Texture alignment tool? Pleaseeeee
fmpone
Join Date: 2011-07-05 Member: 108086Members, Squad Five Blue
Join Date: 2011-07-05 Member: 108086Members, Squad Five Blue
Hey guys. I know this is more on the technical end.....
but the editor could desperately, desperately use a texture alignment tool. Here's an example of why:
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/E0Ulc.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
In the above pictured scene are curved pieces of architecture, which are at present a nightmare for mappers. Why?
Misaligned textures on curved spaces do not light seamlessly, so mappers are either forced to accept ugly curves, or go through a painstaking process which I will hereafter describe: poking the texture along one pixel, one horrible miserable pixel at a time, which is even worse when you have blown the scale of a texture up to, as in my case, thousands of pixels (forgive my ignorance of exact technical lingo.) you pluck the texture along for ONE face at a time, but some curves have 16 or more faces, for a nice curve. The end result? <b>That room pictured above will take me DAYS to texture properly, when with a texture alignment tool, it would take MINUTES. And during this whole awful period, I WILL be contemplating unspeakable crimes...</b>
I hope you now understand why I believe this should be a 100% top priority to implement. You guys love your custom mappers, riiiiiight? :P
but the editor could desperately, desperately use a texture alignment tool. Here's an example of why:
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/E0Ulc.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
In the above pictured scene are curved pieces of architecture, which are at present a nightmare for mappers. Why?
Misaligned textures on curved spaces do not light seamlessly, so mappers are either forced to accept ugly curves, or go through a painstaking process which I will hereafter describe: poking the texture along one pixel, one horrible miserable pixel at a time, which is even worse when you have blown the scale of a texture up to, as in my case, thousands of pixels (forgive my ignorance of exact technical lingo.) you pluck the texture along for ONE face at a time, but some curves have 16 or more faces, for a nice curve. The end result? <b>That room pictured above will take me DAYS to texture properly, when with a texture alignment tool, it would take MINUTES. And during this whole awful period, I WILL be contemplating unspeakable crimes...</b>
I hope you now understand why I believe this should be a 100% top priority to implement. You guys love your custom mappers, riiiiiight? :P
Comments
-Creating the curves with extrusion shown in my tutorial, so the correct angle of each texture is used.
-Using math to determine correct angles
-Getting experience and memorizing the angles for x-pieces curves
-Copying texture attributes (angles) to nearby curves with the same shape and amount of pieces: Alt+left click on the untextured face after selecting the properly textured face (paint tool selected!)
-If you flip curved faces changing the angles from - to + or vice versa almost always does the trick, when texture lock doesnt work properly
-You can rotate by 180° around x or y instead of flipping curves to maintain correct angles with texture lock
-Using textures and alignments that can easily be fixed with the 6 texture alignment buttons (center or fit for instance)
-Creating the curves with extrusion shown in my tutorial, so the correct angle of each texture is used.
-Using math to determine correct angles
-Getting experience and memorizing the angles for x-pieces curves
-Copying texture attributes (angles) to nearby curves with the same shape and amount of pieces: Alt+left click on the untextured face after selecting the properly textured face (paint tool selected!)
-If you flip curved faces changing the angles from - to + or vice versa almost always does the trick, when texture lock doesnt work properly
-You can rotate by 180° around x or y instead of flipping curves to maintain correct angles with texture lock
-Using textures and alignments that can easily be fixed with the 6 texture alignment buttons (center or fit for instance)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thank you, and much respect for summit. I was aware of most of the techniques you posted, although I want to examine some of them in more specificity tomorrow. I think you would agree, though, one can feel the restraint, and with this simple fix spark will no longer lack a tool that an astoundingly dated editor such as hammer has had for years. Most importantly, it will cut a few hours out of long, several hundred hour map projects, and is probably the last such simple fix which I can imagine doing so.
P.S. There was some guy who complained loudly about a month ago for a background color fix for the editor. It was soon fixed. For better or for worse, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Often the UW devs will fix issues that they feel are important to the community. So, don't give up if it doesn't get fixed right away. Keep it in the minds of those who can do something about it.
P.S. There was some guy who complained loudly about a month ago for a background color fix for the editor. It was soon fixed. For better or for worse, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Often the UW devs will fix issues that they feel are important to the community. So, don't give up if it doesn't get fixed right away. Keep it in the minds of those who can do something about it.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's why they call me Squeaky W. Heel
sexy.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
hot damn, I f***ing love this scene, I really love the lighting you placed in the map (it <i>is</i> your map right?) most if not all NS2 maps should have similar lighting, gives skulks places to hide.
and I love the open spaces, gives me a feeling of grandeur like if your map is not an enclosed space since the room fades into eternal darkness. very good, If it weren't for my terrible impatience I would look at the map threads and drool over them.
now shut up and keep working on it.