Thanks for the responses everyone. I am a little confused about some of the talk about using decals. The decals I have dealt with are usually just textures that are projected onto 3D surfaces in the scene. The problem with our engine is that the decal is represented by a single node in space so I have to move that node…
I would worry about a single polygon that is 300x300 meters, in general polygons that are so large that they can extend far beyond the view frustrum are not recommended. Doing it as one giant decal sounds like a horrible idea, would need to be a gigantic texture. I would definately opt for the brute force polygon / decal…
decals is the way to go if its supposed to be rough jaggy edges paint if it can be solid cut in real geometry and save the over draw ! a second uv set doesn't sound like it makes sense
You could use splines with rectangular mode on and your decal textures applied. Should be pretty easy to adjust your texture coordinates using this method with real world mapping (if you are a max user that is). Seems like the cheapest and quickest way to me.
I'm not sure I understand what the difference between method 1 (decals) and 3 (polygons) is? If you're going to be close, and it's not something simple, like a tiling line, use decals (polygons for the lines). Give them a chipped paint alpha, and lay them out however you like. Alternate methods I can think of: 1) 1 giant…
I have a large paved area that consists of a single polygon with a tiling texture. I need to apply some pretty dynamic lines like the kind you would find on an airport runway. These lines will overlap, form various patterns, and be different colors. Some of these lines will be continuous through out the entire 300x300…
You might think that polies floating just above a surface would give all sorts of problems, but it's done in every scene of every game (well, almost). You need to have a no-z-write kind of flag, to keep it from z-fighting. And unless your game is toy based and you're REALLY close to the ground, as long as you float it…
For paint lines on tarmac that a player can get close to, you'll definitely want to go decals with alpha. The resolution won't hold up in a large mask for a huge area like that, and I take it that different areas need different types of lines meaning tiling would be difficult. Solid geometry planes or cuts just looks too…