The DarkMod Wiki - User contributions [en]

Drawcalls

2018-02-21T05:57:29Z

Epifire: /* How to reduce drawcalls of your scene */

== Introduction ==

The engine draws the things you see on the screen in ''batches'' and such a batch is called a '''drawcall'''.

The time a drawcall takes consists of two parts:

# a static overhead, that is always the same no matter how many things get drawn
# a dynamic part that depends on how many things there are to draw

One basic thing is that each model in idTech4 gets drawn '''once''' per light that hits that model. And each of these draws of the model is split into '''drawcalls''' for each material.

So if you have a model with two different materials that is hit by 3 lights, the entire model is drawn 3 times, and the engine uses '''2 * 3 = 6 drawcalls''' to do so.

== How much drawcalls are "good"? ==

Thsi number depends highly on the system and the performance you want to achive. In the past the limit to shoot for was about 300..500 drawcalls, but machines from today can easily handle 1000 drawcalls.

But generally spoken, the less drawcalls you have, the better.

== How to reduce drawcalls of your scene ==

# If you are making models: Reduce the number of different materials a model uses by using a [[Creating_LOD_Models#Texture_atlas|texture atlas]].
# Combine multiple func_statics made from map geometry (brushes/patches) into one.
# Use the SEED system to combine multiple models in one scene.
# If you are using models, by using less different skins. (this only reduces the texture usage, not the drawcalls, unless you use the SEED system, see above, where it also reduces the number of entities and thus the drawcalls)

Note: To test drawcalls in-game use [[Console_Useful_Controls|r_showPrimitives]] to print to console.

As a last resort you can also reduce the complexity of your scene by removing unnecessary models or replacing far-away detail brushes by decals.

== See also ==

* [[SEED]]
* [[SEED - Watching entities]]

{{editing}}

Vertex Painting

2017-08-17T19:46:28Z

Epifire: Epifire moved page Vertex Painting to Vertex Painting in Lightwave

#REDIRECT [[Vertex Painting in Lightwave]]

Vertex Painting in Lightwave

2017-08-17T19:46:28Z

Epifire: Epifire moved page Vertex Painting to Vertex Painting in Lightwave

[[Category:Tutorial]]
Here we'll discuss from start to finish, a Vertex Color Material for a model converted from Dark Radiant brushwork. Software you'll be using are Dark Radiant and Lightwave Modeler. How you procure a copy of Lightwave is entirely up to you; I happen to be using ''Lightwave Modeler 11.5'' for this tutorial. It's worth noting that Lightwave saves it's model data into the proprietary binary file type LWO. LWO is one of two primary formats supported to run in the Doom3 engine (the other being ASE). This painting method can be done in either format but LWO is by far a superior type as it usually only amounts to mere kbs of data for multiple files.

You may ask, what does Vertex Painting do? In short, it allows you to paint two materials onto the same mesh using Black and White colors stored in the vertex data (denoting one or the other material). This is extremely useful for many different scenarios but can only be done with models.

This tutorial already assumes you know how to create levels and manage brushwork in Dark Radiant. After covering this tutorial you should cleanly be able to add in material blending to your levels, with no prior modeling experience. ''See the bottom of this page for basic hotkeys to use for Modeler.''

== Step 1: Prep and Export Brushwork ==
Here I already have a prepped small space done up in DR. It's important that you texture and scale the surface properties to your liking. When we export this data in the OBJ script, '''this will be used as your UV data in Lightwave'''. When ready to export in DR go Scripts>ExportOBJ and be sure to center objects.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 001.jpg|800px|]]

== Step 2: Importing and Painting in Lightwave ==

Now it's time to head to Lightwave and open your OBJ file you've exported. First thing you'll want to do is press '''F5''' to bring up the Surface Editor panel. Two things you'll want to do is check smoothing on and find a good value (I use 60 degrees) and then press rename in the top right corner to specify the material name you want to embed in the saved LWO. Here I use vertex_blend_test for my example material name and it must be devoid of typos to match the name we'll declare in the MTR later.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 002.png]]

Next we're going to paint black and white vertex colors to define material blending. To find the painting window you'll have to go to the Map tab and find Vertex Paint under Color.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 005.png]] >> Once the paint window loads, hit Edit and Create Vertex Color Map from this drop down >> [[File:Vertex Paint Tut 006.png]]

Here's an example of how your mesh should look when painted. Be sure you use solid white and black to paint with. The exception being grays where you want longer blend transitions. Once complete save and exit the paint window.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 007.png|1000px|]]

== Step 3: Final Model and Material ==

Finally we just need to triangulate the polygons (since TDM can't render straight quads) and then save your new mesh to your desired output folder. To Triangulate the mesh simply go to the Multiply Tab and press Triple. You can now save the file to it's output directory. Note: LWO is Lightwave's native format and will save a working model for TDM by default.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 004.png]]

A short rundown here on the material composition. This is a material I put together from stock assets so you can plug this right in (or modify it) to your heart's content! The first two blocks containing (This is white coverage) literally will only be visible in white painted sections of your mesh. As the like, same goes for the next two blocks for black coverage. You can also use the VertexColor/InverseVertexColor commands across additional blocks to create more complex material functions depending on what your project requires.

