Soon to come tutorial for using the Brush Tool and using Texture Blending to make your maps look more varied and realistic.
I will be using screen shots from the editor as examples with step by step instructions that should be easy to do. I’ll also throw in a few before and after pictures to show the differences.
Blending Textures can take a lot of time depending on how much detail you want and though I’ve done reasonably well with it there may be better ways as well so if anyone has advice or tips don’t be afraid to pitch in.
-Make your environments more realistic
-Create more variety when it comes to combining multiple textures together to make something new
-Seamless transitions between different environments. Rather then an immediate change from dirt --> grass you would have dirt --> grassy dirt --> grass.
-Make Objects like Trees, Rocks, and Buildings fit in with the environment when it comes to transitioning from object texture to a transitional texture finally to your main ground texture. A wall might have a layer of dust or some tall weeds near the base of the wall before meeting with the main ground texture of something like grass, dirt or a pathway/street.
Here are a few examples of not using Texture Blending:
Only the DefaultTerrain texture is being used here and as you can clearly see there is a repeated pattern which is something you always want to avoid. To do so you want to add multiple layers in the Texture Layer of different kinds of textures to make it more varied. Also having 1 color, in this case brown, dominate the environment should also be avoided.
Adding a new Texture Layer called Poly_GrassWoodland there is now a large patch of grass in the middle of the muddy DefaultTerrain layer which gets rid of a lot of the pattern plus adds some green to the environment. However there is still an issue here when it comes to the transition from Grass to Dirt in that it isn’t a gradual change at all but immediate.
Finally I’ve added a few pieces of level art to give this example a bit more of an environment and thus more variety rather then just grass or dirt. Again there is still no transition from each of the level art pieces when it comes to textures.
In some cases grass can be seen poking through the different pieces of level art which is another reason to add more Texture Layers to get rid of the grass clipping through objects while adding more variety in the environment when it comes to coloring + transitioning from object to the ground around that object and then the ground further on. So a rock might have a dirt/rock texture around the rock object and then grass further on.
In order to fix this scene I’ll be adding 3 more Texture Layers in the following order: Flat_RockDark, Poly_GrassRoots&Moss, and Poly_BrushGreen01. I will also be changing the Opacity of each texture layer which is the key to blending textures together.
With this update I’ve changed the Opacity of Poly_GrassWoodland to around 20-40% and then brushed all along the outside of the grassy area so as to give a bit more of a transition from 100% Grass to 100% Dirt while also doing the same with the dirt patches inside the grassy area.
Then I used the Flat_RockDark texture to brush around the rock to both get rid of the grass clipping through the object while also changing the Opacity levels of both Flat_RockDark and Poly_GrassWoodland to lower Percentage values to blend Rock/Grass/Dirt together the further out I go from the rock object.
The Log, Stump, and Tree I used Poly_GrassRoots&Moss to give a bit of a dirt texture around each object while also using Opacity to eventually blend in with the grass texture. Personally I’m not very satisfied with the result since the texture of the trees are a bit more of a grey as opposed to the brown texture so it would be an idea to fiddle around with the Opacity levels a bit more.
Finally I added Poly_BrushGreen01 to add a different type of grass to the scene and just added clumps of it around randomly to add yet another color to the environment for variety.
Here I simply added 2 objects being a few candles for lighting as well as some pieces of paper strewn about giving yet more variety to the scene while adding human influence.
Finally I then added a few Fireflies lighting effects + a glow that only appears at nighttime which suggests the light is emanating from the fireflies pretty much completing this example of a small environment.
The main idea for Texture Blending is simply changing the Opacity levels of your Texture Layers so as to blend each added texture together to make texture transitions less sharp but more gradual. This can be quite time consuming depending on how much detail you want when it comes to using multiple Texture Layers and blending them together.
-For every environment you make I would suggest keeping a record of the different Opacity levels that were used. Otherwise it may be a bit of a hassle to replicate what you’ve done should you need to add new terrain regions with the same type of ground textures.
-Flat_ textures are just that while Poly_ textures should include things like grass on top of the flat ground texture.
-Opacity level for Poly_ textures to show the polygons on top of the ground texture are between 85-100% where it’s only the height of the polygons being influenced. Any % lower I believe will only make the texture be flat without any polygons.
Few of my own pieces of environment that I’ve worked on:
Granite formation in which I used 3 Texture Layers (grass/dirt/granite) to blend with when it came to the pathway leading up and down the formation.
Ruined bridge where I used 4 Texture Layers. 2 for the beach (grass/beach texutres) and 2 for the water environment (cattails/mud).
Swamp/Road where I believe the road has 3 blended Texture Layers (grass/dirt/cobblestone) and the swamp area has 2 for the ground and 3 for the water.
Blocked off pathway in which again the road has 3 layers and the ground has 3 (grass/dirt/granite).
Looking over these I may add a few more layers to each scene when it comes to introducing more grass types for coloring. Also the first picture was merely working on the rock formation and not the area around it which is why it’s just grass.
When it comes to texture blending I simply adjust the opacity levels of each texture layer so as to make transitions between each texture gradual.
If anyone has any questions or would like to see something in particular with specific Level Art feel free to leave a comment. Otherwise if you also have some advice please let me know and I’ll add it to the post above.
-Use 1-0 keys of the keyboard (not numpad) for quick opacity transitions.
-Use [ and ] keys to change brush size on the fly.
-Use Shift to paint at 100% opacity and Ctrl to paint at 0% opacity.
-High opacity polys (with something sprouting on top) can be an alternative for “out of bounds” areas wirhout going overboard on rocks and trees.
-Avoid using an extremely small brush with 100 opacity to create patches of growth in the middle of other textures. Create something big and then trim down.
-Decide early on the order of textures. Do you want grass growing through the cobbles, or do you want the cobbles to be spotless on top of the grass?
-Rockbrown(?) is not that bad on edges of cliffs and sides of cliffs themselves.
-Some textures like wood flooring (can’t remember name) have a specific orientation. If you’re not using a grid, it might look a bit off when you use it. Compromise is to rotate the house around and either snap to grid or go for 45º.
Can’t think of something else off the top of my head.
Just another tip; really really small but took me forever to figure out myself. If you want to erase some texture you just painted, make sure the layer you want to erase some of is currently selected and set opacity to zero then just click what you want to erase, or as stated above, just hold Crtl while painting to zero out opacity on the fly.
TLDR: Zero opacity = eraser.