Anna's Multi-Texure Mapping Technique Tutorial for PolyWorks

This tutorial assumes some previous experience with PolyWorks.
It is based on this map.


Design Your Map

You should have some idea of what you want your map to look like before you start. I recommend having a simple sketch to work from.

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Preparing the Texture

I chose two default textures for this map, ananas.bmp (snow) and pistacja.bmp (rock). Photoshop was used to create two smooth vertical transitions between the textures. I arranged the two textures and the two transitions so that the resulting 128x512 bitmap would tile seamlessly. It's not necessary for the texture to tile but it makes things a little easier later on.

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One thing to keep in mind is that textures are automatically scaled up to the nearest power of two, so it's best to use bitmaps with dimensions that are powers of two so that the texture doesn't appear stretched.



Building Blocks and Shaping

In PolyWorks I load the texture and change the background colours to something more appealing.

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Then in the Properties window I set the texture dimensions to the dimensions of the texture.

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I start making the map by creating some 128x128 blocks to determine the offset of the texture.
This is easy when using the grid at default settings (spacing = 32, divisions = 4).

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These are the basic building blocks of the map. With these polys and the duplicate function I start putting things together.

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To make the map more detailed it's necessary to create more complex arrangements. The split function is useful at this stage.

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I continue to add more to the map and begin to give it a more interesting shape, using the split function wherever needed.

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Colour and Shading

For my palette I chose to use 4 shades of blue for snow and 4 shades of brown for the rock. For the transition I just blended the blue and brown together to get 4 shades of a colour halfway between the other two.

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I decided that most of the light was coming from the left side of the map and applied colours accordingly.

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One thing to remember is that lighter areas often appear closer to the viewer. This is an easy way to add depth to your map, but it shouldn't be overused.



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Finishing Touches

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When choosing background colours I find that using colours similar to the ones in the map works well. After the poly placement was mostly done I added some scenery and colliders. Finally I tested it for poly bugs and fixed the ones I found.

One problem I had with this map was that the poly count was quite high for the size. In Soldat, high poly count maps cause the frame rate to drop because of edge rendering. To counter this problem I didn't include an edges file. However this causes some problems for people who download the map by joining a server. (It's also possible to turn off edges.)

[EDIT]
I forgot to mention that fixed texture should be turned OFF for this method.
Also, you can make something like this to help determine if your texture is aligned correctly:
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Conclusion

This is just one basic method for creating multi-texture maps. With more experience and experimentation it could be refined to be more practical and efficient. I hope that after reading this tutorial you've gained some new and useful knowledge. Happy mapping ;]



Credits

Thanks go to all the mappers in the Soldat community; I learned a lot from looking at existing maps.
Thanks also to everyone who helped to test my map and gave me suggestions, especially cooz <3

wow.. now i may acctually start mapping again:D

thanks cinderella..

hot damn thats a good looking map. Gonna have to start messing around with your methods and see what happens.

Thanks a bunch. Hopefully this'll improve my mapping.

Nice tutorial.
I always wondered how the heck you did those effects :D

lets see somone try that one in normal map maker lol

quote:Originally posted by Soulsnipalets see somone try that one in normal map maker lol


actually dibo did do it with mm+ it was a dm map(multi textured)


Well...atleast I think he did.

This just pwns a lot. The whole step by step instructions are really nicely done. I'm gonna try using this for my next map. <3 the whole 3D look of it.

one question: how the hell do you add a color to the palette? i have some really nice ideas, but i just can't get the colors to go to palette.

sorry for the noobness of this post.

quote:Originally posted by rabidhamsterone question: how the hell do you add a color to the palette? i have some really nice ideas, but i just can't get the colors to go to palette.

sorry for the noobness of this post.

Make a colour, Right click on the palette space to add it.

This is a good tutorial! It is excellent!!1

(that doesn't mean I'll start mapping again...)

Woah good job.

Looks like you put alot of time into this, its going to help alot of people.

yey for magic split tool...

ps
nice tutor for adv pw usrs ;)

me stickies (finally)

Do you have a program for generating a pallete,
or do you do it in polyworks?

I make the colours in PW. It's easy to get a nice gradient using either the colour picker window, or by applying one colour to another using the screen/multiply blend modes, or applying one colour to another at varying opacity.

This is extremely helpful, and amazing work. I'm going back to this page when I try making my own map.

how did u make the transitions between the textures? i have photoshop elements and i didnt get a transition between the two textures -.- or does somebody know another program which makes transitions??

EDIT: well i got it but now the middle part is gray :(

make for each texture a layer .. then erase soemtong from the textire above or use masks .. use gradients for looking smooth .. just play arround with different brushes when erasing or creating the mask ..