[Tutorial] Reducing seams and texture repetition - Dissertation work
polycounter lvl 12
Hey everyone, as a part of my dissertation, I've been working for the past few weeks on an environment that you can find here.
My dissertation deals with reducing seams and texture repetition in lowpoly game environments and I have finally finished a tutorial that documents the methods that I used to make my previous environment. Here's the link to the site.
This tutorial is also a part of my project but to finish my project report succesfully, I will need to hear your feedback
All I am asking you for is to have a look at it and give me your thoughts on the usability of the page and the quality of the methods that I had documented. Any other thoughts will also be really appreciated.
While it may be a bit basic at the moment, don't pull any punches. Your comments will help me improve it and I will be sure to continue working both on the tutorial and the environment even after my project is complete.
Thanks!
My dissertation deals with reducing seams and texture repetition in lowpoly game environments and I have finally finished a tutorial that documents the methods that I used to make my previous environment. Here's the link to the site.
This tutorial is also a part of my project but to finish my project report succesfully, I will need to hear your feedback
All I am asking you for is to have a look at it and give me your thoughts on the usability of the page and the quality of the methods that I had documented. Any other thoughts will also be really appreciated.While it may be a bit basic at the moment, don't pull any punches. Your comments will help me improve it and I will be sure to continue working both on the tutorial and the environment even after my project is complete.
Thanks!
Replies
Thanks for the tutorial!
I learn a lot with your tutorial, but I tried to use vertex alpha painted in 3dsmax to make shading before exporting to UDK but when I'm in UDK I don't see the effects of my vertex color. Can you show a screen on how you use it ? I think you use a vertex color node but well I can't figure out how to connect it.
When you import your mesh into UDK, if it's already there and being overwritten, make sure you scroll to the bottom of the properties window and turn on "Replace Vertex Colors".
Noise: Warren Marshal is right, you might need to tick the "Replace Vertex Colors" setting. However, to see vertex colour/alpha on your mesh you will also need to add a Vertex Color node to the material and multiply it either by your Diffuse or by the output of the Lerp node (assuming you are blending between two textures or more).
However, if you want to control the colour/brightness of the areas painted with Vertex Alpha then I suggest you use the Vertex Node as a mask (with the Lerp node) and use it to blend between your diffuse texture and the same diffuse multiplied by a Vector Parameter. This will give you more control over the result.
I will try to expand the Vertex Colour section and add screenshots of the material network.
I hope that helps
Additionally, and i guess this actually would fit better in your preview thread, you could use that fancy b/w texture --> normalmap node in UDK for the grass to make it feel more separated from the dirt. Could be cool, and create allot of new problems :P
If this is a graded thing there's a small grammatical error after the 'adjusting texture repetition' image.
"To avoid that, you might want keeping the low-frequency details in your textures evenly distributed. Keep in mind that adjusting your textures is not an end all solution to the problem. In fact, reducing the contrast too much, or keeping the size of the details too even will result in textures that are either not realistic, or simply boring to look at."
Just a heads up if your professors are looking for anything to nitpick
Good Job
From the wiki. MigNormalTools
Nice stuff tea. I tried out that worldAlignedTexture like day before yesterday and kept spitting out error for float4 to float3 (or something like that) will try again and hopefully it works. Also the tip about sloped edges is awesome along with the vertex ao stuff!
Just one small tip: You can easily paint vertex colors using the vertex paint modifier. I find it much easier than assigning the colors by hand.
And it's also a bit weird to use vertex "alpha" for darkening corners. Vertex alpha is used for transparency on some engines/shaders.
sltrOlsson: Thanks! I'm using custom lighting to remove differences in shading between the terrain and meshes that intersect with it. If I were to blend in only the grass texture I would still end up with many seams. I will add some comparisons later on. Thanks for the mentioning that function. I'm not sure if it would work with my current setup, but I will be reworking this material to get some lighting in there.
onionhead_o: I haven't had a chance to use this method for HP, but it should work without any problems. However, as far as I'm aware your bevels will look tighter than they normally would. I can't find the post, but I remember EQ mentioning that before.
hathol, ZeroCartin: Thanks guys. Most of the tips should transfer quite easily. Making similar materials could be challenging but I know next to nothing about the material editor in Unity, so it's difficult for me to say.
Progg: Thanks for the heads up
haiddasalami: Thanks! Are you trying to plug Texture Parameters (or Texture Samples) into the WolrdAlignedTexture? If yes, then you have to use Texture Objects instead; I believe I had encountered the same error when I tried using Texture Parameters instead. I will try this out and add it to the tutorial.
chrisavigni, Leodido, ikblue, BlvdNights: Thanks a lot guys
Minos: Thanks! I'm not a huge fan of the vertex paint modifier (I used to experience major slowdowns on 2012) and I find it quicker and more precise to operate on vert loops. It comes down to a personal preference of course, and I will have to add a mention of Vertex Paint modifier to the tut
Speaking of vertex alpha, thanks for pointing that out. Generally I rely on a single master material, so for the sake of keeping things nice and tidy I use vertex Alpha for AO/darkening and the RGB channels of Vertex Colour as masks for texture blending. Plus, by keeping AO in the Alpha I can make sure that I don't paint over it by mistake. By default Alpha is disabled in the Mesh Paint window.
But it is as you say; CryEngine for one uses Vertex Colour for AO and Alpha for masks/transparency. I should emphisize that it's up to people to choose the channel they want.