<nowiki>vertex_blend_test
{
surftype15
description "grass"

{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small_local
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones_local
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
}</nowiki>

Save that into an MTR and make sure that name matches with the one you chose in the Surface Editor. If all goes well you should be able to pull of some more natural looking blends like this.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 008.jpg|1000px|]]

== Ending Tips ==
Merge unwanted hard edges. If you're stringing together multiple patches and don't want a hard seam to be present go to the Construct tab in Lightwave and find Weld Edges. If your edges in question all occupy the same 3D space, it will merge them and combine the polygons as one contiguous surface.

Use the Caulk texture wisely if you're exporting regular brush primitives from Dark Radiant (eg. not patches) as you can cull out unneeded faces to further clean up your model beforehand. Your mesh in this workflow is only as good as your prep for it in DR. Only assigning textures to the surface you wish to have showing is your best bet.

Use textures that blend well together. Some textures just don't look too good side by side, so finding the right combination is key. Also creating a secondary distress/grunge texture from the original image has fantastic benefits of the two materials sharing similar details. This aids the blending and doesn't present as hard of a visual gradient where the blend occurs.

Use noshadows in your MTR definition when appropriate. Any time you know the model in question will never need to cast shadows, add this option. Since most scenarios require us to pad and, "insulate" or models with brushes, those solids will block lights for us. Anything you can do to chip away at the tris considered for shadow casters will help performance.

Lastly I'd suggest to anybody doing floors or terrain, to save and reuse their original brushwork/patches textured with tdm_nodrawsolid_grass (or a collision type appropriate). This ensures that AI will traverse it correctly and footstep collision sounds wont be faulty.

----

'''Hotkeys for Lightwave Modeler.'''

-S (save current model to file)

-Alt+LeftClick (rotate Camera)

-Alt+Ctrl+LeftClick (zoom Camera)

-Alt+Shift+LeftClick (pan Camera)

''-Epifire 8/15/2017''

Vertex Painting in Lightwave

2017-08-17T09:24:23Z

Epifire:

Vertex Painting in Lightwave

2017-08-17T09:12:49Z

Epifire:

[[Category:Tutorial]]
Here we'll discuss from start to finish, a Vertex Color Material for a model converted from Dark Radiant brushwork. Software you'll be using are Dark Radiant and Lightwave Modeler. How you procure a copy of Lightwave is entirely up to you; I happen to be using ''Lightwave Modeler 11.5'' for this tutorial. It's worth noting that Lightwave saves it's model data into the proprietary binary file type LWO. LWO is one of two primary formats supported to run in the Doom3 engine (the other being ASE). This painting method can be done in either format but LWO is by far a superior type as it usually only amounts to mere kbs of data for multiple files.

You may ask, what does Vertex Painting do? In short, it allows you to paint two materials onto the same mesh using Black and White colors (denoting one or the other material). This is extremely useful for many different scenarios but can only be done with models.

This tutorial already assumes you know how to create levels and manage brushwork in Dark Radiant. After covering this tutorial you should cleanly be able to add in material blending to your levels, with no prior modeling experience. ''See the bottom of this page for basic hotkeys to use for Modeler.''

== Step 1: Prep and Export Brushwork ==
Here I already have a prepped small space done up in DR. It's important that you texture and scale the surface properties to your liking. When we export this data in the OBJ script, '''this will be used as your UV data in Lightwave'''. When ready to export in DR go Scripts>ExportOBJ and be sure to center objects.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 001.jpg|800px|]]

== Step 2: Importing and Painting in Lightwave ==

Now it's time to head to Lightwave and open your OBJ file you've exported. First thing you'll want to do is press '''F5''' to bring up the Surface Editor panel. Two things you'll want to do is check smoothing on and find a good value (I use 60 degrees) and then press rename in the top right corner to specify the material name you want to embed in the saved LWO. Here I use vertex_blend_test for my example material name and it must be devoid of typos to match the name we'll declare in the MTR later.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 002.png]]

Next we're going to paint black and white vertex colors to define material blending. To find the painting window you'll have to go to the Map tab and find Vertex Paint under Color.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 005.png]] >> Once the paint window loads, hit Edit and Create Vertex Color Map from this drop down >> [[File:Vertex Paint Tut 006.png]]

Here's an example of how your mesh should look when painted. Be sure you use solid white and black to paint with. The exception being grays where you want longer blend transitions. Once complete save and exit the paint window.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 007.png|1000px|]]

