I have been experimenting with Ultimate Unwrap 3D (previously LithUnwrap) for texturing my 3D models, and read all the tutorials, and there are some things I have seen 3D games do that I can't understand how to go about accomplishing them using Ultimate Unwrap 3D, or any texturing software for that matter. All these things I have seen in the N64 game “Banjo Kazooie” so if you have seen this game or simliar 3D games, it will help you understand what I’m asking: - How to skew/distort the UV mapping to fit strangly shaped walls, such as slopes - How to make textures blend into one another - Fake shadows (hard edges, not nessecarily static lighting) That is my own interpretation of whats going on, so here are some explanations of the above; what I've actually seen that I want to replicate: “Skewing” the textures to fit faces that aren’t perfectly square, eg. Imagine a hallway with a slimey floor and brick walls. Your wall texture has a repeated brick texture but at the bottom, the texture is different (another thing I don’t' know how to do) and it shows the slime creaping up into the bricks along where it meets the floor, making a nice transition between the wall and the floor. Imagine the hallway slopeing upward, you would want the texture to slope upward too, so it matched up with the floor and ceiling texture correctly, etc. “Texture blending” where you might have a stone path on the ground, but it winds and twists naturally and the grass floor blends softly with the edges of the path. Or you have a forest clearing, and the leafy texture on the ground fades into a rock texture in the middle of the clearing. “Fake shadows” – I have seen some structures casting hard edged, semi transparent shadows on the ground. The hard edges make me think they’ve used polygons to do it or something, as opposed to static lights/shadows, also not all the structures cast these shadows, which is another thing that makes me think they've done them manually. You can see the normal ground textures underneath the shadow. [edited by - Domarius on February 19, 2003 1:17:22 AM] [edited by - Domarius on February 19, 2003 1:18:11 AM]

<Imagine the hallway slopeing upward, you would want the texture to slope upward too, so it matched up with the floor and ceiling texture correctly, etc.>>

If you have surfaces that arent lying flat in either the x,y, or z planes, you have to use move those uv''s manually so they lay flat. I am unfamiliar with the software you are using, but generally when you are editing uv''s you pick area''s that are most flat and then make your projection, then the areas that aren''t perfect [areas that will cause stretching etc.] you have to move those uv''s out manually. As for the blend between the brick and slime textures, see below.

<<“Texture blending” where you might have a stone path on the ground, but it winds and twists naturally and the grass floor blends softly with the edges of the path. Or you have a forest clearing, and the leafy texture on the ground fades into a rock texture in the middle of the clearing.>>

to make the blend between the two textures you must do this: Where the road meets the rock, grass or whatever; overlap the polygons so that a strip of gras lays over the strip of road. Texture both surfaces seperately, but at the edge of the grass/rock/whatever - use vertex alpha transparency. This is where you give a vertex a value between 0-1 [black-white] and it controls that vertex''s transparency. This is how you get the smooth blend between textures. As for the shadows, you are on the right track already. You make some polys and place them where your shadow would go, then you use vertex colors to make them black, and then as before, assign the vertices an alpha value which makes them transparent.

I hope this helps a little or at least points you in the correct direction.

Mayaman, you''re the man. Ever since I''ved posted that I''ve been looking in other forums for the answers. I wonder how you found this post; I''d given up on it (but I got the email notification).

> I hope this helps a little or at least points you in the correct direction.

Hey, at I actually have a direction to go in now I just have to look into vertex transparency features for Jamagic''s 3D engine(www.clickteam.com).
I worked out the procedure for skewing the textures properly in Ultimate Unwrap 3D earlier, but I would like to know;

What software package/s do you use to make video game levels, or what can you recommend?
I''m especially interested to know what you use for UV editing; I thought Ultimate Unwrap3D (previously LithUnwrap) was the de facto standard.

I have another question now as well; if I want a texture to change, does that require new geometry? I''ve seen walls in 3D games that have a texture at the bottom that shows metal with slime at the bottom, but above that, the texture repeats as a plain metal texture, without slime on it. So even though the wall is entirely flat, would the bottom of the wall have to be split into another set of polygons just so they can be textured differently?
Similarly, if I have a perfectly square flat wall, (2 polys) want to have a door texture in the middle of a plain flat wall, will I have to split the wall into smaller sections to make a small set of polys to put the door texture on? I suppose I could float a small square in front of the wall and texture that, but I''ve heard of the term "decal" in 3D, and I think it means to put a texture on a surface at some point without having to split it into smaller polys. Is this true? How do video games usually do this?

Some skinmapping tuts

http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/cottages/pixelated/three.shtml

For changing textures you can do 2 things.
Either have 2 versions of the texture, 1 with a simple wall and another with a door painted on it, or yes, break down the wall and give the door it''s own polys and a separate door texture.

Same with the slime, either have another version of the texture with that on it or split up the wall.
If the wall isn''t too high and only tiles horizontally it shouldn''t be a problem to paint 1 texture with all the stuff you want on it. If the wall is to high and makes the texture tile vertically too then you usually have to split up the wall, so you can use 2 different textures, one for the bottom with misc details and another clean one to put on top.

Decals are usually use for blood splats/trails and bullet holes ...or those black spots you get from shooting with a laser on a wall ingame ...or from explosions. That''s the most common use. You usually don''t use it to texture a level, but i guess it depends on how the engine in question uses and blends them with the rest.

Thanks, that cleared up a lot.
Though the tutorials are focused on character mapping, and I''m looking for stuff focused on level mapping (using the same textures across different files without making copies, tiling them properly, etc) but the tutorials show the use of 3DS for mapping, which actually I also wanted to know about.

Keep watch of this thread Domarius, I will make a tutorial for you to show you how I do some things which you might find informative. Its Wednesday at around 9:30 pacific time. I will have a tutorial for you by the weekend and ill post it here in this thread.

-jrs

Mayaman,

I think that be a really helpuful resource. I can''t wait myself. I''ve also been looking for a similar tutorial on mapping large game levels in 3d programs such as max/maya. Example would be something in the scale of ratchet and clank levels.

John

For levels you just need tiling textures, and instead of unwrapped parts you''d use cube mapping, apply a texture and it will tile without distorsion as often as needed.

I am waiting with baited breath.


I think the video game development community really needs something like this. I have only seen one other level mapping tute myself, and it was pretty average. It didn''t even tell you how to get the tiled textures to line up properly at the edges of polys/surfaces.