Terrain questions
by Robert Geiman · in Torque Game Engine · 10/04/2005 (8:13 am) · 5 replies
I'm new to Torque and 3D engines in general, and have a few questions about the terrain editor.
1) I wanted to modify the terrain used in starter.fps base, to make the ground gravel instead of grass/sand. So I loaded the Terrain Texture Painter and loaded my gravel.png, and painted the ground. However instead of the grass looking like gravel, it looks like grey grass.
Basically it modified the COLOR of the ground, but not the actual picture of the ground. I tried looking in both the Terrain Texture Painter and Terrain Texture Editor, but I still can't figure how to change this base pic.
2) For fun I replaced the data\terrains\details\detail1.png with my gravel.png file, so I can actually see the gravel. This manages to show my gravel in game, but the size of the stones are rather large. How can I shrink the size of the texture on the terrain? Will modifying the size of my .png file (ie, increase from 512x512 to 1024x1024) accomplish this?
3) Is is possible to include bump maps on terrain? Looking at my gravel they look more like painted 2D rocks rather than 3Dish rocks. Of course, I'm sure if the rocks themselves were smaller (see question 2) then it probably wouldn't look as bad.
1) I wanted to modify the terrain used in starter.fps base, to make the ground gravel instead of grass/sand. So I loaded the Terrain Texture Painter and loaded my gravel.png, and painted the ground. However instead of the grass looking like gravel, it looks like grey grass.
Basically it modified the COLOR of the ground, but not the actual picture of the ground. I tried looking in both the Terrain Texture Painter and Terrain Texture Editor, but I still can't figure how to change this base pic.
2) For fun I replaced the data\terrains\details\detail1.png with my gravel.png file, so I can actually see the gravel. This manages to show my gravel in game, but the size of the stones are rather large. How can I shrink the size of the texture on the terrain? Will modifying the size of my .png file (ie, increase from 512x512 to 1024x1024) accomplish this?
3) Is is possible to include bump maps on terrain? Looking at my gravel they look more like painted 2D rocks rather than 3Dish rocks. Of course, I'm sure if the rocks themselves were smaller (see question 2) then it probably wouldn't look as bad.
#2
I think I'm just missing something obvious, I'm not sure. I'll continue to search the forums/docs to try and see what I'm missing.
10/04/2005 (10:48 am)
Quote:I must be missing something. I loaded the FPS and Racing starter mods, and they all have that same details1.png texture with just different colors for grass/sand. I've looked in the Texture Editor and Texture Painter, and I don't see ANY reference to details1.png for me to even change.
Sounds like your texture is broken, and what you're now seeing is a white null texture with the detail texture ontop - which looks grey but still with a pattern. Check your texture.
I think I'm just missing something obvious, I'm not sure. I'll continue to search the forums/docs to try and see what I'm missing.
Quote:Yes, resizing the image to 256x256 did indeed make the gravel rocks look normal sized!
When you're doing troubleshooting like this, always try and replicate your texture as close as the original ones as much as possible.
Ie, putting a 512x512 texture in there is stupid - because that's not what the default ones are. Making yours the same dimensions as the default ones would have shown you a correct texture of your gravel :)
Incidentally, Torque does not support any textures larger than 256x256 for the terrain.
Quote:Ah, thanks for the heads up. TSE looks quite promissing.
Detail textures are as close as bump maps you will get :/ If you want real bumps, future TSE will be your only good bet..
#3
10/04/2005 (2:21 pm)
Also keep in mind that Torque blends terrain textures at each terrain grid coordinate, so in this case you probably simply wanted to replace the texture itself, instead of over-painting with a new texture. Alternatively, you could "paint multiple coats" of your gravel over the existing grass to make the weighting mostly gravel instead of mostly grass.
#4
10/04/2005 (2:43 pm)
Hmm...I think maybe he's using the same detail texture he used with the grass so he thinks its the same one?
#5
Anyways, I changed this to my new gravel texture and everything works great. Of course, this textures the entire map, but at least I'm finally starting to understand how this works.
Thanks guys!
10/04/2005 (6:11 pm)
Ok, I figured out my detail texture issue. I looked in my .mis file and I see where it's specifying detail1.png for the detail texture. Is there no way to change this from within the mission editor?Anyways, I changed this to my new gravel texture and everything works great. Of course, this textures the entire map, but at least I'm finally starting to understand how this works.
Thanks guys!
Torque Owner Stefan Lundmark
Sounds like your texture is broken, and what you're now seeing is a white null texture with the detail texture ontop - which looks grey but still with a pattern. Check your texture.
When you're doing troubleshooting like this, always try and replicate your texture as close as the original ones as much as possible.
Ie, putting a 512x512 texture in there is stupid - because that's not what the default ones are. Making yours the same dimensions as the default ones would have shown you a correct texture of your gravel :)
Incidentally, Torque does not support any textures larger than 256x256 for the terrain.
Detail textures are as close as bump maps you will get :/ If you want real bumps, future TSE will be your only good bet..