Billboard Trees

#1 Can you describe your problem a little bit more, rather? Are the billboards sorted incorrectly? I've seen that alot.
Also this thread belongs in the Torque Public section, not here.

#2 Its the textures...

I can not get the edge of the texture (black part) to become transparent, it just stays black, ive tried numerous methods and got some help from Newtek Forums but nothing seems to work..

Sorry about it being posted in the wrong section

#3 Assuming that the PNG alpha channel has been setup properly, I would guess that the issue has to do with tiling settings in your material. I have seen this in other applications and essentially what is happening is that since the bitmap is told to tile there is the faintest 1 pixel line being drawn on one edge which is actually the data of the opposite edge. The way to fix it in other applications is to simply turn off the tiling option on maps such as this (which shouldnt matter since you are not using it).

Logan

#4 Im not sure if the PNG alpha channel is setup correctly :s i tried following previous instructions I was given but it didnt work.

Here is the problem (sorry its small)


Hope that gives more of an idea as to what is causing the problem, my texture is green in the middle and black on the outside, but everything I have tried doesnt make the black transparent, thats why i was wondering if any good soul had a prebuilt object i could deconstruct to figure it out once and for all.

#5 It definitely looks as though your alpha channel is not working properly.

Is there a way you could pull the images into PS or PSP and tweak the channels by hand?

#6 I know this is an old post but there is another way to make transparent images with out using the alpha channel and it does work in torque as i have done all my plants this way. Heres the steps i have done to acheive this.

I'm using Adobe photoshop 6 (i'm sure newer versions will work the same)

Open you image up you wish to make transparent. A simple version is below with a colored background.

The size of the image i'm going to be doing is 256 by 256, you can use what ever you want.

Now go to FILE select NEW and make it a 256 by 256 transparent image

and get this >
Now then i go back to the image i want to make transparent and select the portion i want . I use the magic wand for this and i set the TOLERANCE to 35
Now as i'm selecting the portion i want i adjust the tolerance to a lower number so i do not end up selecting the black area. Zoom in helps (may be another way,but this is how i do it)

Not go to EDIT select COPY

Then go to the new untitled image you made 256 by 256 transparent and then goto EDIT and PASTE

As seen here >>
From here all i do is go to FILE and select SAVE FOR WEB

Besure to make sure transparent is selected in the screen you see below and the hit OK
A save menu will pop up and you can save it as whatever . I titled mine grass1 . And then thats it for making a transparent png file.

The below pic is the image opened in Paintshop pro so i could use the image info screen to show you theres no alpha channel .

Now you can use milkshape to make you grass. I can post another quick tut on that if ya's want on how to use the image. Below is what you can make using the image i put up here :
Front veiw

Top veiw :

#7 Nice work Allan, did you only use 2 billboards for the DTS?

B--

#8 @Allan, a tut on how you used Milkshape to make the grass would be great!!! :) Thanks!

I'll take any help I can get!!

#9 Cool, grass looks really good, nice work.

A tut on how you did it with milkshape would be ace, i think ill give up on Lightwave for doing game graphics as it might be a little too complex for the simple graphics i want to create.

#10 Yea, a tut on using milkshape to make this modelwould be great. Thats some nice grass and would be a nice addition to any game. Great job!

#11 Uhm.
What's the difficult part here? create a number of planes (somewhere between 2 and maybe 5-6), apply the texture, center all the planes and rotate them at different angles; done.

No idea about milkshape though, but if you can't figure out how to do this how are you going to do anything more complex? =)

#12 Magnus Blikstad everyone needs a simple starting point, As for complex models i can build some great one in 3ds max7 but i still need tutorials and such sometime, For instance i'm still having trouble with the whole character animation and bones set up . I haven't come across a good step by step tutorial yet on the whole process but when i do figure out i will make a nice long long step by step tut on it thats for sure.

Rgr, First off the following is the way i do it and i'm sure theres many more ways.

I'm using milkshape 3d 1.7.4 , I'll only be posting the veiw that i'm using during the tut which will be mostley the front and top veiw.

So lets start:

1: The first thing i do is place 4 vertexs (Verticies) on the front veiw window. Place them close to the corners of a grid square.
I numbered them in the way i placed them in the view window.

2: Then i select the vertex 1 and then go to the VERTEX menu button at the top and select SNAP TO GRID , This will put the vertex right on the corner, And then carry on for the other 3 doing the same process.



3: The next thing i do i make a face out of them . A face is made up using 3 vertexs going counter clockwise. So Click on the FACE button then select the number 1 vertex so its highlighted red. Then select number 2 and then number 3 , You should now see a red triangle for and a grey face show up in the 3d window , If you do not see this appear right away DO NOT FRET , Just simply go to the FACE menu at the top as shown in picture and select CREATE FACE. A face will then show as seen in the next picture.

#13 4: Next go to the EDIT menu and select ,SELECT NONE, this will make it so non of the verticies are highlighted now repeat step 3 above but this time selecting VERTEX 1 then 3 then 4 this will form your second face to complete the square. You should end up with a image as shown below. Once this is all done if you rotate the image in the 3d window you will see that it does not have a back face its more or less see through. Next step

5: Next go to EDIT and choose the SELECT ALL this will highlight everything red , Then go to EDIT again and choose DUPLICATE SELECTION you will now see another square show up highlighted yellow right over top of the RED one you previously made, Read PART 5 POSSIBLE SOLUTION !!!
Now while its still highlighted go to the FACE menu in the top and choose REVERSE VERTEX ORDER. Now go back to the 3d view window and you will now see greyed in area for both sides.

