15 replies to this topic

[Stephen Sullivan]

When CF is available will we be able to make our own textures and if so what format will they need to be in?

[Dazmaniac]

Steve,

 

In answer to the first part of your question, that would be a YES.

 

MJ said in another thread:- Each texture is made up of two individual textures blended together and they can be customised if you want to create and use your own textures or someone wants to share one of their texture 'libraries' with you.

 

As for the file format, I'll have to leave that to the gaffer, lol.

 

[TheLighterDark]

Why two individual textures? 

[Acrilix]

Textures in Unity use bump maps, and specular maps, unlike Links textures, so this is going to be another new thing to learn for me.

I'm presuming that these will also be used by the Perfect Golf engine?!

[Dazmaniac]

Why two individual textures? 

 

You'll need MJ to answer that, lol. I'm just quoting what he put in another thread.

 

[TheLighterDark]

You'll need MJ to answer that, lol. I'm just quoting what he put in another thread.

 

Wait, are you saying that you don't work for PP?

[Dazmaniac]

Wait, are you saying that you don't work for PP?

 

No, I'm saying MJ needs to answer your question, lol.

 

 

PS. No, I am not in the employ of Perfect Parallel, just a keen onlooker, lol.

[Mike Jones]

We currently use two textures blended together which can be scaled differently to break up tiling etc without losing close up detail. The detail texture is usually greyscale.

We will probably be using bump mapped textures too at some point on our meshes but they are usually only useful for sand and dirt and don't fare so well on grass textures.

 

Things like trees and 3d objects are subject to different rules as they are usually made with other 3d programs such as maya or 3dsmax.

[Acrilix]

We currently use two textures blended together which can be scaled differently to break up tiling etc without losing close up detail. The detail texture is usually greyscale.

We will probably be using bump mapped textures too at some point on our meshes but they are usually only useful for sand and dirt and don't fare so well on grass textures.

 

Things like trees and 3d objects are subject to different rules as they are usually made with other 3d programs such as maya or 3dsmax.

 

This sounds like the same idea I had on APCD to eliminate tiling. Creating a colour map texture mapped over a large area,  and using a planar alpha to blend in a detailed greyscale of grass blades. It worked on my APCD tests, but not in the actual Links game engine. I also couldn't use the alphas on certain textures - greens for instance affected the BLI.

Presumably this means no need for mid and far textures?

[TheLighterDark]

Thanks for clearing that up, Mike. Appreciate the answer. 

[Mike Jones]

Correct Acrilix, we don't use mids and fars as the mip mapping is done automatically. There's nothing to stop people from creating a .dds file with manual mip maps as they are supported in CourseForge and can further eliminate tiling.

[Acrilix]

I think the most exciting feature for me with the course designer, is the texture painting ability.  

I'm presuming that the textures have to have the same properties eg. different roughs together, different sands etc, and the properties are assigned to the shape areas, but are we limited to the number of these we can use in an area?

Could we for instance, blend together 4 or 5 different green textures on a green, to create pitch marks, dark rings, dry patches, lush parts etc, or are we limited to 2 textures only?

[Mike Jones]

There are multiple ways to blend textures together and add effects, from using overlays, different textures embedded in another texture, decals etc. The way you create these effects may or may not be the way you imagine it as there are significant differences in the way we do things compared to APCD! At the moment you can't brush paint on our meshes directly but that's not to say we won't support this in future if we can.

 

Keep the intelligent questions coming!

[Acrilix]

At the moment you can't brush paint on our meshes directly but that's not to say we won't support this in future if we can.

 

I was afraid that might be the case when I watched the tutorials - only the texture outside the mesh was painted.

I really hope this IS supported in the future, as the possibilities would then be incredible.

[garynorman]

Would it be possible to have several 'fairway meshes' each with the properties of a fairway, laid down within the original fairway mesh?  That way you could assign different textures to each type of fairway (eg fw1, fw2) and blend them into the original fairway to achieve mottling etc...

[Mike Jones]

Yes, Gary although we have other better ways of creating that effect by using a texture overlay