xtencilate
18-01-2005, 06:58 AM
Ok. So I recently became a level designer for a small company, and I know NOTHING about mix maps for terrain. I have the terrain created in max, but I don't know how to use a mix map.
Could anyone explain how to make a mix map for a terrain? I'm totally lost. I had to learn max as part of this possition, but mixmaps confuse me.
I have used a 2 layer mixmap for walls and such, but I don't understand the correlation between any of it, as far as terrain goes! Blow are the only directions I have, along with an image of UV colors and terrain texture.
Please help, im a max noob, and this confuses the hell out of me.
1. In PS create a new file with power of 2 dimensions, such as 2048x2048. Make sure your background layer is black.
2. Now click on the channels tab. If there is no alpha channel, click the new channel icon at the bottom of the tool window. You now have four channels. Each of these corresponds to one texture layer this mixmap controls. Black for any channel means none of the texture is blended, while white is full blending. Select and paint each channel individually. Do NOT draw on the RGB channel unless you understand how the colors relate to blending channels.
3. Now you need to save your mix map as a 32 bit .TGA. It is important to save as 32-bit or the alpha channel will not be included.
The mix shader itself has the following slots.
NOTE: All layers are multiply blended.
Name Type Description
tDiffuse0 Texture Base texture for entire terrain. Should not be tiled. Not mixed by mixmap
tMixMap Texture Mixmap texture, described above
Layer1 Texture Mix Layer #1 (Red Channel)
Layer2 Texture Mix Layer #2 (Green Channel)
Layer3 Texture Mix Layer #3 (Blue Channel)
Layer4 Texture Mix Layer #4 (Alpha Channel)
Layer12UTile U Tiling U Tiling for layers 1 and 2
Layer12VTile V Tiling V Tiling for layers 1 and 2
Layer34UTile U Tiling U Tiling for layers 3 and 4
Layer34VTile V Tiling V Tiling for layers 3 and 4
http://reality.artificialstudios.com/twiki/pub/Main/MixMapTutorial/mixmapexample1.jpg
Could anyone explain how to make a mix map for a terrain? I'm totally lost. I had to learn max as part of this possition, but mixmaps confuse me.
I have used a 2 layer mixmap for walls and such, but I don't understand the correlation between any of it, as far as terrain goes! Blow are the only directions I have, along with an image of UV colors and terrain texture.
Please help, im a max noob, and this confuses the hell out of me.
1. In PS create a new file with power of 2 dimensions, such as 2048x2048. Make sure your background layer is black.
2. Now click on the channels tab. If there is no alpha channel, click the new channel icon at the bottom of the tool window. You now have four channels. Each of these corresponds to one texture layer this mixmap controls. Black for any channel means none of the texture is blended, while white is full blending. Select and paint each channel individually. Do NOT draw on the RGB channel unless you understand how the colors relate to blending channels.
3. Now you need to save your mix map as a 32 bit .TGA. It is important to save as 32-bit or the alpha channel will not be included.
The mix shader itself has the following slots.
NOTE: All layers are multiply blended.
Name Type Description
tDiffuse0 Texture Base texture for entire terrain. Should not be tiled. Not mixed by mixmap
tMixMap Texture Mixmap texture, described above
Layer1 Texture Mix Layer #1 (Red Channel)
Layer2 Texture Mix Layer #2 (Green Channel)
Layer3 Texture Mix Layer #3 (Blue Channel)
Layer4 Texture Mix Layer #4 (Alpha Channel)
Layer12UTile U Tiling U Tiling for layers 1 and 2
Layer12VTile V Tiling V Tiling for layers 1 and 2
Layer34UTile U Tiling U Tiling for layers 3 and 4
Layer34VTile V Tiling V Tiling for layers 3 and 4
http://reality.artificialstudios.com/twiki/pub/Main/MixMapTutorial/mixmapexample1.jpg