Help with map textures

@RoughRider
@8up-local
@WrenchinMonkey

Excerpt from Mudrunner Modding Guide:
"Distributions: a texture (map) and a set of โ€œbrushesโ€ that place plants over terrain. Map has 3
channels, 1 (RED) is density of plants, 2 (GREEN) is scale of plants, 3 (BLUE) is auxiliary information
(grid) not used by the Editor."

So the distribution textures are in .tga format with R(ed), G(reen) and B(lue) channels, no alpha mask that I'm aware of.
Greyscale masks are easy enough to grasp in general terms (black = 0, white = 255?). I've had some success editing the R (density) channel in Photoshop, but when I tried editing the G (scale) channel the editor throws up unending errors.
Are there limits or restrictions on the values that can be used here?
If I have a section of map (and a corresponding section of the .tga file) that has no distribution (that section is black/0 in the R channel) can that same section have a value (grey-white) in the G channel, or is that possibly what's causing my errors; trying to assign a scale to a non-existent density? I tried adding a white alpha channel and then saving the .tga but it didn't seem to make any difference. Any help you guys can throw my way would be greatly appreciated!

@mexican_420 i was confused at first. In short, yes. There is limits. Certain plants can only be so big. I recommend not using PS for dstrs.

last edited by RoughRider

@RoughRider
Hehe, I'm glad you knew what I was getting at, and I would very much like the help. What do you need from me?

@mexican_420
Edited my post above.

By the way. Im an adobe certified expert in photoshop lol

Congrats!
Booo though, I really didn't want to have to hand paint all the distributions on my new map... Very time-consuming stuff... ๐Ÿ˜•
Could I (not should I) edit ONLY the density in PS, then hand paint the scale in the editor after? Or are there also limits on the density?

last edited by Mexican_420

@mexican_420

Its not very bad actually. After using the editor you can learn some things and tendancies.

Rocks and mudchunks i use.55 with randomize
Basic trees i use .65 with randomize.
Most of everything else i use regular.65

Its always easier to add rather than take away.

@mexican_420

I dont recommend doing that in photoshop either, youll be doi g so much trial and error to get thongs right. If you make things to dense, everything will load only billboards verses the actual 3d model. Until they enter the physics bubble around your vehicle.

Yeah, I kinda got the hang of which density values worked best for me when doing my first map, but now I'm looking into importing heightmaps and stuff to try and make this new map look and feel much more natural/realistic than the first one...

@roughrider said in Help with map textures:

@mexican_420

I dont recommend doing that in photoshop either, youll be doi g so much trial and error to get thongs right. If you make things to dense, everything will load only billboards verses the actual 3d model. Until they enter the physics bubble around your vehicle.

So THAT'S what was causing that in my previous map! I've learned a lot from only a few posts! ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

I am going to test a theory and see how it goes;

  • new blank map
  • hand paint a small section with maximum density for each distribution
  • open in PS so I can see what that max value equates to in greyscale and subsequently limit future distributions to stay within those limits
    IE: editor max density value for "ferns" distribution = 225, ensure no values in dstr_ferns.tga exceed 225
    editor max density value for "birches" = 110, ensure no values in dstr_brchs.tga exceed 110

Is this theory sound, do you think? A little more prep-work now, maybe less finish work later?

last edited by Mexican_420

@mexican_420

No need for grayscale. Why dont you use a filter to make the image on the red channel?

I can use PS to edit strictly the red channel...
By greyscale I just mean the RGB values (0 for black, 255 for white)
Would a filter be a way of masking/clipping those values within certain limits?

last edited by Mexican_420

Yeah, waste of time... lol
At max density, regardless of distribution used, the max density shows an RGB value of 255...
But this time all the dstr_xxxx.tga had alpha channels... Weird...
I'll keep messing with it and see what I can figure out.

last edited by Mexican_420