AEcell - Cell Texture Pack - beta2 d/l

[AEon]

Thanks... I am starting to wonder if I should simply retexture AEcantow2 with these textures. Hmmm...

For fKd I created a door texture (based on id's), the light on the right should also come in handy (Andromeda texture set):

• [lvlshot]http://aemap.hugelaser.com/misc/temp_ae_textures6.jpg[/lvlshot]

Creating textures is fun

[monaster]

"Durchpausen"

The left texture with the glowing light is somehow ... captivating. Combined with that comic-like appearance (cel shading for president!) it made me stare at it for nearly 30 seconds and thinking what might be behind it. Obviously I haven't slept in a while.
As for your

Thanks... I am starting to wonder if I should simply retexture AEcantow2 with these textures. Hmmm...

Do it, do it! Even if it's going to be nothing more than a beta: I can't wait to see these textures on a pro map! Been waiting too long for this already...(since...Reise Rei/se perhaps? Can't remember anything since then that provided a design like this)

EDIT: That neon light is just what I thought of, great!

[sock]

@Aeon, you should create all these textures greyscale and colour them via shaders with the 'rgbGen const ( 0.15 0.15 0.75 )' shader command. Also split the light fixtures down into base background texture and glow section. You could also create surfaces that have multiple layers, like for example the glowing circle objects on the walls, could be grey outer circle detail, grey inner circle detail and additive glow on top. This will allow any designer to pick and choose different colours for each section. Plus by putting the colour into the shader file, designers can create different colour schemes for different areas of the map. Yes, orange is a nice base colour, but not the whole map! (yellow or brown goes equally well with orange)

[AEon]

@Sock,
that sounds interesting. Though am not completely sure I can emulate the orange shades via gray transparency or recoloring levels. Though evil lair may have been doing just that to create the initially. I had also been thinking of what to do if someone wants different colors.

Some layering is already happening, but probably not enough. I am also wondering how this will effect the game performance. Not sure when and if I will get to this, will get back to you, because I'll probably have some technical issues getting it done, i.e. writing the proper shader to do it.

[sock]

@Aeon, it is certainly possible to do and the current people using the textures will never know. You greyscale your current texture, tweak the brightness/contrast as needed and then push all the textures though simple shaders. A default texture in Q3 is already 2 stage so there is no performance hit.

Sample shader:

Code: Select all

textures/aeon_tpack1/wall_01a
{
	qer_editorimage textures/aeon_tpack1/wall_01a.tga
	{
		map $lightmap
		rgbGen identity
	}
	{
		map textures/aeon_tpack1/wall_01a.tga
		blendFunc GL_DST_COLOR GL_ZERO
		rgbGen const ( 0.8789062 0.500000 0.1328125 )
	}
}

This is taken from this image, the light orange panel (2nd down from the left) gives me (225,128,34) in Photoshop, converted to Q3 it becomes (0.8789062 0.500000 0.1328125) maths (225/256 = 0.8789062)

Then if a designer wants a new version of this panel somewhere else, create a new shader, work out a new const value and bingo! ... new coloured texture.

If you are worried about performance then marked all stages in the shader beyond 3 as detail so the player can switch them off if necessary with a console command.

[AEon]

I could, obviously not resist a test, and used a new light texture that has 3 different orange tones. The transfer of PS to Q3A colors was clear. Alas simply desaturating (PS) the texture did not work, would have been too good to be true. But I need to find the "correct" colors just once.

Now to get my proper colors (provided they are orange in tone, excluding use of white or red as seen in some of my light textures), here how I think it could work in PS:

• Use the main orange color as background.
• Use initially back areas for die different colored regions of the texture.
• All black detailing stays black.
• For the main orange, use a 100% transparent "black" texture, for the others change PS opacity, until I have the darker orange tone I am looking for.
• This should yield my original texture and tones. Now turn off the orange background, and use a white one instead. Save this texture and use it as gray base texture.
• Apply your shader to the gray texture, setting the main orange color as an (additional stage).

Hopefully that work flow will work. This way I can emulate how the texture *should* look in PS, and how it then *will* look in Q3A.

But what do I do in the editor? I'd be seeing gray textures everywhere? I could of course create a "preview" version of the texture using main orange as background color in the above steps. But that would not help anyone who wants to turn the map green *in* the editor (in-game it would be a simple search/replace in the shaders, as you pointed out). Or am I missing something related to the editor?

[fKd]

jaa haa haaaaaaa looking great, i will be patient and not rush you, but im really digging these latest textures sir.