PART 5 POSSIBLE SOLUTION

If you accidently unhighlighted the yellow duplicated section DO NOT FRET just go to the GROUPS tab on the right side(Where mine is located) Choose the DUPLICATE shown as number 1 , Then choose the SELECT button number 2 and it will highlight it again so you can carry on with reversing the vertex in step 5. If you managed to do it in the first try then omit this step.

#14 6: Goto EDIT and choose SELECT NONE.

7: Goto the GROUPS tab again and choose the first face (don't worry about naming it yet) Now that its highlighted RED again goto the the MATERIALS tab and choose NEW number 1 in picture. Then go to number 2 and select the texture to be used. My case grass1.png Don't worry about the material number or what it shows in mine, Yours could be material01 or whatever. Anyhow once the material is loaded up hit ASSIGN number 3. You should now see the image on your face along with the grey box still as shown in the next pic, If not again DO NOT FRET we'll just do an extra step . Goto the WINDOWS button at top, and choose TEXTURE COORIDENET EDITOR. Now a new window should pop up , At number 1 besure the right face is selected and then hit remap at number 2 , a new square should form around the image. Go back to you milkshape and the image should now be showing.

7: Now you have the texture showing and ist still has a grey box around it . Well go back to the MATERIALS tab and select the texture you used and then select the small scroll bar as shown in pic and adjust it to the left until you image goes to the transparent mode, To your choice.

8: Now you have completed one side of the plant, Next choose the other side by starting at number 6 again and with the exception of under groups choose the DUPLICATE and then carry on down to this step again.

9: Once you have both sides done with the texture on both sides. Goto the EDIT menu and choose SELECT ALL. Then go to the GROUPS tab and choose REGROUP this will now take both faces and merge them together forming one.

#15 10: Besure the whole group is selected still and got to edit and DUPICATE it again , Should show up in yellow. Go back over to the MODEL tab and choose rotate , and rotate it to what ever angel you want , I duplicated mine a few times and formed a somewhat of a star . Shown in pic below, Now you can do more than just duplicating the images and rotating , You can duplicate them rotate them and then select none and then select certain vertexs and move them to where ever , and twist what ever suit your needs.

11: After all said and done i goto the TOOLS menu and choose CLEAN and then again TOOLS and MODEL CLEANER . This will take out any duplicates and unneeded vertexs.

This is basically what i do , Sometimes to make things go even fasted i'll start off creating a box shape object and then just deleting the faces i don't want and moving the 2 face i want backto back.

I know there is another way to do this where you only need to make the one face and then use the image on on both sides with out having to do any duplicating and such, Just can't remember how to do it.

I use 3ds max7 now mostley

#16 Oh forgot to mention i just exported it as a regualr dts file with no collision so one can walk and crawl through it, It is somewhat a billboard image but does not follow you when you walk around it which is what a billboard item is suppose to do. As well as you can rename you faces and such. If you want a copy of the milkshape file and dts file with texture give me a shout at amjdaredecil@nrtco.net or visit my forums at txpgone3d.com/forums/index.php

#17 I now have the first transparent tutorial done up in pdf formate with a bit more info in there, not much abut a bit lol.

#18 Nice! Great tutorial, very specific... I'm sort of new to 3d modelling, and this has helped. The right technique is what people are looking for! great job

#19 Just a quick update to making a transparent picture, Instead of selecting the grass and pasting it over to the new image, Do the following:

1: Make new transparent image
2: Select the entire image and copy it and then paste it in the new image
3: Then use the wand and select the area ya you don't want and delete it.

This method is easier then selecting the blades of grass , But either or will work depending on which is easier, and the picture being used. For this tutorial i think selecting the black area would of been easier, Where maybe in another picture it would be easier to select the image you want.

Happy creating

#20 Following the tuts above i thought i would throw a quick twist in there. Animating a light breeze blowing the grass. Its pretty simple once you know how to do it. So here goes.

I'll be only doing one vertex through out this tutorial continuation but can be done on more than one.

Now that you did the above you can keep it static grass or moving.

1: Open up the grass you just made in milkshape again.
2: On the right side select JOINT

3: Place the joint over a vertex in the side/front veiw and so it appears over it in the top veiw as well. The JOINT is a small BLUE ball shown in image, The VERTEX is a little white square shown with the YELLOW arrow.

4: Now that the joint is place you must assign it to the vertex it is placed over to do this you must be sure you are in the select vertex mode. Veiw image below to see how.

5: Now go to the JOINTS tab shown on the same menu on the right side . Click on the JOINT shown in the menu, It will highlight GREEN in the veiw ports. Next click on the vertex under it , The JOINT will turn blue again , Then go back to the JOINT menu and hit ASSIGN . This will assign the joint to that vertex.

6: Now the JOINT and VERTEX is assigned to each other its time to animate. Select the animate button on the bottom bar.

7: Select the JOINT so that its GREEN. Now Goto the ANIMATION button at the top in the main menu. Select SET KEYFRAME, This will make the start point for the animation as shown by the number 1 in the screen shot. Next move the slider over to the next KEY (number 2) , Then move the JOINT in the veiw port to where ever you want, Such as back and down a bit. Then goto the ANIMATION button again in the main menu and hit SET KEYFRAME. Move the slide to KEY 3 (Shown by number 3 in pic) Then move the JOINT again. and SET KEYFRAME, and carry on. As you are doing this you should see the vertex move with the joint making a white/grey line of the face move with it. Moving it back and or forward and down will simulate the grass blowing back and bending over abit. This will be a long process to get it perfect moving the joint a bit each time and setting the KEY FRAME. You allowed up to 100 KEY Frames per Joint.

8: Once you have a few KEY FRAMES set you can trial them by selecting the play button in the animation menu on the bottom of the screen. Be sure your in the 3d veiw port when checking it out so you can rotate the camera around and see how it looks.

You can set up other joints in the same object the same way. I have a example file here i can email out to anyone who wants it.