== Step 3: Final Model and Material ==

Finally we just need to triangulate the polygons (since TDM can't render straight quads) and then save your new mesh to your desired output folder. To Triangulate the mesh simply go to the Multiply Tab and press Triple. You can now save the file to it's output directory. Note: LWO is Lightwave's native format and will save a working model for TDM by default.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 004.png]]

A short rundown here on the material composition. This is a material I put together from stock assets so you can plug this right in (or modify it) to your heart's content! The first two blocks containing (This is white coverage) literally will only be visible in white painted sections of your mesh. As the like, same goes for the next two blocks for black coverage. You can also use the VertexColor/InverseVertexColor commands across additional blocks to create more complex material functions depending on what your project requires.

<nowiki>vertex_blend_test
{
surftype15
description "grass"

{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small_local
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones_local
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
}</nowiki>

Save that into an MTR and make sure that name matches with the one you chose in the Surface Editor. If all goes well you should be able to pull of some more natural looking blends like this.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 008.jpg|1000px|]]

== Ending Tips ==
Merge unwanted hard edges. If you're stringing together multiple patches and don't want a hard seam to be present go to the Construct tab in Lightwave and find Weld Edges. If your edges in question all occupy the same 3D space, it will merge them and combine the polygons as one contiguous surface.

Use the Caulk texture wisely if you're exporting regular brush primitives from Dark Radiant (eg. not patches) as you can cull out unneeded faces to further clean up your model beforehand. Your mesh in this workflow is only as good as your prep for it in DR. Only assigning textures to the surface you wish to have showing is your best bet.

Use textures that blend well together. Some textures just don't look too good side by side, so finding the right combination is key. Also creating a secondary distress/grunge texture from the original image has fantastic benefits of the two materials sharing similar details. This aids the blending and doesn't present as hard of a visual gradient where the blend occurs.

Use noshadows in your MTR definition when appropriate. Any time you know the model in question will never need to cast shadows, add this option. Since most scenarios require us to pad and, "insulate" or models with brushes, those solids will block lights for us. Anything you can do to chip away at the tris considered for shadow casters will help performance.

Lastly I'd suggest to anybody doing floors or terrain, to save and reuse their original brushwork/patches textured with tdm_nodrawsolid_grass (or a collision type appropriate). This ensures that AI will traverse it correctly and footstep collision sounds wont be faulty.

----

'''Hotkeys for Lightwave Modeler.'''

-S (save current model to file)

-Alt+LeftClick (rotate Camera)

-Alt+Ctrl+LeftClick (zoom Camera)

-Alt+Shift+LeftClick (pan Camera)

''-Epifire 8/15/2017''

Vertex Painting in Lightwave

2017-08-17T09:05:21Z

Epifire:

[[Category:Tutorials]]
Here we'll discuss from start to finish, a Vertex Color Material for a model converted from Dark Radiant brushwork. Software you'll be using are Dark Radiant and Lightwave Modeler. How you procure a copy of Lightwave is entirely up to you; I happen to be using ''Lightwave Modeler 11.5'' for this tutorial. It's worth noting that Lightwave saves it's model data into the proprietary binary file type LWO. LWO is one of two primary formats supported to run in the Doom3 engine (the other being ASE). This painting method can be done in either format but LWO is by far a superior type as it usually only amounts to mere kbs of data for multiple files.

You may ask, what does Vertex Painting do? In short, it allows you to paint two materials onto the same mesh using Black and White colors (denoting one or the other material). This is extremely useful for many different scenarios but can only be done with models.

This tutorial already assumes you know how to create levels and manage brushwork in Dark Radiant. After covering this tutorial you should cleanly be able to add in material blending to your levels, with no prior modeling experience. ''See the bottom of this page for basic hotkeys to use for Modeler.''

== Step 1: Prep and Export Brushwork ==
Here I already have a prepped small space done up in DR. It's important that you texture and scale the surface properties to your liking. When we export this data in the OBJ script, '''this will be used as your UV data in Lightwave'''. When ready to export in DR go Scripts>ExportOBJ and be sure to center objects.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 001.jpg|800px|]]

== Step 2: Importing and Painting in Lightwave ==

Now it's time to head to Lightwave and open your OBJ file you've exported. First thing you'll want to do is press '''F5''' to bring up the Surface Editor panel. Two things you'll want to do is check smoothing on and find a good value (I use 60 degrees) and then press rename in the top right corner to specify the material name you want to embed in the saved LWO. Here I use vertex_blend_test for my example material name and it must be devoid of typos to match the name we'll declare in the MTR later.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 002.png]]

Next we're going to paint black and white vertex colors to define material blending. To find the painting window you'll have to go to the Map tab and find Vertex Paint under Color.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 005.png]] >> Once the paint window loads, hit Edit and Create Vertex Color Map from this drop down >> [[File:Vertex Paint Tut 006.png]]

