BL4 : creation
and exportation 1) Design
2) Mapping
2.1)
Creation of the material
2.2) Application
2.3) Mapping
coordinates
3) Parameters
3.1)
Luminosity
3.2) Surface
Properties
3.3) Sectors
visibility
4) CP and start positions
5) Summary
1)
Design
- We will not talk
about design techniques into 3Dsmax4 here. We will simply talk about the constraints
:
A Pod track is composed with one or several objects called meshes. (we will
call them sectors : you can look at the original tracks dxf files to make you
a better idea of tracks cutting up).
The exporter (see below) allow you to select : the scene's sectors you want
to export (1) , a TGA file for the background (2), a TGA file for the sky (3),
a TGA for the lens flare (4), eventually a ITA file for animated textures (5),
the 16 car start positions (6) and the 8 checkpoint positions (7), and finally
an option "Quadrilaterals Optimization" (8).
* If this option is marked off, all exported sectors will have to be composed
with ONLY triangles or quadrilaterals. A polygonal with more than 4 sides will
provoke an error. This option (greatly recommended!) ask some rigour into the
track design but it allow to greatly improve the exportation (the number of
faces will simply be divided by two).
* If this option isn't marked off, there will be no design constraints
at all.
2)
Mapping
- Textures to use are 256*256 pixels
TGA 24 bits. There are no theorical limit on the number but over 20, graphic
bugs risk to appear in Glide mode.
- You have to create only ONE material
composed with sub-objects. Each of these sub-objects will represent one texture.
This main material will then be applied to all sectors to export.
2.1)
Creation of the material
- Into the material editor, create
a new material (0) (or choose a free slot and click on the "Standard"
button (1) ) then in the new window pick the "Multi/Sub-object" type.
-
Define the number of sub-objects (it mean in fact the number of textures you
will use) (2). Of course you will be allowed to modify this after if needed.
- Then affect different colors to
each sub-objects. It isn't needed but it's really usefull to see them clearly
and select them easily into the scene (3).
- Click on one of the sub-objects
button (4) to edit this sub-object.
* Look on the right of the sub-object color affectation (3), if these spaces to fill aren't marked off, you will not see the textures appear into the scene but just the color you assigned to them. So, if you want your textures appearing into the scene when you're designing, you have to mark them off.
-
At first, the submaterial is standart grey (huh...here it's textured but
make as if it was grey, please...I don't want to do this screenshot again
;)
- Note that this arrow (5) allow
you to go back to the sub-objects list. For this you have to be in the "Material
Editor" window and not as on the screenshot into the "Material
Map/Browser" one...that's why the arrow is grey on the screenshot...sorry..again
;)
- Below, unroll the "Maps"
thimble and click the button on the right of "Diffuse Color" (6).
- In the new window, select the
"bitmap" type and validate it.
-
A new window appear then to ask you to choose the bitmap file. Pick one
of your TGA 256*256 texture and validate.
- The TGA texture is now associated
with this sub-object. Click twice on the "previous" arrow (5)
to go back to the sub-objects list ).
- Now you just have to edit
all the other sub-objects in the same way than first one. Each sub-object
with a different TGA...of course...
- When this is finished, select
your sectors and affect them the main material you created (either by
dragging it into the scene or with the appropriate button (7) ).
- Now you will have to precise,
for each polygonals of each sectors, wich sub-object (=texture) to use.
We'll see how to do this now.
2.2)
Application
- Select one sector of your
track.
- In the thimble "Modify"
(8), unroll the menu "Modifier List" (9) and choose "Edit
mesh".
- Select "Polygon",
either in the tree of the "Edit Mesh" modifier (10) or with
the appropriated icon in the "selection" thimble (10).
-
You are now able to select one or several (with the Ctrl key) polygonal
of your sector.
- Look for and unroll the
"Surface Properties" thimble (it's the last one).
- The "Material ID"
square allow you to choose a sub-object ID that's you defined in point
2.1. Set it up. If you assigned different colors for each sub-objects
you should see them appearing on the selected polygonals.
-
Set up these ID's for all the polygonals of the sector.
- That's it !! Each polygonals
has now his own texture. You will now have to define the orientation
and the disposition of the texture on the polygonal. It's the mapping
coordinates.
