Grey Goo Wiki
Register
Advertisement

The functionality of the Texture Tab in the Terrain Editor

Texture Tab[]

The texture tab allows the user to paint textures onto the environmental terrain. Texture sets, specific materials, brushes, and cliff texture settings can be altered here.

To place a texture material on the map, select the desired texture from the Texture Set window and Left-Click the Terrain. To use the Cliff Brush, select it from the dropdown menu in the “Brush Style” section and select the first texture in a series of matching textures, then Left-click the the terrain to apply the material(s).

Tip: When attempting to create natural looking terrain, use a small radius leveling brush with small height variations throughout an area prior to using the texture brush.

Tip: The Cliff Healing Brush is useful for situations where preexisting cliff terrain has been re-adjusted or re-shaped and requires its cliff terrain textures to be recalculated without disrupting any surrounding or layered textures that are not part of that cliff brush.

  • Texture Set – Displays the currently loaded textures, with the selected texture outlined in green. These textures can be saved with the Biome, but the user can alter them individually in the Material settings below this section.
    • Load/Save – Loads and saves a texture set for use.
    • Replace – Upon activation, prompts the user for confirmation. The first texture selected (must not be currently selected) after the prompt will be the texture you wish to replace. The second texture you select will be the texture which replaces all instances of the first texture currently on the terrain. Replaced textures are still preserved in the Texture palette for later use.
    • Terrain Diffuse Intensity – Alters the intensity with which the diffuse settings impact the terrain.
    • Terrain Specular Intensity – Alters the intensity with which the terrain expresses its specular settings.
  • Material Settings
    • Texture Path – When selected, allows the user to specify which texture file will be used for that material.
    • Bump Texture – When selected, allows the user to specify which file will be used to render the material’s bump texture.
    • Spec Texture – When selected, allows the user to specify which file will be used to render the material’s specular settings.
    • Surface Type – Sets the logical type of surface represented by the material.
    • Diffuse – Changes the diffuse coloration of the texture.
    • Specular – Changes the specular tint of the texture.
    • Material Shininess – Controls the size of the specular highlight.
    • Blend Hardness – Adjusts the hardness of the texture’s edge blending with surrounding textures.
    • Z Angle – Rotates the texture.
    • Scale – Sets the magnification of the base texture file that will be displayed within the material.
    • U Offset – Offsets the texture horizontally.
    • Tilt Angle – Stretches the perspective angle of the texture.
    • V Offset – Offsets the texture vertically.
    • Damage Material – (Not used in GreyGoo project.)
    • Lock Settings – Locks the selected material’s settings so that they cannot be altered.
    • Hard Edge – Prevents the material from blending with other textures placed on the terrain.
    • Hole – Disables the display of the currently selected material and displays a blank space in its place.
  • Brush Style – Controls the brush shape and settings for texture application.
    • Additive Conical Brush – Used to paint a section of texture onto the terrain.
    • Cliff Brush – Paints the sides of angled environments such as steep, cliffs, mountains, and other variable terrain. This tool utilizes a set of materials to apply various textures to different terrain angles to generate a cohesive texture application.
    • Cliff Healing Brush – Reapplies the currently selected Cliff Brush set to any previously placed Cliff Terrain texture areas, and only to those areas.
    • The Brush style dialog has various settings that alter the aspects of certain brushes:
      • Brush Radius – Adjusts the brush size.
      • Generate Material Normals – This modifies the Z and Tilt Angles of the selected materials to make them suitable for use with the cliff brush.
      • Material Count – Number of textures used to generate the Cliff Brush.
      • 180°/360° – The total rotation value that is used for the Generate Material Normals function. Recommended setting is 180°.
      • Starting Angle – The starting angle to use for the tilt angles. Generally can be left at 0°.
      • Tilt Angle – Tilt angle to apply to the current set of cliff materials.  90° is usually the best value for this setting. 
      • Line Mode – Turns the brush into a line-style brush. To begin painting, click the desired start point for the line, and then drag and release the mouse button at the desired end point.
Advertisement