Getting into environmental modeling. Questions!

Larry

Hey guys,  going straight to the point.

When i create a material, lets say metal with some rust on it, if I apply that in different objects, does it stretch it, looking the same? Lets say I have metal houses, metal doors and stuff, if I apply the same material with all with the rust on it, will everything look the same? 

Do I have to create the rust in a different material and apply it on the surface?

And also the first project I will be making is an industrial inhabited area with bridges connecting the houses, and inbetween there would be a cliff, im thinking overall matrix style. So do I also model that huge cliff and the bottom as well? Do I somehow paint it instead? 

I really have no idea on how to execute this since its my first environment project. Any help greatly appreciated.

NoRank

You could use layered materials or masks to put that kind of info with a separated rust material. Still, keep in mind that this is not really that cheap as having one material. 

Larry

NoRank said:

You could use layered materials or masks to put that kind of info with a separated rust material. Still, keep in mind that this is not really that cheap as having one material. 

So the best solution to use as little memory as possible, would be to have 1 metal material with the rust, all in one, and apply it to everything with some offset to look different?

Eric Chadwick

Many material techniques explained here. I would recommend using vertex color to blend tiling textures for metal and rust, all in one shader. If you blend multiple materials that starts to get expensive to render in a game...
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/MultiTexture

See also
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Category:EnvironmentModularity