Here's an example of how your mesh should look when painted. Be sure you use solid white and black to paint with. The exception being grays where you want longer blend transitions. Once complete save and exit the paint window.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 007.png|1000px|]]

== Step 3: Final Model and Material ==

Finally we just need to triangulate the polygons (since TDM can't render straight quads) and then save your new mesh to your desired output folder. To Triangulate the mesh simply go to the Multiply Tab and press Triple. You can now save the file to it's output directory. Note: LWO is Lightwave's native format and will save a working model for TDM by default.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 004.png]]

A short rundown here on the material composition. This is a material I put together from stock assets so you can plug this right in (or modify it) to your heart's content! The first two blocks containing (This is white coverage) literally will only be visible in white painted sections of your mesh. As the like, same goes for the next two blocks for black coverage. You can also use the VertexColor/InverseVertexColor commands across additional blocks to create more complex material functions depending on what your project requires.

<nowiki>vertex_blend_test
{
surftype15
description "grass"

{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small_local
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones_local
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
}</nowiki>

Save that into an MTR and make sure that name matches with the one you chose in the Surface Editor. If all goes well you should be able to pull of some more natural looking blends like this.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 008.jpg|1000px|]]

== Ending Tips ==
Merge unwanted hard edges. If you're stringing together multiple patches and don't want a hard seam to be present go to the Construct tab in Lightwave and find Weld Edges. If your edges in question all occupy the same 3D space, it will merge them and combine the polygons as one contiguous surface.

Use the Caulk texture wisely if you're exporting regular brush primitives from Dark Radiant (eg. not patches) as you can cull out unneeded faces to further clean up your model beforehand. Your mesh in this workflow is only as good as your prep for it in DR. Only assigning textures to the surface you wish to have showing is your best bet.

Use textures that blend well together. Some textures just don't look too good side by side, so finding the right combination is key. Also creating a secondary distress/grunge texture from the original image has fantastic benefits of the two materials sharing similar details. This aids the blending and doesn't present as hard of a visual gradient where the blend occurs.

Use noshadows in your MTR definition when appropriate. Any time you know the model in question will never need to cast shadows, add this option. Since most scenarios require us to pad and, "insulate" or models with brushes, those solids will block lights for us. Anything you can do to chip away at the tris considered for shadow casters will help performance.

Lastly I'd suggest to anybody doing floors or terrain, to save and reuse their original brushwork/patches textured with tdm_nodrawsolid_grass (or a collision type appropriate). This ensures that AI will traverse it correctly and footstep collision sounds wont be faulty.

----

'''Hotkeys for Lightwave Modeler.'''

-S (save current model to file)

-Alt+LeftClick (rotate Camera)

-Alt+Ctrl+LeftClick (zoom Camera)

-Alt+Shift+LeftClick (pan Camera)

''-Epifire 8/15/2017''

Vertex Painting in Lightwave

2017-08-15T07:03:04Z

Epifire:

Here we'll discuss from start to finish, a Vertex Color Material for a model converted from Dark Radiant brushwork. Software you'll be using are Dark Radiant and Lightwave Modeler. How you procure a copy of Lightwave is entirely up to you; I happen to be using ''Lightwave Modeler 11.5'' for this tutorial. It's worth noting that Lightwave saves it's model data into the proprietary binary file type LWO. LWO is one of two primary formats supported to run in the Doom3 engine (the other being ASE). This painting method can be done in either format but LWO is by far a superior type as it usually only amounts to mere kbs of data for multiple files.

This tutorial already assumes you know how to create levels and manage brushwork in Dark Radiant. After covering this tutorial you should cleanly be able to add in material blending to your levels, with no prior modeling experience. ''See the bottom of this page for basic hotkeys to use for Modeler.''

== Step 1: Prep and Export Brushwork ==
Here I already have a prepped small space done up in DR. It's important that you texture and scale the surface properties to your liking. When we export this data in the OBJ script, '''this will be used as your UV data in Lightwave'''. When ready to export in DR go Scripts>ExportOBJ and be sure to center objects.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 001.jpg|800px|]]

== Step 2: Importing and Painting in Lightwave ==

Now it's time to head to Lightwave and open your OBJ file you've exported. First thing you'll want to do is press '''F5''' to bring up the Surface Editor panel. Two things you'll want to do is check smoothing on and find a good value (I use 60 degrees) and then press rename in the top right corner to specify the material name you want to embed in the saved LWO. Here I use vertex_blend_test for my example material name and it must be devoid of typos to match the name we'll declare in the MTR later.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 002.png]]