2.3)
Mapping coordinates
- In the "Modify"
thimble (8), unroll the menu "Modifier List" (9) and choose
"UVW Mapping".
- In the "Parameters"
thimble, mark off "Face" (12). As you do this the texture
height will fit with polygonals's one. Now you can render the scene
a first time to have a first look before starting the textures orientation.
* Note that if you marked off the little square to display the texture into the material editor, you'll be able to see them now and work directly without rendering anything. But note too that your hardware should not appreciate this when your track will become a little bit bigger :)
-
In the "Modify" thimble (8), unroll the menu "Modifier
List" (9) and choose now "Unwrap UVW".
- Unroll the tree of this
modifier and select "Select Face" (13). You can now select
the mapped polygonals of your sector.
- Select polygonal(s)
you want to work on then in the "Parameters" thimble,
click on "Edit" (14).
-
A brand new sexy window open up. Wow...:)
- Before doing anything
else, mark off the icon (15) wich allow you to edit only the informations
of the selected polygonals. Check constantly if this button is
activated. Otherwise you will do modifications on the mapping
of your whole sector and not only to the selected polygonals.
- So this window is
displaying the mapping coordinates of the selected polygonal(s)
: they are the white points. If you selected a triangle, there
will be 3points. If it's a quadrilateral, there will be 6 points
(but some are superposed) because a quadrilateral's mapping is
decomposed into 2 triangles. The picture below show a quadrilateral's
mapping. I voluntary moved the superposed points to show them
better. You can move them either with the mouse or directly in
modifying their coordinates (17) for more precision. The W coordinate
is useless because it isn't exported, so forget it. If this subject
remain a lil'bit dark for you, just experiment by yourself in
moving the white points around and in looking at the consequence
it has on the polygonals selected. To be exportable, mapping coordinates
must be in the texture, so the values can only be between 0 and
1.
*To speak simplier
: The shapes formed by the white lines linking the white points
together represent the part of your texture wich will be applied
on the polygonal(s).
- You
can choose the background texture (16) to place your coordinates.
This is only a little reference mark wich will not affect your
previous textures affectations on polygonals.
- Set up the mapping
coordinates for all your polygonals. ( this is to my sense the
funniest part of the job ! be happy mates ! ;)
3)
Parameters
- As a track is more
than a simple (Whot!?!) 3D scene, you will have to set up some
additional properties :
*
The luminosity
*
The surface properties
*
The sectors visibility
3.1)
Luminosity
- In a track, each
vertex has to own a luminosity value to define the texture lighting.
In a tunnel for example, vertexes will have a low luminosity
to make the textures look darker. These values influence only
on the track lighting and not on the car lighting.
- In the "Modify"
thimble (8), unroll the "Modifier List" menu and choose
"Edit mesh".
- Select "Vertex"
either in the tree of the "Edit mesh" modifier (18)
or with the appropriate icon below in the "Selection"
thimble.
- You can now select
vertexes of your sector.
- Look for and unroll
the "Surface Properties" thimble (it didn't move I
think...;)
- Edit the weight
of the selected vertexes (19). This will code the luminosity
of these vertexes at exportation. 30 is a medium value, good
for testing track before setting up definitive lighting.
* Note that
you absolutely have to set luminosity values for each vertexes
before exporting. Otherwise exporter will not export the scene.
3.2) Surface properties
- There are some
properties to define for each polygonals of the track : his
type (road, wall, decoration) wich is influencing on the collision
parameters between cars and polygonal, the grip, the transparency
of the black colour (perfect balck applied on a texture can
become transparent), the visibility of the polygonal (two
faced polygonal if needed), the mirror effect (Glide mode
only), etc...
-
In the "Modify" thimble (8), unroll the "Modifier
List" menu and choose "Edit mesh".
- Select "Polygon"
either in the tree of the "Edit mesh" modifier or
with the appropriate icon below into the "Selection"
thimble.
- You can now select
polygons of your sector.
-
Look for and unroll the "Surface Properties" thimble
(yes yes always there !)
