How do you fade one texture into another?

[NeonsStyle]

So how do you fade one texture into another? Say grass into dirt, like on the edge of a dirt track. On my map,

I have a driveway for carts etc, and it needs some cart tracks (patches) and grass humps (patches) and textures

blending the two together. Is there a way to do this that is also clipped?

 

Thx

 

Neon

[demagogue]

If you look in the materials folder, you'll see some blended textures for a grass-path transition. The simplest thing is to use those on a middle brush or path, with the matched textures on either side. I think some are also like decals, which are overlays where one side is the path and the other side is clear, so the underlying grass would appear, which isn't a fade (decals do transparency but not fades) but still makes for a decent transition.

 

If you want more control, you'd model the entire path and transition area, then bake in 2 vertex paint colors which fade into each other, and then in the material file you can associate them to two textures, and then they'll blend in a nice fade. I haven't done it myself so I may have completely explained that wrong. But there should be a wiki article on it explaining how to do it.

 

My personal method is to use 5 patches. The center is the path, then two skinny dirt/grass cylinders on their side at the edges, then 2 dirt/grass terrain patches on the outsides. Then the path and terrain patches dig into to the top of the cylinder, so it looks like a mound of dirt at the transition. It looks good enough for me. It's not a fade or blend, still a sharp edge, but the mound look of it makes the sharpish edge believable IMO.

[grayman]

Also, there's a blending python script available. Search for "blend" on the wiki pages or the Editors Forum. I used it in Cleighmoor to blend grass into snowy grass.

[DoubleOhZero]

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Roads

 

Is a great explanation. Also see the following replies to my thread:

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18093-doubleohs-first-fm/?p=390093

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18093-doubleohs-first-fm/?p=390161

[Obsttorte]

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/15026-dr-ase-blend-exporter/?hl=%2Bblend+%2Bexporter

[NeonsStyle]

Wow thanks. Heaps of info there for me to digest. Not sure I understand a lot of what Demagogue said. Looks complicated, but good to learn.

 

Thanks.

 

Neon

[demagogue]

Just interpret what I said as saying there's 3 different methods I know of:
1. Exactly the Roads wiki link DoubleOhZero posted
2. Exactly the link Obsttort posted
3. Just use all patches, with an 'n' shaped hump over the road-grass seams with no fading.
Nothing more than that.

[NeonsStyle]

Thanks Dem, appreciate the help. I figured it was all patches and had them all down just didn't know how to make it work.

Edited June 15, 2016 by NeonsStyle

[DoubleOhZero]

I've been using Obs' blend script and it is excellent:

 

http://imgur.com/BhuQxjd

[Bikerdude]

I've been using Obs' blend script and it is excellent:

And in DR 2.05 at some point Greebo will be fixing the dark-spot on exported .ASE models issue.

[DoubleOhZero]

And in DR 2.05 at some point Greebo will be fixing the dark-spot on exported .ASE models issue.

 

Excellent!

 

I am having a lot of trouble getting my own textures in to get the blending right. It works with your default material but I altered it to read as follows, and then it is rendered in game with the missing material placeholder.

blend_grass4_dirt001.mtr.txt