Next we're going to paint black and white vertex colors to define material blending. To find the painting window you'll have to go to the Map tab and find Vertex Paint under Color.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 005.png]] >> Once the paint window loads, hit Edit and Create Vertex Color Map from this drop down >> [[File:Vertex Paint Tut 006.png]]

Here's an example of how your mesh should look when painted. Be sure you use solid white and black to paint with. The exception being grays where you want longer blend transitions. Once complete save and exit the paint window.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 007.png|1000px|]]

== Step 3: Final Model and Material ==

Finally we just need to triangulate the polygons (since TDM can't render straight quads) and then save your new mesh to your desired output folder. To Triangulate the mesh simply go to the Multiply Tab and press Triple. You can now save the file to it's output directory. Note: LWO is Lightwave's native format and will save a working model for TDM by default.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 004.png]]

A short rundown here on the material composition. This is a material I put together from stock assets so you can plug this right in (or modify it) to your heart's content! The first two blocks containing (This is white coverage) literally will only be visible in white painted sections of your mesh. As the like, same goes for the next two blocks for black coverage. You can also use the VertexColor/InverseVertexColor commands across additional blocks to create more complex material functions depending on what your project requires.

<nowiki>vertex_blend_test
{
surftype15
description "grass"

{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small_local
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones_local
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
}</nowiki>

Save that into an MTR and make sure that name matches with the one you chose in the Surface Editor. If all goes well you should be able to pull of some more natural looking blends like this.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 008.jpg|1000px|]]

== Ending Tips ==
Merge unwanted hard edges. If you're stringing together multiple patches and don't want a hard seam to be present go to the Construct tab in Lightwave and find Weld Edges. If your edges in question all occupy the same 3D space, it will merge them and combine the polygons as one contiguous surface.

Use the Caulk texture wisely if you're exporting regular brush primitives from Dark Radiant (eg. not patches) as you can cull out unneeded faces to further clean up your model beforehand. Your mesh in this workflow is only as good as your prep for it in DR. Only assigning textures to the surface you wish to have showing is your best bet.

Use textures that blend well together. Some textures just don't look too good side by side, so finding the right combination is key. Also creating a secondary distress/grunge texture from the original image has fantastic benefits of the two materials sharing similar details. This aids the blending and doesn't present as hard of a visual gradient where the blend occurs.

Use noshadows in your MTR definition when appropriate. Any time you know the model in question will never need to cast shadows, add this option. Since most scenarios require us to pad and, "insulate" or models with brushes, those solids will block lights for us. Anything you can do to chip away at the tris considered for shadow casters will help performance.

Lastly I'd suggest to anybody doing floors or terrain, to save and reuse their original brushwork/patches textured with tdm_nodrawsolid_grass (or a collision type appropriate). This ensures that AI will traverse it correctly and footstep collision sounds wont be faulty.

----

'''Hotkeys for Lightwave Modeler.'''

-S (save current model to file)

-Alt+LeftClick (rotate Camera)

-Alt+Ctrl+LeftClick (zoom Camera)

-Alt+Shift+LeftClick (pan Camera)

''-Epifire 8/15/2017''

Vertex Painting in Lightwave

2017-08-15T07:01:46Z

Epifire:

Here we'll discuss from start to finish, a Vertex Color Material for a model converted from Dark Radiant brushwork. Software you'll be using are Dark Radiant and Lightwave Modeler. How you procure a copy of Lightwave is entirely up to you; I happen to be using ''Lightwave Modeler 11.5'' for this tutorial. It's worth noting that Lightwave saves it's model data into the proprietary binary file type LWO. LWO is one of two primary formats supported to run in the Doom3 engine (the other being ASE). This painting method can be done in either format but LWO is by far a superior type as it usually only amounts to mere kbs of data for multiple files.

This tutorial already assumes you know how to create levels and manage brushwork in Dark Radiant. After covering this tutorial you should cleanly be able to add in material blending to your levels, with no prior modeling experience. ''See the bottom of this page for basic hotkeys to use for Modeler.''

== Step 1: Prep and Export Brushwork ==
Here I already have a prepped small space done up in DR. It's important that you texture and scale the surface properties to your liking. When we export this data in the OBJ script, '''this will be used as your UV data in Lightwave'''. When ready to export in DR go Scripts>ExportOBJ and be sure to center objects.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 001.jpg|800px|]]

== Step 2: Importing and Painting in Lightwave ==

Now it's time to head to Lightwave and open your OBJ file you've exported. First thing you'll want to do is press '''F5''' to bring up the Surface Editor panel. Two things you'll want to do is check smoothing on and find a good value (I use 60 degrees) and then press rename in the top right corner to specify the material name you want to embed in the saved LWO. Here I use vertex_blend_test for my example material name and it must be devoid of typos to match the name we'll declare in the MTR later.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 002.png]]

