Jump to content
The Dark Mod Forums

Texture Question


Springheel

Recommended Posts

Ren walked me through this once on IRC, but I can't quite remember how to do it. I've created a texture and I want to create a light next to it in order to check out the specular effects. I've tried right clicking and selecting 'light' from the menu that pops up, but what I get is a little green square that doesn't appear to cast any light at all. Once it's there, I can't move or select it.

 

What's the proper way of adding a light?

 

Also, if anyone feels like it, I would love a short tutorial on how to actually import a custom texture into a pre-made room so I could see it in game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did this for Phantom a few weeks back, it'll tell you everything you need to know getting textures into the game...along with links to an indepth normalmapping tut.

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=101

 

It sounds like you've already found the proper way to add a light, you just didn't switch to the renderer so you could check it out in realtime. To do that just hit F3 to switch from the cam to the renderer, and then F4 to enable realtime updating so it'll apply all your lighting information.

 

When you say premade room do you mean one of Id's maps? For that you'd have to find the name of the texture you wanna replace, open pak001.pk4, track it down in there, and replace the 3 dds textures with your custom one. But that could lead to some really funkified results cuz their texture could've been applied to the wall in some weird way which might stretch and distort yours out of proportions if it isn't the right size, it'd be better just to make your own simple room in the editor for testing purposes.

 

To do that all you'd need to do is make a texture set and use a generic name like Wall_Test01 or something like that. Plop it in a certain folder for easy access like base/textures/darkmod/test, make the appropriate .mtr file, then build your room using it. If you like it you can just rename the 3 textures and move it somewhere else, if not you can just make another set with the same name and overwrite the ones you have in the test folder. The next time you reopen the editor it'll have the new textures already in place to check out.

 

I do something somewhat similar to that. If I find something about the texture I don't like while I'm working in the editor, I'll close it and zip up the current files, change it to fix what needs fixing, then just overwrite the files with the new texture and fire up the editor again to check it out.

Edited by Renzatic
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It sounds like you've already found the proper way to add a light, you just didn't switch to the renderer so you could check it out in realtime.

 

Yep, you're right. That did the trick. Here's my second shot at texture making, using one of Jay's images:

 

woodfloor01.jpg

 

it'd be better just to make your own simple room in the editor for testing purposes.

 

Yeah, that's what I meant. Is it as simple as just making a box and putting the camera inside instead of out?

 

While I'm at it, how do you move the light once it's deselected? I don't know how to select it again.

Edited by Springheel
Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, you'll need to make it hollow. Draw out a box on the grid about the size you, make it as tall as you want on the Z-edit window (skinny window usually to the right of your inspectors window), then hit the button_hollow.jpg hollow button to make it a rough, but functional, room.

 

You select lights the same way you select brushes. Hold down shift then left-click on the light, hold down the left button and move the mouse to move the light where you want it. Also get into the habit of doing a ctrl-shift leftclick when applying textures. It lets you select a single face, which in turn allows you apply multiple textures to a single brush.

 

That's a pretty damn good looking texture...it's screaming for a nice shiny specular map, though. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, this is friggin' cool! :) I played around and managed to make myself a simple room. Here's the wood texture with the metal one I was playing with earlier.

 

room2.jpg

 

Maybe I'll be able to do some useful things once the concept art is done. :D

 

Another question, Ren...how do you control the size/intensity of a light?

Edited by Springheel
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Select the light, hit J, and play with it to your heart's content. When you're there ignore the brighness slider...it doesn't do anything. You'll control brightness from the shade slider in the color menu.

 

The only thing that's a little difficult are projected lights. Don't use the coordinates, instead resize the cone from the grid using all 3 perspectives.

 

One thing with specular maps...remember that light is never evenly spread across a surface, throw a cloud render on there or use a brush to touch up some surfaces to give it a realistic uneven sheen.

Edited by Renzatic
Link to comment
Share on other sites

One thing with specular maps...remember that light is never evenly spread across a surface, throw a cloud render on there or use a brush to touch up some surfaces to give it a realistic uneven sheen.

 

Yeah, I did that, actually. It may not be very clear from the pic, but it's there. I notice the diagonals are a little jagged on the floor. Does that have something to do with the original floor image (which was small), or is that based on my D3 video settings?

 

Man, I can see myself having a lot of fun with this. Thanks for the continued assistance. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm...it probably has to do with the fact that your lights are sitting close to the floor and are at their default brightness in that shot. Should've realised that before.

