Texture transition

[fletcher77]

In my map blast castle I just used seamless tiles to do my texturing for the ground. I have tried to use the base map to get a transition between different textures, I could not get it to work. I noticed on coagulation that there are transitions from one detail map to another from grass to the mud. How do you do this properly, Without it looking like one big washed out base map.

[et_cg]

Add an alpha to your image, then once you compile make sure you have one of these settings applied to it:

Compressed with Explicit Alpha
Compressed with Interpolated Alpha
32-Bit Color

Those are found in the bitmap tag, where it usually says, "Compressed with Color-Key Transparancy. You just hit the drop down, change the value, and it will import the image with its RGB Channels and the alpha channels.

[Llama Juice]

Take a look at the actual ground texture for coag or something... I'll use Blood Gulch as an example here...

http://www.llamajuice.com/ce/blood%20ground.jpg that's the normal map. That shows the basic colors that will be applied to the ground texture.... the detail maps transition because of an alpha channel....

http://www.llamajuice.com/blood%20ground2.jpg http://www.llamajuice.com/ce/blood%020ground2.jpg http://www.llamajuice.com/ce/blood%20ground2.jpg that's the normal map. That showsThat shows that's the alpha channel of the bitmap. In this case the alpha is named Grass... what do you notice about it? The black stuff in the bitmap is where the grass detail map is.

In the shader settings you set your different detail maps that correspond with your alpha channel.

Hope this helped :)

[fletcher77]

Take a look at the actual ground texture for coag or something... I'll use Blood Gulch as an example here...

http://www.llamajuice.com/ce/blood%20ground.jpg that's the normal map. That shows the basic colors that will be applied to the ground texture.... the detail maps transition because of an alpha channel....

http://www.llamajuice.com/blood%20ground2.jpg http://www.llamajuice.com/ce/blood%020ground2.jpg http://www.llamajuice.com/ce/blood%20ground2.jpg that's the normal map. That showsThat shows that's the alpha channel of the bitmap. In this case the alpha is named Grass... what do you notice about it? The black stuff in the bitmap is where the grass detail map is.

In the shader settings you set your different detail maps that correspond with your alpha channel.

Hope this helped :)
Can you use more then 1 alpha channel in your normal map?

[Llama Juice]

Not that I know of... but... you could have seperate normal maps for seperate areas....

OR... if for some reason you need 3+... just build another shader..... copy your bitmap but change the alpha.... then re assign the material IDs in 3ds to your new texture for that part of the map... that way it keeps the same UVWs... but allows for diverse detail maps....

[Con]

yeah, using multiple base maps was the only way I could think of for having more than 2 detail maps. It looks like Halo 3 uses vertex shading (like an RTS) on top or something to avoid this problem. Look at Valhalla, it would need like 4 detail maps on one base map if this were CE/H2V.

[fletcher77]

I was looking at coagulation again an it looks like it has 2 detail maps the grass is a detail map and then the mud. I don't understand how they did this.

[Tweek]

i do, but i'm afraid i'm not sharing yet. not before i've used it in my map :o sowweeee

[fletcher77]

i do, but i'm afraid i'm not sharing yet. not before i've used it in my map :o sowweeee so there is a way to use more then one detail map.

[Tweek]

you can use 5 as far as i know.

[fletcher77]

you can use 5 as far as i know.I will give you a cookie if you tell me how its done.:XD:

[Tweek]

sorry, i'll tell later when i've got it on my own map kk

[fletcher77]

There are shaders with a base map. and 2detail maps(tex_detail_blend)
and there its a shader with 3 terrain maps.(tex_bump_terrain) How would you work this.

[Llama Juice]

Two detail maps isn't a problem at all... it's more than two that makes it get complicated.

The black on the alpha is a grass detail and the white is a dirt on the BG ground I posted earlier. It's just in the shader settings on which detail map goes where:-P

[DaneO'Roo]

multi alpha channels

:/

[Llama Juice]

I've never seen anything that allows multiple alpha channels.. I know you can make them in PS..but... I haven't seen anything in guerrilla... (Not that I'm doubting you... if anyone... you'd know what's up here....)

[DaneO'Roo]

Well, I do not know for sure, but that's the only way possible I can think of. How else can it differentiate?

[Llama Juice]

well an alpha has two values... white and black..... I haven't done it in H2.. but in H1 ground textures (like the BG one I posted)... you could set detail maps for both white and black... which means you can transition from grass to dirt and such...

[fletcher77]

well an alpha has two values... white and black..... I haven't done it in H2.. but in H1 ground textures (like the BG one I posted)... you could set detail maps for both white and black... which means you can transition from grass to dirt and such... What would be the best shader to use to apply the 2 detail maps.

[Llama Juice]

tex_bump_detail_blend is what I would use.

[fletcher77]

I can only get one detail map to work. That is the black in the alpha channel. How would I get it to use the white?

[fletcher77]

you can use 5 as far as i know. Ok I figured out how to use 3 detail maps now what shader did u find that has 5 detail maps.