Request for generic snow decal

[grayman]

I spent a couple hours last night trying to create a generic snow decal to represent a light snow that had been falling for an hour or so, but wasn't successful. I don't know if it's a problem with only having white in the diffuse image and screwing up the alpha channel or what.

 

Could someone please create one that tiles?

 

Here's an example of a snowy grass texture I made. It represents the type of snow pattern I'm interested in.

 

 

I used a few custom snow textures in In the North, but a simple transparent decal is eluding me. I'm not inclined to create numerous opaque diffuse images for rooftops, wall tops, and other surfaces that would catch a light dusting of snow.

 

Thanks.

[Obsttorte]

How about that one?

 

textures/darkmod/decals/snow
{

   qer_editorimage   textures/darkmod/nature/snow/snow_rough01_ed

   description "A snow decal"


   {
       maskcolor                
       map makealpha(textures/darkmod/decals/dirt/dirt_001_crumb_alpha01.jpg)
       alphatest parm5
   }

diffusemap textures/darkmod/nature/snow/snow_rough01

}

 

[grayman]

That looks like it would do the job very nicely.

[Obsttorte]

The alphamap is from a dirt decal. I guess other ones could be used a as well. I didn't scaled it so it lookes a bit rough ingame. Scaling the alphamap may do the trick.

[Bikerdude]

That looks like it would do the job very nicely.

The dirt blobs need their edges feathering though, atm it sorta looks like white paint..

[grayman]

@Obs, I haven't been able to see a satisfactory result using this workaround. As Biker said, it looks like splats of paint. And I don't know shader syntax enough to scale the alpha.

 

I don't want people to assume the problem is solved, so hopefully there's an artist out there who can make an actual transparent texture.

 

If not, then I guess I'll put in the time to make the individual non-transparent snowy textures I'd like to have.

[Bikerdude]

Right, can you post images or give me the shader paths for the textures you want snow on, as I maybe able to make "snow" versions like I did for the TDM 2.0 version of Business as usual. (Looks at the cobblestones and some of the wood textures in the mission)

 

Otherwise I can have a go at feathering the edges of Obs snow texture above, but you'll need to pm a download link.

 

Otherwise found this link, we are free to use them inside the mod or missions - http://texturelib.com/license/

 

- http://texturelib.co...frozen%20ground

 

 

 

[grayman]

Thanks for the offer, but I don't want to bother you for specific textures; I can do that myself. I haven't decided which textures need the treatment yet, anyway.

 

I was hoping for a general snow overlay I could use on anything.

 

I originally designed the map with full snow on everything, but the story line requires that be scaled back to a light dusting.

[Obsttorte]

@Obs, I haven't been able to see a satisfactory result using this workaround. As Biker said, it looks like splats of paint. And I don't know shader syntax enough to scale the alpha.

Scaling alpha is something I found hard to do with the material definitions, too. However, the actual result depends on the image used to create the alpha. So if one wants a more softer fading between snow and now snow, the image has to look different. If I find the time I'll try to create a custom one and post a shot here.

[Springheel]

I don't want people to assume the problem is solved, so hopefully there's an artist out there who can make an actual transparent texture.

 

There may be tricks I don't know about, but the general rule is that semi- transparent textures that react to light are not possible in D3. In other words, if you have snow with transparent bits missing, then the transparency has to be all or nothing. The visible parts will therefore have hard edges, not feathered, and will look like blobs of paint. You can make white, semi-transparent snow with an additive blend, but it will then not react to light and would glow in the dark. Unfortunately there's no in between.

[grayman]

How are the dirt decals successful, then?

 

All I'm looking for is a dirt decal where the dirt is white and the pattern is random (but tiled).

[Springheel]

Dirt decals don't have any feathering either, and they often don't look very successful. That's part of the reason Obs worked on that vertex colour exporter for DR.

[rich_is_bored]

The best you can do without a custom fragment program is fixed function blending modes like addition or multiplication. The light interaction shader handles the diffuse, bump, and specular stages of a material shader. All other stages are composited in a fashion similar to layer blending modes in an image editor.

 

I'm not terribly familiar with all the blending options available but you can google "glBlendFunc" if you're curious. Those same parameters can be used for a stage in a material shader. Multiplication is passable for things like dirt because black pixels stay black. Addition is good for things that should glow. I have yet to find a suitable combination for something that should brighten the underlying pixels but not glow in the dark.

[Bikerdude]

Dirt decals don't have any feathering either, and they often don't look very successful. That's part of the reason Obs worked on that vertex colour exporter for DR.

@Obs, talking of which have you got horizontal exporting working yet..?

[Obsttorte]

@Obs, talking which have you got horizontal exporting working yet..?

Dude, your english... Do you mean this?

[Bikerdude]

Dude, your english... Do you mean this?

I know, you wouldn't think I spoke English as a first language...LOL

 

And great on the blend script front.

[Obsttorte]

I know you do, but sometimes I just don't get what you are saying. Don't know if this is slang, though.

[angua]

I've just tried

blend gl_dst_color, gl_one

 

This does brighten the underlying texture and it reacts to light corrrectly, but even where the image is white you can see the color of the underlying image, so not really perfect for snow...

 

 

Maybe you could use this in combination with the alphatested image to mask the edges a bit.

[grayman]

Given the mystery surrounding how to do this, I've decided to just make the individual snowy textures I need.

 

Thanks for the help, though.

 

@Biker, can I use your snowy wood and cobblestone textures from Business 3?

[Bikerdude]

@Gman, yes mate got for it. And if you need a hand converting any others let me know.