Possible Feature Request

[AluminumHaste]

I'm not sure if this is doable, but, I have some stairs that I want to use patches on for the carpet.

I tried individual patches and bending them for each stair, but getting the textures to line up is impossible.

So making a single large patch and manually placing the verts works, but is slow and tedious.

Is there a way to increment the patch programatically?

For example, here's the patch:

 

// primitive 70
{
patchDef3
{
"textures/darkmod/carpet/runners/geometric02_red_HD"
( 57 3 6 4 0 0 0 )
(
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( ( -340 -72 169 0.2857142984867096 0 ) ( -340 0 169 0.2857142984867096 0.5 ) ( -340 72 169 0.2857142984867096 1 ) )
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( ( -338 -72 161 1 0 ) ( -338 0 161 1 0.5 ) ( -338 72 161 1 1 ) )
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( ( -306 -72 147 3.14285683631897 0 ) ( -306 0 147 3.14285683631897 0.5 ) ( -306 72 147 3.14285683631897 1 ) )
( ( -306 -72 145 3.285713911056519 0 ) ( -306 0 145 3.285713911056519 0.5 ) ( -306 72 145 3.285713911056519 1 ) )
( ( -304 -72 145 3.428570985794067 0 ) ( -304 0 145 3.428570985794067 0.5 ) ( -304 72 145 3.428570985794067 1 ) )
( ( -299 -72 145 3.571428060531616 0 ) ( -299 0 145 3.571428060531616 0.5 ) ( -299 72 145 3.571428060531616 1 ) )
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( ( -290 -72 143 3.999999284744263 0 ) ( -290 0 143 3.999999284744263 0.5 ) ( -290 72 143 3.999999284744263 1 ) )
( ( -290 -72 141 4.142856597900391 0 ) ( -290 0 141 4.142856597900391 0.5 ) ( -290 72 141 4.142856597900391 1 ) )
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( ( -290 -72 137 4.428570747375488 0 ) ( -290 0 137 4.428570747375488 0.5 ) ( -290 72 137 4.428570747375488 1 ) )
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( ( -242 -72 117 7.571426391601562 0 ) ( -242 0 117 7.571426391601562 0.5 ) ( -242 72 117 7.571426391601562 1 ) )
( ( -242 -72 115 7.714283466339111 0 ) ( -242 0 115 7.714283466339111 0.5 ) ( -242 72 115 7.714283466339111 1 ) )
( ( -242 -72 113 7.85714054107666 0 ) ( -242 0 113 7.85714054107666 0.5 ) ( -242 72 113 7.85714054107666 1 ) )
( ( -240 -72 113 7.999997615814209 0 ) ( -240 0 113 7.999997615814209 0.5 ) ( -240 72 113 7.999997615814209 1 ) )
)
}
}
}

 

This is what it looks in the editor:

 

So I use the Append 2 columns to the end, and then do that again. This give me 4 more columns to use to go down the next step.
So step 1 would be to append 2 columns to the end:

Then do it again:

Then move the last 3 to form the curve:

Then rinse and repeat for the down slope then back again.

Is there a way to tell patch creation to follow brushes?

[Dragofer]

This would seem like a case for the recently implemented tool for merging patches - do 1 step manually, clone it down the staircase and merge them all.

Those are a lot of tris, though, especially for such small corners.

[AluminumHaste]

Looks great in game though.

 

I'll try the merge patches, forgot about that. Would be nice though to select some geometry like the stairs, then just press a Mark Carpet button

 

 

[OrbWeaver]

This sounds like something a Python script ought to be able to do. Either it could create a series of individual patches with matching texture coordinates, or it could displace a single large patch in a stair-stepped shape.

[kingsal]

Sort of related, but I wish we had a simple stair tool to work with. Building stairs is incredible tedious even without carpet!

Im not sure how it would work, potentially drawing a brush in DR and hitting "convert to stairs" and you punch in the height and  direction? Maybe a "build with patches" feature as well?

Ignore the brushes that descend all the way to the floor. (Unless its possible to have it do that as well)

With a stair "thickness" setting could get designs like this:

height = 12
thickness = 4

Bonus feature if you could pick a nodraw surface that auto built around it
 

Anyhow, something to consider if anyone is up for it. Would save some time on the mapping end of things for sure. 

[greebo]

23 minutes ago, kingsal said:

Sort of related, but I wish we had a simple stair tool to work with. Building stairs is incredible tedious even without carpet!

Hm, yes. Drawing out a brush and then cutting it up into N steps with a defined height might be something that is feasable for a machine. Maybe it could even be done with a Python script, I think DR has all the functions available in the scripting API. It can only be a basic scenario that's covered by the code, I assume that any machine-generated result will never be something one can be happy with immediately.

[jonri]

21 hours ago, greebo said:

Hm, yes. Drawing out a brush and then cutting it up into N steps with a defined height might be something that is feasable for a machine. Maybe it could even be done with a Python script, I think DR has all the functions available in the scripting API. It can only be a basic scenario that's covered by the code, I assume that any machine-generated result will never be something one can be happy with immediately.

This sounds like something I could knock out in an evening or two using a Python script.  I've got no decent blocks of free time at the moment, but if nobody beats me to it I'll give it a go sometime.

I've also been thinking of a script that would work something like the blender "array" modifier for easy duplication+offset of your selection, optionally combining the result.  That might make the carpet placement a little faster once you drew one step's worth.

[greebo]

1 hour ago, jonri said:

This sounds like something I could knock out in an evening or two using a Python script.  I've got no decent blocks of free time at the moment, but if nobody beats me to it I'll give it a go sometime.

That'd be awesome!

[jonri]

I threw together a really basic proof-of concept:

https://streamable.com/9m9vgd

None of the options in the dialog are actually hooked up yet, but it's just a matter of adding the math for them.  The actual brush creation seems to be working ok (although I had to get a little creative with the scripting to do it, which I should probably improve in the DR source code itself).