[AEon]

The suggested work flow seem to work. I was able to emulate two of the 3 orange colors using opacity varied black textures projected on the main orange color. The darkest color alas has the wrong saturation (hue/brightness match):

• 

The texture on the left is the default orange texture I tried to duplicate, in the middle the "re-created" gray texture, on the right the resulting texture that was colorized by Q3A via shader. The more observant artist will note that the dark orange edge on the right texture is slightly more saturated (reddish), but I think one can live with it.

• 

To prove any of this is actually a step forward, I simply changed rgbGen const ( 0.88 0.5 0.137 ) (orange) to rgbGen const ( 0.137 0.879 0.253 ) (only changed the hue of the orange to green). Kinda weird, but works

Could e.g. Sock or Obsidian take a look at the shader I am using, I simply commented out the rgbGen identity, but I am not sure this is the "right" thing to do:

Code: Select all

textures/aegrid/temp_aelonglight_gray_orange
{
	qer_editorimage textures/aegrid/temp_aelonglight_gray.tga
	q3map_lightimage textures/aegrid/temp_aelonglight_orange_blend.tga
	surfaceparm nodlight
	surfaceparm nomarks
	q3map_surfacelight 2000
	{
		map textures/aegrid/temp_aelonglight_gray.tga
//		rgbGen const ( 0.88 0.5 0.137 ) 	// Default template orange
		rgbGen const ( 0.137 0.879 0.253 ) 	// Default template hue green
//		rgbGen identity
	}
	{
		map $lightmap
		blendfunc filter
		tcGen lightmap
	}
	{
		map textures/aegrid/temp_aelonglight_orange_blend.tga
		blendfunc gl_one_minus_dst_color gl_one
		rgbGen wave sin 0.9 0.09 0 1
	}
}

Well it seems to work at least. It seems the idea Sock proposed could really be worth it. Then I could include several .shader files with 2-3 other colors ,

Not sure how to add not orange colored areas i.e. white or yellow. Probably layer another "gray" template over everything, and color it?

[sock]

@Aeon, If my arms were long enough they would reach out across the internet and strangle you!

[lvlshot]http://www.simonoc.com/images/misc/aeon ... editor.jpg[/lvlshot]
Zip : http://www.simonoc.com/files/misc/aeon_texp1.zip

You greyscale your current texture, tweak the brightness/contrast as needed and then push all the textures though simple shaders.

I simply desaturated the image, boasted the brightness by 125% and viola done. Zip file contains before and after images, map files, bsp and sample shader file.

[obsidian]

I think what AEon means to say is, "but that would be too easy!"

[^Ghost]

next tex pack..... *drum roll*



eq2.


you should make a full texture pack when u finish, with full shaders and all.. because i might use it, they're all looking really nice.

[AEon]

@Sock, thanks.
Quite an amazing feat of approximation that is "good enough" for textures of this nature. One of the shots shows the slight color difference and in-game it is also noticeable. I was trying to be exact, plus experimenting with what the "recoloring does", and lacking some practical experience obviously.

Interesting quick way. Alas I am not able to reproduce your result:

• Open grate.jpg.
• In PS7: Image menu, Adjustments, Desaturate.
• Then: Image menu, Adjustments, Brightness/Contrast, Brightness slider to +100.
• I can thus match the "brighter" gray (that used to be the main orange), but now the black grates are no longer black.

I seem to be missing something here. What? Sure I can magic wand the black areas that are not perfectly black via magic wand (tolerance 10), invert selection and up the brightness by 100, to avoid this.

But you do not seem to have done it that way? What were you using to desaturate and brighten by 125%?

I am asking because I'd want to try this on my other textures that use more than one orange tone.

[sock]

@Aeon, sadly this is where having the latest version of Photoshop helps (CS+) because it has better tools that PS7. The Brightness/Contrast feature in CS does not destroy the black outline but instead concentrates on the lighter colours instead. I am sure some people here will think I am a fool for saying this, but I actually bought PS a while back and I must say it was the best money I spent in a very long time, but I am sure there other ways to get the software. There really is nothing else that compares to PS on the market.

The pre PS CS+ way is as you said, 'magic wand' or 'colour select' (I think this is a ps feature only and a million times better than magic wand) the dark/black colours, cut to a seperate layer, increase the brightness of the base image by roughly 125% (probably need 2 passes) and then merge the black outline back on top. (What you were effectively doing via your 3 stage shader) All of this can be done via macros if you really want to save time. You don't need to get the colour exact just very close because this method does allow the designer total freedom to colour the tiles as they want. This will make designers very very happy

What was wrong with your 3 stage shader method is you are wasting performance with something that should be done by the artist in the art package only. If you want to add any glow effects you are now moving into 4-5 stage shader effects and they really do hurt performance in wide open areas. You just need to package the end result, example shaders and the designers will do the rest. I highly recommend you don't start distributing complex shaders when they can be very simple.

