Transition texture creator - Tomb-Raider-Level-Editor/Tutorials GitHub Wiki

Written by teme9

Overview

What is it?

Transition texture creator is a Blender file that is ready set up for creating transition textures quickly. The user needs to have Blender (2.78+) installed and supply own Diffuse(color) and Heightmap in order to be able create transition textures. The transition texture blending is controlled by vertex paints that can be re-used with different Diffuse and Heightmaps. Blender file has been put together so that the user does not need to know much of Blender - everything is optimized for speed & quality.

Diffuse texture

image

Diffuse texture is your image file of your choice. This texture is the one that you would ordinarily use in TRLE to texture your environment.

Heightmap

image

Heightmap is basically a black and white image where white areas are high points while black areas are the deep parts. Heightmap can be created from the Diffuse texture using image editing programs. Heightmap can be edited from images, painted, generated or made from 3D modelling (using depth pass etc.).

Overview

image

Here's a quick look how the scene should look like when you open it. It might feel slightly overwhelming at first but once you try it out it will be quite simple!

3D-view / Object mode / vertex painting

image

This is the basic 3D view and its components. This view will also be used for vertex painting.

Hierarchy & Rendering

image

This part of the UI controls the object present in scene and how the output is rendered out from the program.

Material setup and blending adjustment

image

This is the part of the UI which controls the transition blending and what textures it includes.

Blending settings:

  • Blending Softness - how soft is the blending between the two textures. Larger values are more prone to error.
  • Shadow color - color of the shadow. The shadow color is multiplied on top of the textures.
  • Shadow1 Strength - strength of the shadow that draws on top of the texture 1
  • Shadow1 Falloff - How large is the radius of the shadow1.
  • Shadow2 Strength - see Shadow1 strength but for texture 1
  • Shadow2 Falloff - see Shadow1 Falloff but for texture 2
  • Additional shadow Strength - additional shadow that is exactly at the middle of the blend. Blending softness affects radius of this shadow.

Tutorials

Installing

  1. Download Blender: https://www.blender.org/download/

  2. Download necessary Blender file: Blender transition texture creator.zip

  3. Unzip the package from the link above to destination of your choice. Double-click to open the Blender file from the unzipped folder. That's it!

  4. Continue to next tutorial.

Creating your first transitions

First part of the tutorial series. This tutorial goes over the whole basic process using the transition texture creation inside Blender. In order to complete this tutorial you need to have your own diffuse and heightmap texture or you can try out with the ones that are supplied with the package also don't forget to download Blender!

Transition texture creation tutorial part 1

Creating 2x2 tiled textures and making new materials transition materials

This is the second tutorial in the series. This tutorial goes over how you can make transition between two different tiling settings and how you're able to create new materials.

Transition texture creation tutorial part 2

Basics of heightmap creation

image

Most simple way is to just blur and desaturate texture. That works in some cases very well. The method varies depending what kind of texture you have. It is also possible to paint one by hand. Basically only imagination is the limit here. Check the example PSD files if you're a photoshop user.

Downloads