Modelling and Texturing a Game Level

Cyph3r

So I need to create a level for an Iphone game. It'll just be a test level and I need to make an island. Here's the top down view:



Green for grass, blue for water and the other bits are beach.

So how would be the best way to go about modelling this?

And then what about texturing? I imagine i'll have 3 base tiling textures; grass, rock cliff edge (for around the edge) and the beach sand texture. How would I apply those textures to the mesh in the right area?

And I'd also want another texture for like car tracks, id apply that as a decal right? How do i do that?

i really need help and definate answers here, please.

Thanks

Lamont

To do the different areas depends on what the engine you are using supports. Can it do blended textures? If so, how do you control it? What app are you using? If it can't do blended textures, then you are going to have to fake it by cutting up the mesh by the different areas.

The road can be a mesh on top of the terrain, cut away the polys underneath to prevent flashing. Blend the edges into the dirt/grass/sand.

You can do the entire terrain as an elevation map. Depending on the app you are using, apply it as a deformation and there you go.

gannonroader

really only a 10 minute job. Fairly straight forward, but to go into describing how to do everything would take longer than actually doing it. Your best bet is to look for tutorials on the following.

Deformation maps (black and white images, black being flight, and white being elevated, to extrude the geometry out)

UV Texturing....now uv's can be extremely complicated, but in your case, should be really easy.

learning those 2 things should set you straight.

the water would just be a plane with a texture of water on it.

Hope that helps.

Zotter

What engine are you using? I know it's iphone bust must engines come with a terrain maker were you can just paint the vertices the green or brown texture.

A lot of it depends on the engine.

Lamont

gannonroader wrote: »

the water would just be a plane with a texture of water on it.

Make sure the plane is tessellated enough where triangles don't clip out.

Ghostscape

so you need to make a test level for an iPhone game, but you don't know how to 3d model?

What software are you using? Which iPhone engine? Does it support decal maps in a second UV channel?

edit: I'm not trying to be rude here but I don't understand - you don't know how to apply multiple textures to an object, or tile a texture, or create the geometry for the island? I don't see what the catch is there considering on your portfolio you've got plenty of textured assets?

Lamont

Ghostscape wrote: »

I don't see what the catch is there considering on your portfolio you've got plenty of textured assets?

That's what has me wondering too. I thought about how to make my first post...

renderhjs

just get started, and don't act like a chicken. Use Google to get your answers like:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=3d+max+heightmap+tutorial+landscape+plane+displace+modifier+-shop+-buy+-dvd
boot up your 3d application and get started

Cyph3r

Erm its just i dont get how to properly apply the multiple textures and blend them together.

ParoXum

use the old school way:

- One grass tiling texture
- One sand tiling texture
- One Grass to Sand tiling horizontally texture.

That's all, model the terrain and uvmap the blends where they need to be. If you dont understand, read again what Renderhjs wrote above.

ImSlightlyBored

renderhjs wrote: »

just get started, and don't act like a chicken. Use Google to get your answers like:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=3d+max+heightmap+tutorial+landscape+plane+displace+modifier+-shop+-buy+-dvd
boot up your 3d application and get started

Did you mean: 3d max height map tutorial landscape plane displace modifier -shop -buy -dvd

Cyph3r

Right, to you guys im probably gonna sound like a complete idiot, but, I've done the model, it came out nice i think, and ive got a 128x tile grass texture, and a 128x tile dirt/sand texture, and I still cant figure out how the hell im supposed to get each texture to go on the parts i want them to....

danr

use a computer. Computers are ace. Some of them are better than others, so use a good one.

... all that said, what bloody 3D software are you actually using?

Cyph3r

im usin 3ds max, and sorry if this all seems simple to you, but ive never really understood this aspect of 3d, im sure once i get it, itll be insanely obvious.

danr

at its most basic level, you need to create a material with a bitmap in the diffuse slot, and then assign that material to a polygon.

It gets more complicated when you start embellishing on that single diffuse bitmap ... and these days people WILL describe more than you need right now, so whatever anyone tells you, concentrate on fully understanding that single most basic step.

and no i'm not going to explain the first step for you cos i haven't got max in front of me and its such an ingrained thing i haven't got the first clue what things are actually called. Hit f1.

(Some people will say read the fucking manual, but as we all know, few people of a certain age and a certain educational status have never ever even SEEN a 3ds max manual)

Cyph3r

i think either i am being massively retarded here, or im being misunderstood. I mean i know how to apply a texture onto a mesh, ive done loads of textured pieces. But this is different.