[obsidian]

On older versions of PS, try playing around with the levels instead of brightness/contrast. You should be able to pull off a similar effect while retaining the darker bits.

[AEon]

@Sock,
thanks for clearing up the PS issue. I thought I was losing it. I don't shy away from a bit of extra work, but I'd hate not know about a better method.

You don't need to get the colour exact just very close because this method does allow the designer total freedom to colour the tiles as they want. This will make designers very very happy

True, about the exact colors, but presently I am building the set for myself, the universal usage, i.e. on the fly coloration will then be an added bonus. BTW, was a colorable texture set ever done? Probably not, no one uses a basically two color texture set in normal maps.

What was wrong with your 3 stage shader method is you are wasting performance with something that should be done by the artist in the art package only. If you want to add any glow effects you are now moving into 4-5 stage shader effects and they really do hurt performance in wide open areas. You just need to package the end result, example shaders and the designers will do the rest. I highly recommend you don't start distributing complex shaders when they can be very simple.

Hadn't thought if it that way. Well the shader was for a light source and with "only" 3 stages, plus was colored, so that should be OK for my use, since I like the glow effect from the Andromeda texture set. Once the set is "done", I can go in and use your simplified shaders, and distribute the whole set as gray scale textures without the glow.

I guess it is problematic to create what you need, and at the same time to make it as usable as possible for everyone else.

[sock]

Edited: Pointless waffle!

[AEon]

Bleeding of one texture edge to the other side of the texture, is probably a know pitfall for folks creating textures, but can something be done about it?

• 

As you can see the "end piece" a) is connected to the "med piece" b), created this ugly black thin seam. These brushes are set to grid. And the editor also shows the issue. The problem is with texture a): The black edge on the left side (indicated in green) seems to bleed ever so slightly to the right side.

I am including the tga (full quality) textures:

• Download: temp_aewall_texture_bleeding.zip (2.22KB) @ hugelaser.com

What am I doing wrong? Or is this simply a known issue forcing texture designers to have a one pixel overlap on all sides of the textures? If so, this would not be an option in this case using this rather simple design.

[AEon]

Based on Speedy's Andromeda texture set, here the template_ae trims:

• [lvlshot]http://aemap.hugelaser.com/misc/temp_ae_textures10.png[/lvlshot]

Not sure how useful these are. All of them created with colorization (of a gray version) in mind.

And the light sources presently available:

• [lvlshot]http://aemap.hugelaser.com/misc/temp_ae_textures11.png[/lvlshot]

IMO, that should cover all relevant light source sizes.

[fKd]

looks great, any idea when they will be available?

[Pat Howard]

Well they definitely look great.

Just out of curiosity though, what is the goal of this texture pack? Is it to beef up evil's work with some extra placeholders he didn't think to add, or to make a really cool yellow/brown themed full texture pack? Unfortunately I don't think it's possible to do both at the same time.

[AEon]

@Pat,
good question.

Presently I seem to be re-creating a flat version of the Andromeda texture set by Speedy, primarily creating those textures I like, and hope to use in my map (aegrid, should that ever come to exist): Orange textures, with detailed glow/blend effects (borrowed from id, and Speedy), no colorizing.

The other goal will be to create a new template set, for Sock , that indeed expands evil's work, to be used for template mapping, with the additional bonus of letting the artiste colorize the textures. The idea would then be to go through the former set, and pick those textures that should help when creating a template map, probably dropping the more detailed textures, using a cleaned up simplified set of shaders.

As it is now, I am providing some alternate textures for fKd's temp01 map

[cityy]

Making them avaliable for everyone would be a blast.

Wanna make with those textures

[AEon]

I think I am done "tracing" textures... there are probably many other textures out there that could be useful, but those will have to wait. More template_ae trims:

• [lvlshot]http://aemap.hugelaser.com/misc/temp_ae_textures12.png[/lvlshot]

A bit of eye candy, some floor grates, and another wall tile:

• [lvlshot]http://aemap.hugelaser.com/misc/temp_ae_textures13.png[/lvlshot]

Somehow I have the feeling I will not be using many of those textures. I love how temp_aecirc.tga (top left texture) turned out. The Andromeda set is really neat.

[wattro]

I'm getting orange overload! any chance that future (urg what's the word...) collages could be done without the orange background?

[AEon]

wattro,
I also noted that the PNG files seem to mess with the color tone for some reason when shown in a browser... hmmm... what background color would you prefer. I had thought of using white but that would be eye poking as well, and black would make the texture edges invisible.