Input Area
Introduction
This area of the main screen is where you can control the parameters for each of the inputs. It is the combining of the inputs with the heightmap(s) that makes the output texture.
The large image to the left shows a picture of the currently selected input. Above the image are two menus with functions relating to inputs. Along the bottom there is a scroll bar with thumbnails of all the inputs used in the project. To change the current input, the one you want to edit, you should click on one of the thumbnails. The sliders and buttons are all used to change the settings for the current input.
Types Of Input
There are three different types of input available:
- Texture - a texture loaded from a file (formats: bmp, tga, tif, gif, jpg, png, wmf, ico, bt, dds and dib)
- Colour - a pure colour selected from a colour palette using the standard Windows control
- Noise - created via various Perlin noise generators
The final colour in the final texture is also combined with lights and with materials
Tip: In the light editor the 'darkness' slider can be used to offset the raw 'built in' power from the input to balance the lighting
Input Menus
Above the input image can be seen two menus, New and Function:
New Menu
The New menu is where you select the type of input you would like to add to your project. You can choose from a texture loaded from a file, a colour or a noise generator. Depending on the choice a dialog will appear allowing you to specify parameters.
Function menu
The Function menu provides a number of functions that can be applied to the current input:
- Edit - what this does depends on the current input. If the input is a texture you have the choice of either replacing the texture with a new one or editing it in an external editor. If it is a colour you can change the colour. If it is a noise input a noise generation dialog appears.
- Copy - this copies the current input with all its settings to a new one.
- Delete - deletes the input from the project.
- Preview Affected - this is a quick way of determining how this input will affect the final output. An image is created that shows the input affect. Note that the output may not be as expected when using multiple heightmaps.
Input Parameters
To the right of the current input image are all the sliders and buttons that determine how this input will affect the final output, each of them is described below:
Start and End Heights
These sliders allow you to set the range of heights the input will affect. The heights are taken from the heightmaps and range from 0 to 256. So if you wanted to add water, for example, you might load an input texture and set its start value to 0 (the lowest height) and its end influence value to 10.
Samplers
By moving the mouse over the height map image you can determine the heights and slopes at various points. The cursor changes to a cross and below the height map is shown the height and slope of the position under the cross.
You can use the sampler next to the influence slider to click in the heightmap to set the height or slope automatically. The slider will move as you hold down the mouse button while moving over the heightmap.
Min and Max Angle
These sliders allow you to set the range of slopes the input will affect. The slopes range from 0 to 90 degrees. So if you did not want water on any slope greater than about 10 degrees ( it would flow off!) set min angle to 0 and max to 10.
Facing
The facing and spread sliders allow the input influence to be altered dependant on the direction the terrain is facing. The idea is that in nature certain plants will grow more on one side of a hill than another (as they get more light). Ultimately this provides another control to manipulate the results. The facing slider allows a facing angle to be set. Looking at the heightmap and output textures 0 facing would be up (North). 90 is East, 180 South and 270 West. The spread slider allows the range of angles to be controlled. E.g. if you wanted a green grass texture to only show on the East side of a hill you may set the facing slider to 90 and the spread to 180. Any west facing slopes will then get no influence from this input.
The facing calculation is based on a 2D process, so the y (up) value of the surface has no affect. If you want to use the y value as a control then the angle or height controls can be used. Also note that a face that is straight up is considered to be facing in all directions.
The blending of the texture can again be controlled via the function curve button. Note that a spread value of 360 means that the direction of the slope has no affect on the input.
See the included project FacingExample.tgp for an example of using the facing adjustment, a screenshot is shown below. This project has 4 main inputs facing North, East, South and West with a spread of 90.
Height, Angle and Facing Function Curves
Function curves are used to control the intensity of the input across the range. Rather than a clean cut off you can use linear, exponential or random function curves. e.g. A linear function curve applied to the height would change the intensity of the input from 0 to 1 over the range of heights. To change the curve click on the image to cycle to the next one. Available curves are:
They are: constant (default), linear, exponential, bell, random, random edges, inverted bell, inverted exponential and inverted linear.
In order to offset the values there is a little slider next to the curve. If the slider was set to 0.5 the linear function curve would operate between 0.5 and 1.0. When the slider is 0 the full range of 0 to 1 is used.
These curves are very useful for avoiding sharp lines between textures. For example if you have green grass up to a certain height followed by rock you can fade them together by selecting an inverted linear curve for the grass and a linear curve for the rock. One fades out while the other fades in.
Associated Height Maps
Each input can be linked with one or more heightmaps. By using more than one heightmap features like roads can be added where it would have been impossible to do otherwise. Look at the sleepingDragon project to see this in action or the volcano project from the first add on pack.
The associated heightmap area is a scroll bar containing all height maps in the project. To enable one for the input it must be clicked on so it is depressed.
Material
Each input can use a material. A material defines how light will affect the input. It is only relevant when you have defined lights and choose to create a lightmap
To change material parameters and select materials evoke the material editor by clicking on the Edit Material button.
Materials are described in more detail on the Materials page.
Overall Influence
You can apply an adjustment to the overall influence of the input on the output. e.g. if you want a snow texture to be more dominant than others you could raise the influence over 100. An influence of 100 is parity with other inputs.
Scale
This allows the input to be tiled over the output by different amounts. A large scale would cause the output to be tiled more. A default scale of 1 tiles based on the size of the texture. Note the value on the slider is 10 times the actual value.
Tiled Button
Toggles if the input is tiled or stretched across the whole output. If you use a wash texture you may not want it tiled. An example of not tiling a texture can be seen in the arena sample project. The face is mapped over the whole world.
Enabled Button
When testing it is useful to enable and disable inputs. When disabled the word disabled is written across the thumbnail below and the input has no affect on processing.
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