Q4 - Custom Textures?

[AEon]

Is anyone aware of tutorials on where to place custom textures?

How to build them, what has to be looked out for to make it a material?

BTW: Is is actually still possible to use the flat custom concrete texture for Q3A, I so very much love? Or do you always require "bumpmapping layers" in your "textures?


Anyone found nice new textures for Q4? Or D3 using bumpmapping?

[o'dium]

Custom textures are simple.

Make your texture the same way you always do, place it in a folder under textures. Done. Theres a few things to remember.

texture_d.tga - Diffuse
texture_s.tga - Specular
texture_local.tga - Local Map
texture_h.tga - Height map
texture_add.tga - Glow stage

Of course there are a few more but its best to stick to this naming scheme.

A simple material for Quake 4 would look like this:

Code: Select all

models/textures/test/floor
{
	bumpmap models/textures/test/floor_local.tga
	diffusemap models/textures/test/floor_d.tga
	specularmap models/textures/test/floor_s.tga
}

An even MORE simple material can look like this (This still uses _d, _s and _local):

Code: Select all

guide textures/test/floor generic_shader("test/floor")

If you want to add a height map, you add this:

Code: Select all

textures/test/floor
{
	bumpMap addnormals	( textures/test/floor_local.tga, heightmap ( textures/test/floor_h.tga,5 ) )
	diffuseMap			textures/test/floor_d.tga
	specularMap			textures/test/floor_s.tga
}

Now. the height map is of course a simple grey based texture, white being the highest, black being the lowest. Using different shades of grey you can add more or less height to the texture. You can multiply this by chaning the "5" at the end of the material. 1 is a less visible result, 9 is a massive result.

If you want a default texture thats just a diffuse, then yes thats possible in Quake 4. I THINK this is how you do it, not sure, but its more than possible:

Code: Select all

textures/test/floor
{
	diffuseMap			textures/test/floor_d.tga
}

Making the textures is easy. The diffuse is a simple texture with no height based information lighting or shadowing. The specular map is a texture that shows levels of specularity and works on the basis that white = 100% specular, and black = no specular. You can use colour to give more realistic results. These are usually dark textures. The local map is the hardest part to make. I prefere to model my surfaces FIRST and then output the model to a local map via Doom 3/Quake 4's "renderbumpFlat" command. Painting normals by hand is NOT a good idea as its more effort than its worth and looks bad 9 times out of ten. Height maps are obviously just a grey based image.

As an example texture, here is a few from the screenshots thread (So i dont have to go and paint some new ones). No height maps are on this:

[lvlshot]http://www.quake2evolved.com/odium/od_pipe_tex.jpg[/lvlshot]
[lvlshot]http://www.quake2evolved.com/odium/od_floor_tex.jpg[/lvlshot]
[lvlshot]http://www.quake2evolved.com/odium/od_grate_tex.jpg[/lvlshot]
[lvlshot]http://www.quake2evolved.com/odium/od_trim_tex.jpg[/lvlshot]

[o'dium]

For more info, visit the Quake 4 SDK site:

http://www.iddevnet.com/quake4/Quake4SDK

This site gives you a better explanstion of things and more examples.

[Kat]

... How to build them ...

How to build (a simple girder texture)
What *not* to do

[AEon]

o'dium,
great post, will probably add your info to the Q4 FAQ. Nice textures.

I thought I had gone through the Quake4SDK site, but still can't find anything directly related to texture generations.


Kat,
thanx...

[tequila!]

http://www.iddevnet.com/quake4/ArtRefer ... ngTextures

[Kaz]

Not released yet, but here are some WIP q4 textures from philipk:

http://pixelmorgue.com/index.php?topic=322.0

[R. Tetzlaff]

BTW: Is is actually still possible to use the flat custom concrete texture for Q3A, I so very much love? Or do you always require "bumpmapping layers" in your "textures?

In Doom3 it is possible to create textures with just a plain diffuse map. So it should be possible for Quake4 as well.

Evil Lair released a nice Doom3/Quake4 custom textures pack.

[AEon]

Evil Lair released a nice Doom3/Quake4 custom textures pack.

Link?

[corsair]

I believe he's refering to these ;

http://www.quake3world.com/forum/viewto ... r+textures

Not sure though, its been 'some' while since he released that, and iirc he wasn't too satisfied with them (they're quite 'flat'). He's working on a new set with the strong help of zbrush I believe - I'm quite anticipating the release o_O

[o'dium]

Not released yet, but here are some WIP q4 textures from philipk:

http://pixelmorgue.com/index.php?topic=322.0

Those textures are amazing, i have such a long way to go

[AEon]

I am learning the hard way that maps with massive amounts of patch "walls" like AEtour, are not very much in tune with the detailed Q4 textures.

To properly use them one really needs to think blocky. Well working on that in AEdm7 ...

[tequila!]

Not sure exactly what you mean in that last post AEon - if you mean most of the textures are too detailed / busy for the look you want, maybe try some of the textures in the /mptextures directory?

Many of those were made specifically to have flatter, less busy textures for MP, and also to have more 256W x 512H textures for MP, to accomodate the high ceilings found in Quake style MP maps with less texture stacking.

Personally I love patches in D3/Q4, texture alignment can be tedious, and you have to poke around sometimes to find textures that will work with odd shapes, but you can do all sorts of things with curves in this engine, with no worrying about sparklies:

[lvlshot]http://www.tequilasplace.com/temp/q407.jpg[/lvlshot]

[lvlshot]http://www.tequilasplace.com/temp/q411.jpg[/lvlshot]

[lvlshot]http://www.tequilasplace.com/quake4/q4dm1_1.jpg[/lvlshot]

[lvlshot]http://www.tequilasplace.com/temp/q410.jpg[/lvlshot]

top map is a WIP, bottom map can be found here if you are interested in taking a look or poking around in the editor:

http://www.tequilasplace.com/quake4/

[AEon]

tequila!,
should have been clearer.

AEtour has walls that are blocks of 1/16th circle. I could add "stripes" but much detail in a curved wall would be very hard to pull off when trying to keep the "perfect circular" walls *and* stay on grid.

So my observation that texting on brushes at right angles is easier, was more of the obvious sort

From the Q4 maps I looked into sofar, there are a few very cleverly done "rounded" patches. But Raven definately used the "blocky style" a lot.

[tequila!]

Yeah you aren't really going to get much if any brush or patch work detail in something that is already only 1/16th of a circle. I'll download your Q3 version so I have a better idea of your map than just looking at screens.

One alternative to detailing in that situation - don't know if it is an option you'd like - is attaching models to the walls, probably small ones that wouldn't get in the way for MP. A simple thing like a monitor in the middle of a simply textured wall, with a thin cable going down into the floor might be all you need to avoid being too plain.

A monitor is always a good excuse for a small light source too, lighting can be a form of detail in and of itself.

-edit- very cool curves there in the Q3 version, I certainly never did anything that ambitious with them in Q3.

[Kaz]

Not released yet, but here are some WIP q4 textures from philipk:

http://pixelmorgue.com/index.php?topic=322.0

Those textures are amazing, i have such a long way to go

I'm not British, but... innit?

[AEon]

Yeah you aren't really going to get much if any brush or patch work detail in something that is already only 1/16th of a circle.

In Q4 I would probably use the decal patches Raven uses on most walls and floors to give them that rusty / scratched / used look. The trick they use is to place semi-transparent textures about .125 units away from the surface in question. I checked in-game, though at times it still seems like something is "floating" on the surfaces it is hard to make out, so it is a good trick.

In Q3A I use something like that for all the respawns and jumppads, only that in this case the shaders are actually flush to the floors.