TDM Building with Blender

[Arcturus]

First doesn't look good without rain(Looks like portals on the ground %) ), instead of second one that is much more better looking..

You can blend textures in different proportions, you just need to make sure that texture scale matches:

 

 

You could theoretically make other kinds of decals, but seams will of course be visible:

 

[Sotha]

That texture of yours probably makes it possible to make a model mirror that has a real reflective surface?

[Arcturus]

Yep, mirror texture is basically this:

 

mirror
{
surftype15
description "glass"
 {
	blend   blend
	mirrorRenderMap 128 128
	translate 0.5, 0.5
	scale 0.5, 0.5
  }
}

 

Although I'm not sure whether description "glass" actually works. Also you can change resolution of the reflection with "mirrorRenderMap".

[Arcturus]

I checked again this ASE export script with Blender 2.70 and I've found out that it exports vertex paint properly. I said before that it doesn't, but that's not true. The only problem with it is that I can see no way to put material name into *BITMAP line without editing the file. Texture name (not image) is exported as *MAP_NAME so one can copy it from there.

[Arcturus]

I've found a way to export ASE with a material name in *BITMAP. You need to open an image in "texture" tab. You can then paste your material name into the file name field:

 

 

Without the //base/, it will be added automatically.

[nbohr1more]

@Arcturus: So, I recall you've experimented with baking AO maps in Blender.

 

I am wondering if you might be interested in trying the following:

 

1) Build a small outdoor test map

2) Add one or two real lights

3) Add one or two ambient lights to approximate the ambient light from the real lights

4) Export the brushes within the volume of each ambient light as an ASE model

5) Bake radiance bounces and AO onto the mesh

6) Change the material def for the ASE to that of a decal ( with blend add as the operation)

7) Set the ambient lights to a spectrum value in the shader definition

8) Set the decal model to the same spectrum value

9) dynamically raise and lower the ambient lights and watch the mixing of light illumination from

each decal map

 

This is a hacky way to add ambient lightmaps to TDM based on http://forum.tgmonline.it/showthread.php?5137-Lightmaps-in-Doom-3-Engine-A-Hybrid-Approach-To-Real-Time-Lighting

I'm not sure if this works as designed since spectrum was known to have bugs where only the border of the light worked (etc). The other problem is all dynamic objects

would need additional ambient stages for each spectrum used so they would have correct ambient color. (or something would need to approximate the contributions mathematically in ambient_world).

 

Just a thought experiment but I think it would be cool to see tried. Something akin to the complexity of Rose Cottage's lighting tricks.

[Arcturus]

I've used baked shadows in the Christmas map.

I don't understand what this is for:

 

Set the ambient lights to a spectrum value in the shader definition

 

As I understand there's no way that decals would affect light gem. So I can see using this method for ambient occlusion but not actual shadows.

[nbohr1more]

This would generally just be used for ambient light detail\variation rather than for encoding shadows per se. You could blur

the radiance bounce bake and sample at very low resolution (etc).

 

The spectrum keyword ensures that the light and material stage are paired. The light only affects that stage and nothing else.

 

Yeah, the closest we can get to this with something that works for shadows is the strombine method: http://www.lunaran.com/page.php?id=165

[Arcturus]

I'll try it if I ever make my own map.

[Paralytik]

Another physics simulation test:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjW3U2u-pao&feature=youtu.be

This looks amazing for flags or lines with clothes hanging over streets, or similar stuff. These things should be added into TDM as models with different skins IMO!