Animating textures on objects - Tomb-Raider-Level-Editor/Tutorials GitHub Wiki

Written by Lwmte

Since version 1.3.2, Tomb Editor supports animated textures on imported geometry, moveables and static meshes (both merged and unmerged). The feature is of no big surprise since meta2tr supported it for ages, but TE uses a bit different and easier workflow for that:

Step 1. Make animated sequence in Tomb Editor, as usual. Just make your ordinary animated texture sequence and keep it in project, even if you're not planning to use it directly in rooms.

Step 2. Apply texture which is similar to any frame from the sequence in any 3D editing program of your choice. Main rule here - you can apply any frame from the sequence, but the texture must be visually the very same frame! You can even use different image file, but width, height and pixel data of applied frame must perfectly match! It's important, because TE will scan every face in your custom geometry, static or object to find visual match for any frame in any animation from your project. For the same reason, you can't use lossy image formats like JPG or GIF and expect it to work, because actual image data will be compressed and may change.

If you are having troubles setting exact texture coordinates in Blender, 3dsmax, strpix or any other software, there is a simple trick to preserve animated frame. Just make dummy room, texture it with your animation, export it and use faces with applied animation frames as reference. You can transform faces as you want, but as long as animation frame dimensions remain the same, it will be recognized by TE. It means that you can't subdivide faces with applied animation, you must think of other methods to adapt your texture for your custom geometry.

Step 3. Save and import your custom 3D file either as imported geometry in Tomb Editor or in WadTool as static mesh or moveable mesh. All three will work correctly! As long as you keep your animation in your project and texture file intact, animations will be recognized for all types of objects.

Small FAQ:

Q: What if I want to make changes to my image file with animations? A: You can freely edit your image files with animations, as long as you don't touch already existing animated textures! If you modify them in any way, TE won't be able to recognize them because pixel data won't be the same anymore. However, there is one exception, which is imported geometry: if you're using same texture directly in TE and as material for your 3D file, you can edit animations as you want and they will still be recognized!

Q: I made long animation and applied it, now tomb4.exe crashes on me! A: If you're using TRNG, it's the case. Remember that for some reason TRNG introduced a limit of 16 frames after reaching which game will crash. It doesn't happen with vanilla or TREPped tomb4.

Q: What if I want to apply static frame without animation from my anim set somewhere? A: For rooms, it will work if you will just duplicate animated frame in texture map and apply it separately as ordinary texture. For objects, it won't work, because TE will visually recognize it as animated in any case. So you need to slightly modify your pixel data (editing single pixel or slighly brushing with opacity around 5% will be enough).

Q: How can I turn this feature off? A: Go to Level Settings -> Misc and untick "Map animated textures" checkbox.

BONUS: This feature also allows you to make nifty trick to apply bumpmapped textures to objects, statics and imported geometry. Make a dummy animated sequence in TE with single bumpmapped tile which you want to appear on your objects. Duplicate the same tile, so your dummy animation consists of 2 same frames, otherwise animation sequence will be filtered out by TE. Now apply bumpmapped tile in the same way as described above. TE should recognize the tile and apply bumpmapping to it too.