Next we're going to paint black and white vertex colors to define material blending. To find the painting window you'll have to go to the Map tab and find Vertex Paint under Color.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 005.png]] >> Once the paint window loads, hit Edit and Create Vertex Color Map from this drop down >> [[File:Vertex Paint Tut 006.png]]

Here's an example of how your mesh should look when painted. Be sure you use solid white and black to paint with. The exception being grays where you want longer blend transitions. Once complete save and exit the paint window.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 007.png|1000px|]]

== Step 3: Final Model and Material ==

Finally we just need to triangulate the polygons (since TDM can't render straight quads) and then save your new mesh to your desired output folder. To Triangulate the mesh simply go to the Multiply Tab and press Triple. You can now save the file to it's output directory. Note: LWO is Lightwave's native format and will save a working model for TDM by default.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 004.png]]

A short rundown here on the material composition. This is a material I put together from stock assets so you can plug this right in (or modify it) to your heart's content! The first two blocks containing (This is white coverage) literally will only be visible in white painted sections of your mesh. As the like, same goes for the next two blocks for black coverage. You can also use the VertexColor/InverseVertexColor commands across additional blocks to create more complex material functions depending on what your project requires.

<nowiki>vertex_blend_test
{
surftype15
description "grass"

{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small_local
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones_local
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
}</nowiki>

Save that into an MTR and make sure that name matches with the one you chose in the Surface Editor. If all goes well you should be able to pull of some more natural looking blends like this.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 008.jpg|1000px|]]

== Ending Tips ==
Merge unwanted hard edges. If you're stringing together multiple patches and don't want a hard seam to be present go to the Construct tab in Lightwave and find Weld Edges. If your edges in question all occupy the same 3D space, it will merge them and combine the polygons as one contiguous surface.

Use the Caulk texture wisely if you're exporting regular brush primitives from Dark Radiant (eg. not patches) as you can cull out unneeded faces to further clean up your model beforehand. Your mesh in this workflow is only as good as your prep for it in DR. Only assigning textures to the surface you wish to have showing is your best bet.

Lastly I'd suggest to anybody doing floors or terrain, to save and reuse their original brushwork/patches textured with tdm_nodrawsolid_grass (or a collision type appropriate). This ensures that AI will traverse it correctly and footstep collision sounds wont be faulty.

Use textures that blend well together. Some textures just don't look too good side by side, so finding the right combination is key. Also creating a secondary distress/grunge texture from the original image has fantastic benefits of the two materials sharing similar details. This aids the blending and doesn't present as hard of a visual gradient where the blend occurs.

Use noshadows in your MTR definition when appropriate. Any time you know the model in question will never need to cast shadows, add this option. Since most scenarios require us to pad and, "insulate" or models with brushes, those solids will block lights for us. Anything you can do to chip away at the tris considered for shadow casters will help performance.

----

'''Hotkeys for Lightwave Modeler.'''

-S (save current model to file)

-Alt+LeftClick (rotate Camera)

-Alt+Ctrl+LeftClick (zoom Camera)

-Alt+Shift+LeftClick (pan Camera)

''-Epifire 8/15/2017''

Vertex Painting in Lightwave

2017-08-15T05:59:11Z

Epifire:

Here we'll discuss from start to finish, a Vertex Color Material for a model converted from Dark Radiant brushwork. Software you'll be using are Dark Radiant and Lightwave Modeler. How you procure a copy of Lightwave is entirely up to you; I happen to be using ''Lightwave Modeler 11.5'' for this tutorial. It's worth noting that Lightwave saves it's model data into the proprietary binary file type LWO. LWO is one of two primary formats supported to run in the Doom3 engine (the other being ASE). This painting method can be done in either format but LWO is by far a superior type as it usually only amounts to mere kbs of data for multiple files.

This tutorial already assumes you know how to create levels and manage brushwork in Dark Radiant. After covering this tutorial you should cleanly be able to add in material blending to your levels, with no prior modeling experience. ''See the bottom of this page for basic hotkeys to use for Modeler.''

== Step 1: Prep and Export Brushwork ==
Here I already have a prepped small space done up in DR. It's important that you texture and scale the surface properties to your liking. When we export this data in the OBJ script, '''this will be used as your UV data in Lightwave'''. When ready to export in DR go Scripts>ExportOBJ and be sure to center objects.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 001.jpg|800px|]]

== Step 2: Importing and Painting in Lightwave ==

Now it's time to head to Lightwave and open your OBJ file you've exported. First thing you'll want to do is press '''F5''' to bring up the Surface Editor panel. Two things you'll want to do is check smoothing on and find a good value (I use 60 degrees) and then press rename in the top right corner to specify the material name you want to embed in the saved LWO. Here I use vertex_blend_test for my example material name and it must be devoid of typos to match the name we'll declare in the MTR later.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 002.png]]