THis is what i mean

danr

you mean you want to apply two different textures to a single object?

f1 > multi-sub object

(okay. Look. Anyone who's worked with me will probably now be shouting at their monitors : what the hell you fucking hypocrite, telling people to create a multi-sub when you've spent years desperately screaming against people creating these when they don't fully understand the knock on effects. Well, yes, there are infuriating knock on effects of creating a multi-sub that propogate out into the working environment of games that use Max as their priimary level editor. But it's too late in the day, literally, to get into this now. Search multi-sub object)

okno

make a texture with 1, 2 and 3 (grass, blend and sand) then when you unwrap the mesh, put each face on each corresponding part of the texture. Make sure they are tileable

renderhjs

or use vertex color channel blending to blend 2 different tiling textures, its called vertex blending

here is a tutorial on how to apply it in max:
http://www.bakdesign.net/tm/tutorial/3dsmax_tutorial.html
most engines these days support it

Cyph3r

yay finally aswers i understand, cheers guys.

Cyph3r

So Im using vertex paint and ive got abit done, but im gettin weird lines on the mesh:

see what i mean? I thought it was unwelded verts or problems with the uv but both are fine. whats wrong?

Eric Chadwick

That's mip bleeding. The UVs are too close to the edges of your texture, so on the green end it is sampling a bit of the tan side, and vice versa. You need to shrink the UVs on the axis that isn't tiling. Also you'll need to make green edge tile with the green-only texture, but make it tile a few pixels in, where your UV has been scaled down to. Try 4 pixels in, see how it works.

Also, it's best to get your model into the game engine as soon as possible... you need to see if the engine has the same problem or not. What you see in the Max viewport or the Max render is not what you'll see on the iphone.

Cyph3r

EricChadwick wrote: »

That's mip bleeding. The UVs are too close to the edges of your texture, so on the green end it is sampling a bit of the tan side, and vice versa. You need to shrink the UVs on the axis that isn't tiling. Also you'll need to make green edge tile with the green-only texture, but make it tile a few pixels in, where your UV has been scaled down to. Try 4 pixels in, see how it works.

Also, it's best to get your model into the game engine as soon as possible... you need to see if the engine has the same problem or not. What you see in the Max viewport or the Max render is not what you'll see on the iphone.

Ah right, well i was playing around with the vertex paint till i read your reply, and i fixed the problem by instead of painting pure white 255,255,255 or pure black 0,0,0 i painted 254,254,254 for white and 1,1,1 for black and it fixed the problem. S:

Mark Dygert

You're missing the beaches? Shouldn't those be raised up also? Your island isn't a dog bone, but a mangled box. Considering there might be more on this island than just grass you might want to start thinking about optimization.
Since you're basing your blending on verts, how you optimize it, drastically effects how your textures blend.

Also the problem of texture bleeding is probably going to come up again later, probably when your textures get down sized for the final game or if the engine down sizes them when you zoom out away from the island. I'd do as Eric suggested and adjust your UV's to allow some padding. It's what all the cool kids do...

renderhjs

yup use retopo tools to build a new optimized mesh upon your bold one. Check out this free script to do so:
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/max-retopo

Cyph3r

renderhjs wrote: »

yup use retopo tools to build a new optimized mesh upon your bold one. Check out this free script to do so:
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/max-retopo

I just tried to use that script but i cant get it to work how i need it to.

renderhjs

1.) download
2.) unzip with winrar
3.) put the "Max_Retopo.mse" file into any folder
4.) go to 3dsmax
5.) hit F11 (max script listener)
6.) go within that listener file > run script
7.) select that "Max_Retopo.mse" and hit open or run
8.) you should see the floater

thats one way to do it

Cyph3r

yeah i know how to get it to open, but it doesnt do what the youtube videos show.

renderhjs

you are not very skilled at asking questions, I'll give you that.

so maybe you need a little bit more time to learn the tool? The way it works for me:
- 1st button click and select your high poly (the one you want to snap on)
- now create a new poly model (like a plane, then right click convert to editable poly)
- 2nd button click and now select that new poly model (i.e the plane)
- in max select the new poly model and go into some sub mode (i.e vertex mode [1] key)
- now in the retopo floater click active

each operation you do now should snap on the high poly model, like extrude, move, bevel, chamfer ....

Cyph3r

renderhjs wrote: »

you are not very skilled at asking questions, I'll give you that.

so maybe you need a little bit more time to learn the tool? The way it works for me:
- 1st button click and select your high poly (the one you want to snap on)
- now create a new poly model (like a plane, then right click convert to editable poly)
- 2nd button click and now select that new poly model (i.e the plane)
- in max select the new poly model and go into some sub mode (i.e vertex mode [1] key)
- now in the retopo floater click active

each operation you do now should snap on the high poly model, like extrude, move, bevel, chamfer ....

Sorry im tired and this is starting to annoy me.

And ahh right cheers that makes sense, i appreciate the help renderhjs

Cyph3r

right it seemed like it was working, but the low poly just collapses entirely, rather than forming around the high poly, any idea why?