Aging textures

GB · Post by GB » Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:46 am

hi all,

just wondering if you guys could offer a suggestion for a duel map idea i had;

i wanted to make a map in which it is set in an old stone courtyard sorta thing, where as the round progresses, the textures get older and cracked more...i was going to use materialsquences to do this, but upon testing this out, ive found that these dont work in game, only in the texture browser...which is annoying.

the idea is too have the textures gradually age over about 15 seconds and then regain youth again about 30 seconds later. This cant be done using material sequences as ive just tried...any other suggestions?

cheers,
venalanatomica

neolith · Post by **neolith** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 12:25 pm

I uploaded a zip for you to take a look at: Download

In it you'll find an UT texture file and the one custom texture I created. Basically it works like this:

Custom texture -> panning over 15 seconds -> stretched by factor 50 -> use as alpha mask in a combiner

Make sure not to compress the custom texture though as its alpha channel will be too distorted even with DXTC5. That's why I kept it 64x64 so that it won't get too big (file size). Also I put the same data it has in its alpha channel into the RGB channel so that you can have a preview when working with the shaders (plus this doesn't add to the filesize, because it is uncompressed anyways).

This solution might not be the most simple, but I think it offers the most control.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

GB · Post by GB » Fri Dec 17, 2004 1:18 pm

thanks for the help - i have to admit thats pretty cool, and id have never thought of doing it that way.

is it ok if i use the textures u created as a base? im only asking cos im a bit of a n00b using photoshop, and alpha etc is somewhat complicated when uve only been using it for two weeks...

EDIT: i just tried some of these texture and they work well, but ive noticed they dont work with light on static meshes...they only get rendered on one of the textures using sunlight and the other loks birght as if unlit. oh well, at least it works on BSP surfaces..looks cool anyway.

im about 50% finished Duel-Arborea, an ageing map set in cambodia or some rainforest somewhere...

neolith · Post by **neolith** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 5:09 pm

venalanatomica wrote:is it ok if i use the textures u created as a base?

Sure, no problem.

EDIT: i just tried some of these texture and they work well, but ive noticed they dont work with light on static meshes...they only get rendered on one of the textures using sunlight and the other loks birght as if unlit. oh well, at least it works on BSP surfaces..looks cool anyway.

Hmmm... strange. I didn't try it ingame, but it's possible that I messed something up. Or it could be EPIC's fault and the combiner makes them self-illuminated.

Anyone have some info about this?

GB · Post by GB » Fri Dec 17, 2004 5:49 pm

thanks for the use of the textures.

i suggest u blame EPIC, since im gonna blame them for not implementing their new foliage generator....having to settle for static mesh leaves aint pretty.

The texts look cool, but i doubt anyone will even notice them...its such a small map (designed for very max of 4 players) and so detailed that most folk ll be paying attention to not being killed thanif the stonework is changing... im kinda worried cos i think im possibly the first creator of a tiny duel map that needs antiportals.....

MassChAoS · Post by **MassChAoS** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:02 pm

I think this might be possible another way, but I'm rather sketch on details how to do it... if MaterialSquence doesn't work, you could try triggered textures or projectors.

LoQtUS · Post by **LoQtUS** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 4:21 am

or you could try an animated texture, but thats way old school.

GB · Post by GB » Sat Dec 18, 2004 11:08 am

yeah....

animated textures are a bore. I think im just gonna c-section this idea and concntrate on finishing other levels, cos it aint as cool as id originally thought having done a quick test map...

Post by **Shadowstar** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 6:48 pm

I think MaterialSequences DO work, but they have to be static meshes.

Check out the blinking ads in Arena 2 for an example.

Corvus|CL · Post by **Corvus|CL** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 2:40 am

MaterialSequences on geometry DO work in game... Not only on static meshes but on BSP surfaces, too...

But there seems a bug with MaterialSequences on BSP surfaces:
The texture seems to be rendered with a really low scale, it looks okay in Ued, but ingame the MaterialSequence on BSP is tiled very much and has low dimensiona therefore you cant really see the material sequence because it looks like a one single colour texture. You must get really close to the texture to see that its sequencing.
You have to set the UV-Dimensions of the MaterialSequence in the BSP Surface Properties really high before it looks okay in game.
If the MaterialSequence has a siez of 512x512, try a scale of 512 in the Surface Properties and you will see that they work...

GB · Post by GB » Sun Dec 19, 2004 12:23 pm

thanks for the tips,

-ive just tried the bsp trick and it seems to work - howver, the material sequence thing is going to be very hard pn static meshes, because most mesh skins are shader or combiners, which dont really work taht well with material sequences...(shaders come up white, adn combiners onlky work if they are one level deep Ie not a combiner of a combiner)

hmmn. ill put htis one the backburner fora while and ill maybe screw about in my spare time between projects.

Marsfyre · Post by **Marsfyre** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 12:26 am

for the combiner thing, you need to put it into the diffuse slot of a shader and then it will light correctly

jeditobe1 · Post by **jeditobe1** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:34 am

woah.. hi mars.

Post by **Shadowstar** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 10:54 pm

Hey Mars is back!

Marsfyre · Post by **Marsfyre** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 7:42 am

hey guys

yes I'm back!