Next we're going to paint black and white vertex colors to define material blending. To find the painting window you'll have to go to the Map tab and find Vertex Paint under Color.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 005.png]] >> Once the paint window loads, hit Edit and Create Vertex Color Map from this drop down >> [[File:Vertex Paint Tut 006.png]]

Here's an example of how your mesh should look when painted. Be sure you use solid white and black to paint with. The exception being grays where you want longer blend transitions. Once complete save and exit the paint window.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 007.png|1000px|]]

== Step 3: Final Model and Material ==

Finally we just need to triangulate the polygons (since TDM can't render straight quads) and then save your new mesh to your desired output folder. To Triangulate the mesh simply go to the Multiply Tab and press Triple. You can now save the file to it's output directory. Note: LWO is Lightwave's native format and will save a working model for TDM by default.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 004.png]]

A short rundown here on the material composition. This is a material I put together from stock assets so you can plug this right in (or modify it) to your heart's content! The first two blocks containing (This is white coverage) literally will only be visible in white painted sections of your mesh. As the like, same goes for the next two blocks for black coverage. You can also use the VertexColor/InverseVertexColor commands across additional blocks to create more complex material functions depending on what your project requires.

<nowiki>vertex_blend_test
{
surftype15
description "grass"

{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small_local
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones_local
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
}</nowiki>

Save that into an MTR and make sure that name matches with the one you chose in the Surface Editor. If all goes well you should be able to pull of some more natural looking blends like this.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 008.jpg|1000px|]]

== Ending Tips ==

Lastly I'd suggest to anybody doing floors or terrain, to save and reuse their original brushwork/patches textured with tdm_nodrawsolid_grass (or a collision type appropriate). This ensures that AI will traverse it correctly and footstep collision sounds wont be faulty.

Use textures that blend well together. Some textures just don't look too good side by side, so finding the right combination is key. Also creating a secondary distress/grunge texture from the original image has fantastic benefits of the two materials sharing similar details. This aids the blending and doesn't present as hard of a visual gradient where the blend occurs.

Use noshadows in your MTR definition when appropriate. Any time you know the model in question will never need to cast shadows, add this option. Since most scenarios require us to pad and, "insulate" or models with brushes, those solids will block lights for us. Anything you can do to chip away at the tris considered for shadow casters will help performance.

----

'''Hotkeys for Lightwave Modeler.'''

-S (save current model to file)

-Alt+LeftClick (rotate Camera)

-Alt+Ctrl+LeftClick (zoom Camera)

-Alt+Shift+LeftClick (pan Camera)

''-Epifire 8/15/2017''

Vertex Painting in Lightwave

2017-08-15T05:43:23Z

Epifire:

Here we'll discuss from start to finish, a Vertex Color Material for a model converted from Dark Radiant brushwork. Software you'll be using are Dark Radiant and Lightwave Modeler. How you procure a copy of Lightwave is entirely up to you; I happen to be using ''Lightwave Modeler 11.5'' for this tutorial. It's worth noting that Lightwave saves it's model data into the proprietary binary file type LWO. LWO is one of two primary formats supported to run in the Doom3 engine (the other being ASE). This painting method can be done in either format but LWO is by far a superior type as it usually only amounts to mere kbs of data for multiple files.

This tutorial already assumes you know how to create levels and manage brushwork in Dark Radiant. After covering this tutorial you should cleanly be able to add in material blending to your levels, with no prior modeling experience. ''See the bottom of this page for basic hotkeys to use for Modeler.''

== Step 1: Prep and Export Brushwork ==
Here I already have a prepped small space done up in DR. It's important that you texture and scale the surface properties to your liking. When we export this data in the OBJ script, '''this will be used as your UV data in Lightwave'''. When ready to export in DR go Scripts>ExportOBJ and be sure to center objects.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 001.jpg|800px|]]

== Step 2: Importing and Painting in Lightwave ==

Now it's time to head to Lightwave and open your OBJ file you've exported. First thing you'll want to do is press '''F5''' to bring up the Surface Editor panel. Two things you'll want to do is check smoothing on and find a good value (I use 60 degrees) and then press rename in the top right corner to specify the material name you want to embed in the saved LWO. Here I use vertex_blend_test for my example material name and it must be devoid of typos to match the name we'll declare in the MTR later.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 002.png]]

Next we're going to paint black and white vertex colors to define material blending. To find the painting window you'll have to go to the Map tab and find Vertex Paint under Color.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 005.png]] >> Once the paint window loads, hit Edit and Create Vertex Color Map from this drop down >> [[File:Vertex Paint Tut 006.png]]

Here's an example of how your mesh should look when painted. Be sure you use solid white and black to paint with. The exception being grays where you want longer blend transitions. Once complete save and exit the paint window.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 007.png|1000px|]]

== Step 3: Final Model and Material ==

Finally we just need to triangulate the polygons (since TDM can't render straight quads) and then save your new mesh to your desired output folder. To Triangulate the mesh simply go to the Multiply Tab and press Triple. You can now save the file to it's output directory. Note: LWO is Lightwave's native format and will save a working model for TDM by default.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 004.png]]

A short rundown here on the material composition. This is a material I put together from stock assets so you can plug this right in (or modify it) to your heart's content!

