Terrain Diffuse Texture and Details

[Guest shane.ploenges]

Hi everybody!

I'm creating a new Terrain tile with a diffuse texture which contains colors - grass, stones, etc. When I'm painting details over the surfaces it ends up quite dark and honestly not what I'm expecting.

Now the question:

1. Can I come up with a small totally grey diffuse texture for may terrain and just paint every surface with details?

2. Is it bad for performace and details only supposed to be on very few of surfaces?

3. If it is bad how do I fight with this darkening?

 

The screenshot is attached. The light parts - large diffuse texture, the dark parts - details (grass), the lines - it is the intended artefact from the mask texture, so when the mask texture is imported the parts get assigned to the surfaces.

 

Thanks for any input in advance.

[Guest shane.ploenges]

Does not seem like I've attached the file... forgot to push 'Attach This File' button.

[manguste]

If diffuse color would not have been taken into account, you'd end up with the same looking grass everywhere - without variation at all. Blending diffuse and detail colors is actually a MUCH more flexible approach, because it easily allows to have a color variety across the terrain. Right now you can create with the same detail material grass that is green in one part of terrain and yellowish in another. The number of materials per surface is limited to 4, so having different look is also more convenient in the result. Just keep in mind when you start to create a diffuse texture that it will modulate the detail color.

 

1. Yes, you sure can (the colors will be blended anyway). It is still better to take you time and create a good diffuse for a base.

2. The "less is better" principle works here. But the number of details is not critical, because they are rendered only on the closest LODs (0-4).

3. Try out changing the painting colors slightly or different brush modes.

[frustum]

I have added buttons for initial diffuse and mask texture creation.

[Guest shane.ploenges]

If diffuse color would not have been taken into account, you'd end up with the same looking grass everywhere - without variation at all. Blending diffuse and detail colors is actually a MUCH more flexible approach, because it easily allows to have a color variety across the terrain. Right now you can create with the same detail material grass that is green in one part of terrain and yellowish in another. The number of materials per surface is limited to 4, so having different look is also more convenient in the result. Just keep in mind when you start to create a diffuse texture that it will modulate the detail color.

 

1. Yes, you sure can (the colors will be blended anyway). It is still better to take you time and create a good diffuse for a base.

2. The "less is better" principle works here. But the number of details is not critical, because they are rendered only on the closest LODs (0-4).

3. Try out changing the painting colors slightly or different brush modes.

 

Thanks for the advice. I have understood after some time that, if I just paint the 'details' the currently selected 'diffuse' color is also being painted. This is a catch. There is a 'diffuse+detail' brush for that, so I didn't expect 'details' brush painting color as well (especially when the color control is hidden).

 

Is it right to assume that the base diffuse need not to be huge - you just can have a relatively small texture to express the general color of the surface... Because we don't have a proper tool for creation of a diffuse texture at the moment.

 

Thanks for adding the buttons - now it should be less confusing to do 'terraining'. :blink: