prepare model for vertex color

Klo Works

hello guys,
I have read articles about vertex colors but I didn't find on how to prepare the model for vertex color.

what I know is that I need to avoid tri as possible and make it quads and equal space. 
but what I am afraid is I end up adding too many polygons. 
so what are the workflow or the good way to prepare the model especially on the props side?

and what if I use masking? like after I model a door I add mask map which represents the dirt, moss or snow rather than the vertex color is that ok or expensive?

Vailias

Uh, not sure why this "avoid tris" thing is so persistent but its thoroughly false.  Your model WILL be in tris in the engine. Period.

It also sounds like you're not quite clear on what vertex color is. 
Its simply additional color information stored with each vertex of the model.  So rather than just storing XYZ+UVW+NORMAL+TANGENT  you also store XYZ+UVW+NORMAL+TANGENT+RGBA. 

You can utilize that extra data for effects in the game. The reason its used for blending things like terrain effects is that the extra RGBA data is relatively small compared to texture data, simply because there are fewer vertices in your mesh than there are pixels in an average texture. 

For an asset like a door I'd likely recommend texture based masking, unless you REALLY want to use vertex color masking as an exercise or something.  You'll not get the same level of fidelity with vertex colors without making the mesh unnecessarily dense.

If you are going to use vertex color for material masking and blending as an exercise, think about where you'll need the most fine control and add extra verts (or loops of polys, whatever) in those locations. 

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Klo Works

TeriyakiStyle said:

why don't you just try it - get it set up in ue4 or whatever and go to town on some meshes you will quickly learn why evenly spaced verts with reasonable density is preferred for this application.

Also your portfolio link in your sig links to someone else it's weird.  

I fix the link thanks, dunno why this  happen xS
yeah, I try it, but I was thinking that I can add the map as a masking and use moss material on the door so I can control the moss based on my mask map rather doing it as vertex color.


 the vertex color can't act well because of my topology. but I can do it in a different way by using masking.
like this:


I add my door material + Moss material and blend with my mask so the moss will appear at the white area. so later I can change the moss to snow or dirt depends on the environment.

but in the efficient way which one is better and cheap for the engine?
the vertex way or masking that what I need to know.
the programmer said he wants it with vertex but dunno if this way is better or not.

RyanB

You want your polygons to be in an even distribution like a grid as much as possible.  Avoid long thin triangles.

Polys should look like this for vertex lighting/colour.  You can use fewer polys than this, but try and make them as square as possible.  What you really want is equilateral triangles.


Using verts will save you a texture lookup at the cost of passing the vertex colour into the fragment shader.  It shoud be cheaper.  But since you will probably be up close to the door, a texture mask will probably hold up better.  Using a normal map to mask the snow so it is only on surfaces facing up would make sense.