- Look at the "Smoothing
Groups" (20). There are 32 buttons, the last one (n°32)
MUST BE activated for all the polygonals. Each of the 31 others
remaining represent one of these properties to set up. For
example, if the button n°9 is activated, the polygon will
be considered as a wall. If the n°10 is activated, it
will be a decoration. If only the 32 is activated, the polygon
will be a road.
- If none of these
31 buttons are activated, default properties are these : road,
maximum grip, texture visible on the normal side, black not
transparent, no mirror effect and no dural effect.
- So if you want
to only quick test your track, just activate the n°32
button...
- The list showing
the propertiy associated to each button is here.
3.3)
Sectors visibility
- If your track
is composed with only one sector this section is useless
for you.
- But if it is
composed with several sectors, you have to indicate wich
sectors are visible form the sector where the player's car
stand. It's the point of the cutting off of a track. All
sectors aren't visible at the same time. (That's why in
nellaF's scut you don't see the upper road from the lower
one, but it appears as soon as the car enter the upper sector,
and disapears as soon as the car leave it). It's a very
good way to improve framerate in Pod too. A big track with
no sector cutting off will slow pod engine.
- Select a sector
and right click on it into a view port of 3Dsmax. In the
pop-up menu pick "Properties".
- Select then
the thimble "User Defined" (22).
- In this text-zone
you can give the list of all sectors visible from the sector
you're editing. You can write the name of all the sectors
you want to be visible in separating them by single spaces
or by return to the line. You can also use the "ALL"
keyword to make all sectors visible form the edited sector.
And finally there is also the "DECOR" keyword
if the edited sector is a decoration where car will never
drive on.
-
Define this for all your sectors
4) CP and
start positions
- Setting checkpoints
and cars positions up is very easy. In the plugin's zip
file you should find a "test2.max" 3Dsmax file.
This is a test scene wich contain all the objects needed
to do this setup : 16 car position objects (8 for normal
mode and 8 for reverse mode) and 8 CP position objects
(4 for normal mode and 4 for reverse mode). Here's what
must be done to insert them in your track and place them
correctly :
* Go into the
3Dsmax "File" menu and click on "Merge"
* Select then
the "Test2.max" file where you stored it on
your hard drive.
* A list of
all the objects contained into this "Test2.max"
file is now appearing. Select the objects you are interested
in (if it's just for quick testing an unfinished track,
just select the 16 car position objects. Place CP only
when your track will be finished) and validate.
* Now the objects
you selected are into your scene. Red boxes are normal
way car positions. Yellow boxes are reverse way car positions.
Pink square shapes are normal checkpoints and yellow ones
are reverse checkpoints.
* You have just
to position them where you want to place your start positions
and your checkpoints.
* IMPORTANT notes : Car position objects must be placed right on the floor, at the same level ! There is a little error margin but not much so be careful when doing this. On the CP side, there's one important rule to respect : DON'T rotate them even if your road is twisted. Here's a picture showing explicitly what I mean :
* Last note on this side : be careful to place these objects in the right way. You all should be able to do it correctly when you'll see the objects...Sik made them...explicit ;)
5) Summary
- Here's what
must be done to quickly create an exportable scene for
a first test :
* Design your
track as one single object
* Map it and
set all mapping coordinates (cf §2).
* Check if all
coordinates are set between 0 and 1 (to do this really
easily, select all the faces of your objects and unmark
the icon (15) into the mapping coordinates editing window
(cf §2.3).
* Select all
the vertexes and give them a weight value to set the luminosity
of the textures (cf §3.1).
* Select all
the polygonals and unmark the 31 buttons of the "Smoothing
groups", just let the n°32 activated (cf §3.2).
* If you cut
up your track into several sectors, don't forget to set
the visibility lists. (cf §3.3).
* Set up the
16 car start position objects. (cf
§4).
* Export the
file as "test.bl4" if you want to use it instead
of the test track in the game. Pick any other Pod track
name if you want...
This tutorial was first written in french by Sik, the programmer of the plugin. I translated it as I could. I hope all this is clear for you...or at least that this isn't the language wich made it hard to understand ! ;)
I'm creating a Pod track too. It's already in good work and I encountered some little troubles, sometimes really annoying. Sik has corrected the plugin to avoid you most of these troubles but some little stuffs against wich we can't do nothing are remaing. To avoid you these troubles, I wrote them down. You can read them here