many formats and grayscale
its called WILBUR it even exports to terragen if you want to
;) Just google it ! Its only a download:banana: |
Post by dononeton // May 28, 2007, 2:28pm
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dononeton
Total Posts: 81
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@RAYMAN
Thanks for the suggestion and I already have terragen and WILBUR but I want to stick with TS7.5 so the time I spent is learning it
@3dvisuals dude
I did think about that I will give it a try. I have no idea were to start with it thou.
Don |
Post by nowherebrain // May 28, 2007, 3:35pm
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nowherebrain
Total Posts: 1062
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Check out terrain sculptor, it's great and free, with no rgistering or limitation..it is beta...but I have no problems with it.
http://www.earthsculptor.com/ |
Post by 3dvisuals dude // May 28, 2007, 3:52pm
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3dvisuals dude
Total Posts: 1703
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@3dvisuals dude
I did think about that I will give it a try. I have no idea were to start with it thou.
Don
Hi again Don,
I'd be glad to help you with it but I'm just getting my feet wet with it myself! It's clear from that thread though that Jack Edwards has it all well in hand already so maybe he could clarify the exact methods for you.
I'm also not sure whether the DX9 Shader approach would work for your intended export when you're done, so you may want to ask around on that issue too before delving into the DX9 Shaders too deeply.
It'd be great if it is useable in your intended export format so hopefully that will be the case! ;)
- 3dvisuals dude |
Post by Jack Edwards // May 28, 2007, 5:23pm
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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I feel that it takes way too much memory to try and texture a terrain as one big texture. The approach that I normally see is a slope based solution that blends between two tiled textures, then other textures are "painted" on top of the mesh using a sort of sprite based system.
Eagle knows this stuff better than I do, but I haven't seen her around the regular forum for a while. Might be worth sending her a PM though.
The best way to implement it will depend on the capabilities/requirements of the game engine that you are exporting to.
Here's an article on splatting:
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article2238.asp
If you're going to try and texture the terrain with direct planar mapped textures, I'd recommend breaking it up into 1024x1024px chunks, since I think some video cards will probably have problems with larger texture sizes.
-Jack. |
Post by dononeton // May 29, 2007, 1:39pm
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dononeton
Total Posts: 81
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@Jack Edwards
Thanks for that I was always interested in Managed Direct X. I read a book about Managed Direct X, well a few chapter in Books a Million that some good stuff. It really makes it esay to make a game,game engine and tools. I think I may pick it up and do my own Texture Splatting in Direct3D
Don |
Post by Jack Edwards // May 29, 2007, 1:43pm
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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You may want to also look at XNA. It's looking to be a lot easier to use than Managed DirectX and is a free download from Microsoft. :)
-Jack. |
Post by dononeton // May 29, 2007, 2:18pm
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dononeton
Total Posts: 81
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Xna has crossed my mind but as I set here I was thinking it would be possible to code a heightmap editor with DarkBasic Pro using the Advance terrian commands and use the "splat" technique with pixel shaders to shade the terrian that would be the best approch for me because I am not a master coder yet and I have over a year of exp with DarkBasic Pro . I had hope to see if it was possible to use TS7.5 scripting engine to do this
Don |
Post by Jack Edwards // May 29, 2007, 7:33pm
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Jack Edwards
Total Posts: 4062
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Unfortunately the ts scripting engine won't be available in your game engine ;) So you'll need to implement it as stuff that'll work in Darkbasic. Some of the code and techniques could be transferable though. The cool thing about the DX shaders is that it's encapsulated HLSL, so anything you do in TS you should be able to duplicate with straight HLSL and your game code. The advantage to doing it in TS is that you can change it around in real time and see how it looks on your model.
-Jack. |
Post by dononeton // May 30, 2007, 3:46pm
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dononeton
Total Posts: 81
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Yeah I know what I make in TS script editor will not work in my engine. What I was trying to say was make an terrian editor in in TS script and export that terrian model and textures out. I am kinda hopeing my shaders I make in TS will work in my game engine
Don |
Post by nowherebrain // Jun 16, 2007, 9:16pm
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nowherebrain
Total Posts: 1062
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This is a bit old, but...
METHOD 1:
one solution I found was to create a height map in tS by moving my verts in the "Z" axis alone(yes, common sense.), then apply a gradient to the model, adjust the planar mapping to project from X or Y directly. You could then split this into several "chunks" 3x3 2x2 etc. If you render each one out in the top veiw, you will get you height maps...the trick is the seams. Select one row of pixels from the edge of the Height map you want to line up, paste that row of pixels on the edge of the height map you want it to line up with...there you go seam lined up. Repeat the steps for all the edges of each map.I don't know if this helps?, but I hope so. I used another method for my game.
METHOD 2:
I created a heightmap mesh....very large 1mill tri's and split that into 25 chunks(5x5)I exported them to .obj(they already line up since it was once one mesh). The engine I use supports .obj so I was able to import them into their model editor and save them out as chunks the engine could use in it's native format. I lined them up using another plane where each vert represented a tiles posistion on z and x(you know that y is vertical in most engines) I relied on the objects axis to manually set their "Y" position through a script during loading, the engine remains in it's "loading" loop until each terrain is in place(among other things) and then you begin. |
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