How to make a good ground bitmap?

[arbiter901]

So I was looking around for an up to date tutorial on how to properly setup a ground bitmap and I cannot seem to find anything on it. What I am looking for is how to set it up in Photoshop, and then get working on a map, how to get the shaders setup correctly etc. And also how to do smooth transitions such as this.
(http://i51.tinypic.com/2zq8o0j.jpg)

[arbiter901]

Oops don't know how I ended up locking it in the beginning

[Vicky]

Start looking at existing ones.. and there must be tuts about this, doesn't matter if they're antique..

[LlamaMaster]

Here is my method:

1. Unwrap the ground UV's in a way that maximizes space while keeping stretching to a minimum.

2. Render those UV's to a template (there in an option for this in the max UV editor).

3. Import this template into photoshop as the background layer.

4. Create a new layer and fill it with black. Solid black will represent a solid grass/snow/primary texture.

5. Lower the opacity of this layer so you can see through to the background (UV) layer below it. This way you will know where you are painting in relation to your UV's/geometry.

6. Use the brush tool to paint on white areas (white represents a secondary texture, like dirt). Pure white will be a solid secondary texture, and any shade of gray will be a mix between the primary and secondary texture. For instance, a bright shade of gray will look like brownish grass.

7. Once you have your white areas painted on, use the smudge tool around the transitions from white to black. This will make the transitions much more natural.

8. Apply this newly created texture to your mesh in 3DS MAX using a "mix" material.

9. Find some textures for grass and dirt (preferably the ones you are going to be using ingame) and assign them to the primary and secondary slots in the mix material. Click "show in viewport." You should now see your ground bitmap as it will appear ingame when you render. Additionally, you will be able to see how your paths are painted onto your geometry as you paint them in photoshop (it updates in max every time you save in photoshop).

10. Select your ground polygons, press "0", and render them to texture.

11. Create a new photoshop file out of the texture you just rendered.

12. Go into channels and create a new channel.

13. Open up your first photoshop file again, set the black and white layer's opacity to 100, press ctrl + a (this selects all), press ctrl + c (to copy it), and then ctrl + v (paste) it into the newly created channel of the last photoshop file.

14. Save as a tiff.

15. Compile in tool.

16. Open the bitmap you just created, change it from "color key transparency" to "explicit alpha" or 32-bit. Save the file; recompile in tool.

17. Create a shader environment map with the newly created bitmap. I'm not going to go into detail here because it's pretty self-explanatory by just looking at other ground bitmap tags.


Now I have no idea how much of what I just wrote you understand, but it's one of the easiest ways to make a quality ground bitmap without having a decent amount of painting skills. I left some of the steps in this mini-tutorial vague because I expect you to have already read the HEK tutorial and watched the video tutorial on ground bitmaps (search Halomaps).

Here is a bitmap I made a while ago to help you understand the steps above:

http://filesmelt.com/dl/simba_ground.psd

http://filesmelt.com/dl/simba_ground_bitmap.psd

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/8792/lawl2a.jpg

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/6357/lawlt.jpg

Of course, there are simpler ways to make bitmaps, but they aren't going to be nearly as perfect, and require more painting skills. If you are already good at photoshop, then the other methods may be better for you.

[paladin]

Here is the one from my most recent map. Open the PSD and look at the layers and how I set up the Alpha channel. I wish CE could use color blends....

http://image.odinseye.org/images/islground.jpg

PDS : http://files.odinseye.org/ground.psd

heres a gif of my process:

http://image.odinseye.org/images/islgrofof.gif
1: Import Unwrap from Max
2: Import any reference photos for color
3: First pass major colors (dirt/sand)
4: Overlay unwrap to touch-up edges
5: Second pass major colors (grass w/ layer mask)
6: Third pass minor color details
7: Color adjustments, minor color detail
8: Mirror step 7
9: Fourth pass minor details (tire marks/ foot paths)
10: Alpha channel (black shows through dirt detail map, white shows through grass and sand detail maps)
11: finished producted