 

But yeah, mapping and texturing is, in my humble opinion, the most fun you can have with the mod. Carving out each little room one bit at a time, adding all the little shelves with the little jars and cans on them, it's like Legos (haha Jay!) but..uh...gooder. Thief is particularly fun to map for since the gameplay allows for more intimate interaction with the eviroment than a straight up shooter would...that frees you up to do some really cool stuff you wouldn't do otherwise.

Edited by Renzatic
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's one of my paintings put in a frame. I'm not sure what I think about it...the frame looks all weird and pixilated, and even though the specular is fairly bright on the frame, it still doesn't look that bright in the picture. Any advice?

 

painting1.jpg

Edited by Springheel
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The imperfections might be from little dimples in the normalmap, they're easy to fix, and it probably wouldn't hurt to make the normal a little shallower on the painting itself. Beyond that I can't think of any complaints...it's beautiful.

 

lol, you could probably end up teaching me a few tricks with PS. Your artistic skills will really come in handy and could help me out with the bits I'm struggling with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, I updated the picture above...I think it looks a little better now.

 

Here's the normal version for the editor.

 

paintingisle_d.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks. :)

 

What format should I upload these to the ftp site with? Zipped?

 

How difficult would it be to put this on a wall in the editor to look at? Can you draw a brush inside another brush easily? I guess I'll experiment.

 

Edit: Well, that wasn't so hard...I'm catching on! (a bit)

Here's the painting in game:

 

 

room3.jpg

Edited by Springheel
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man, that is amazing. Great sense of depth on the normal, nice specular, and a great looking painting to boot.

 

If you don't mind, could you do a quick walkthru of what you did to get the texture ready? I might learn a thing or two along the way. ;)

 

And just make it a zip or rar file and drop it in the textures folder on the FTP. I'll download it and see how it looks in the room.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you don't mind, could you do a quick walkthru of what you did to get the texture ready?

 

Sure thing.

 

1. Looked through my frame reference pics and picked one I liked. Made the center transparent.

 

2. Selected a painting of mine and put it in a layer underneath the frame. Saved it as the _d and _ed versions.

 

3. Undid the flattening so it was in separate layers again, then removed the painting and made a normal map of the frame, set to 11. Had to polish it up a little bit by hand.

 

4. Ran the normalmap filter separately on the painting with a height of 2. Ran the brush randomly over the painting to soften some of the ridges and add in a few others to look like globs of paint.

 

5. Put the two together and saved.

 

6. For the specular map, I just desaturated the original empty frame, did an autocontrast, and darkened up the center where the painting would be. I then did some clouds on a top layer and set it to multiply, then played around with the contrast and transparency of that layer before saving it as the spec map.

 

 

One thing I noticed, and I'll post another example when I get home, is that the paintings seem to be compressed a little bit. While the original is thinner than it is tall, in the editor it comes out looking almost square. Do you know why that might be?

Edited by Springheel
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recent Status Updates

    • Ansome

      Finally got my PC back from the shop after my SSD got corrupted a week ago and damaged my motherboard. Scary stuff, but thank goodness it happened right after two months of FM development instead of wiping all my work before I could release it. New SSD, repaired Motherboard and BIOS, and we're ready to start working on my second FM with some added version control in the cloud just to be safe!
      · 0 replies
    • Petike the Taffer  »  DeTeEff

      I've updated the articles for your FMs and your author category at the wiki. Your newer nickname (DeTeEff) now comes first, and the one in parentheses is your older nickname (Fieldmedic). Just to avoid confusing people who played your FMs years ago and remember your older nickname. I've added a wiki article for your latest FM, Who Watches the Watcher?, as part of my current updating efforts. Unless I overlooked something, you have five different FMs so far.
      · 0 replies
    • Petike the Taffer

      I've finally managed to log in to The Dark Mod Wiki. I'm back in the saddle and before the holidays start in full, I'll be adding a few new FM articles and doing other updates. Written in Stone is already done.
      · 4 replies
    • nbohr1more

      TDM 15th Anniversary Contest is now active! Please declare your participation: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22413-the-dark-mod-15th-anniversary-contest-entry-thread/
       
      · 0 replies
    • JackFarmer

      @TheUnbeholden
      You cannot receive PMs. Could you please be so kind and check your mailbox if it is full (or maybe you switched off the function)?
      · 1 reply
×
×
  • Create New...