Terrain Materials Help
by Tom Swogger · in Torque 3D Professional · 10/30/2009 (3:38 pm) · 6 replies
Hey everyone, I'm having trouble getting decent looking terrain textures and I'm not sure I understand how the detail layer is supposed to work. When I apply a diffuse texture, it shows up blurry no matter how high res the actual texture is. Is this normal? I read the official doc on this and I still don't get it. Does the detail map have to be grayscale? Is is a multiply layer? I would like to just have the diffuse layer be high detail, is that even an option?
If there's a good tutorial or other post on this, could someone point me in the right direction?
Thanks for answering any of my noob questions. :D
If there's a good tutorial or other post on this, could someone point me in the right direction?
Thanks for answering any of my noob questions. :D
About the author
Everything Monkey at SuperVillain Studios in southern CA. Using Torque3D for Tower Wars!
#2
Thanks!
10/30/2009 (5:05 pm)
Cool, yeah, reducing the size does help a little, but it still looks blurry and I can see the tiling. I have dual ATI 3870s if that matters. When I get in close and the detail texture kicks in, it seems to blow everything out, it gets super bright. I think the detail layer is getting added to the blurry diffuse layer instead of just blending in nicely. Is that what it's supposed to do?Thanks!
#3
10/30/2009 (6:12 pm)
I believe the brightness is the strength kicking in. Try adjusting it back down to get rid of that effect. Your detail texture should match your diffuse texture somewhat. Ours use a strength of 0.5.
#4
10/30/2009 (6:18 pm)
Aha! That was it. Thanks Joshua! 
#5
I was noticing that the diffuse texture (terrain) is horribly blury but the detail texture when displayed the same size is sharp. I tested each with the other turned off to rule out blending problems, and so that the objects in the two versions display about the same size. This texture is 1024x1024, size 30, yet the diffuse looks like it came from a 64x64 image. Any idea why this works that way, and how do I fix it?
01/24/2010 (3:47 pm)
I'd like to follow up on this.I was noticing that the diffuse texture (terrain) is horribly blury but the detail texture when displayed the same size is sharp. I tested each with the other turned off to rule out blending problems, and so that the objects in the two versions display about the same size. This texture is 1024x1024, size 30, yet the diffuse looks like it came from a 64x64 image. Any idea why this works that way, and how do I fix it?
#6
EDIT: Oh I get it now. Yeah, you're having the same problem I was complaining about. I don't think there's any way to make it sharp. You have to rely on the detail layer to do that. The diffuse just kind of varies the detail layer a little. It's a stupid system in my opinion, and pretty hard to work with from an artist's standpoint. I wasn't able to achieve nearly the things I can with the Unreal Engine 2.0 (with the exception of normal maps and such, but that's a material thing). Though with enough tweaking I was able to get it to an acceptable point.
01/27/2010 (3:10 am)
The diffuse goes blurry at a certain distance if I recall correctly. I forget the setting name right off hand (I don't have it open right now) but you should be able to set it as far as you want and you should see the higher res image.EDIT: Oh I get it now. Yeah, you're having the same problem I was complaining about. I don't think there's any way to make it sharp. You have to rely on the detail layer to do that. The diffuse just kind of varies the detail layer a little. It's a stupid system in my opinion, and pretty hard to work with from an artist's standpoint. I wasn't able to achieve nearly the things I can with the Unreal Engine 2.0 (with the exception of normal maps and such, but that's a material thing). Though with enough tweaking I was able to get it to an acceptable point.
Torque 3D Owner Joshua Halls (Xerves)