<nowiki>vertex_blend_test
{
surftype15
description "grass"

{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small_local
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones_local
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
}</nowiki>

Save that into an MTR and make sure that name matches with the one you chose in the Surface Editor. If all goes well you should be able to pull of some more natural looking blends like this.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 008.jpg|1000px|]]

== Ending Tips ==

Lastly I'd suggest to anybody doing floors or terrain, to save and reuse their original brushwork/patches textured with tdm_nodrawsolid_grass (or a collision type appropriate). This ensures that AI will traverse it correctly and footstep collision sounds wont be faulty.

Use textures that blend well together. Some textures just don't look too good side by side, so finding the right combination is key. Also creating a secondary distress/grunge texture from the original image has fantastic benefits of the two materials sharing similar details. This aids the blending and doesn't present as hard of a visual gradient where the blend occurs.

Use noshadows in your MTR definition when appropriate. Any time you know the model in question will never need to cast shadows, add this option. Since most scenarios require us to pad and, "insulate" or models with brushes, those solids will block lights for us. Anything you can do to chip away at the tris considered for shadow casters will help performance.

----

'''Hotkeys for Lightwave Modeler.'''

-S (save current model to file)

-Alt+LeftClick (rotate Camera)

-Alt+Ctrl+LeftClick (zoom Camera)

-Alt+Shift+LeftClick (pan Camera)

''-Epifire 8/15/2017''

Vertex Painting in Lightwave

2017-08-15T05:42:58Z

Epifire:

Here we'll discuss from start to finish, a Vertex Color Material for a model converted from Dark Radiant brushwork. Software you'll be using are Dark Radiant and Lightwave Modeler. How you procure a copy of Lightwave is entirely up to you; I happen to be using ''Lightwave Modeler 11.5'' for this tutorial. It's worth noting that Lightwave saves it's model data into the proprietary binary file type LWO. LWO is one of two primary formats supported to run in the Doom3 engine (the other being ASE). This painting method can be done in either format but LWO is by far a superior type as it usually only amounts to mere kbs of data for multiple files.

This tutorial already assumes you know how to create levels and manage brushwork in Dark Radiant. After covering this tutorial you should cleanly be able to add in material blending to your levels, with no prior modeling experience. ''See the bottom of this page for basic hotkeys to use for Modeler.''

== Step 1: Prep and Export Brushwork ==
Here I already have a prepped small space done up in DR. It's important that you texture and scale the surface properties to your liking. When we export this data in the OBJ script, '''this will be used as your UV data in Lightwave'''. When ready to export in DR go Scripts>ExportOBJ and be sure to center objects.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 001.jpg|800px|]]

== Step 2: Importing and Painting in Lightwave ==

Now it's time to head to Lightwave and open your OBJ file you've exported. First thing you'll want to do is press '''F5''' to bring up the Surface Editor panel. Two things you'll want to do is check smoothing on and find a good value (I use 60 degrees) and then press rename in the top right corner to specify the material name you want to embed in the saved LWO. Here I use vertex_blend_test for my example material name and it must be devoid of typos to match the name we'll declare in the MTR later.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 002.png]]

Next we're going to paint black and white vertex colors to define material blending. To find the painting window you'll have to go to the Map tab and find Vertex Paint under Color.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 005.png]] >> Once the paint window loads, hit Edit and Create Vertex Color Map from this drop down >> [[File:Vertex Paint Tut 006.png]]

Here's an example of how your mesh should look when painted. Be sure you use solid white and black to paint with. The exception being grays where you want longer blend transitions. Once complete save and exit the paint window.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 007.png|1000px|]]

== Step 3: Final Model and Material ==

Finally we just need to triangulate the polygons (since TDM can't render straight quads) and then save your new mesh to your desired output folder. To Triangulate the mesh simply go to the Multiply Tab and press Triple. You can now save the file to it's output directory. Note: LWO is Lightwave's native format and will save a working model for TDM by default.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 004.png]]

A short rundown here on the material composition. This is a material I put together from stock assets so you can plug this right in (or modify it) to your heart's content!

<nowiki>vertex_blend_test
{
surftype15
description "grass"

{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small_local
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones_local
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
}</nowiki>

Save that into an MTR and make sure that name matches with the one you chose in the Surface Editor. If all goes well you should be able to pull of some more natural looking blends like this.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 008.jpg|1000px|]]

== Ending Tips ==

Lastly I'd suggest to anybody doing floors or terrain, to save and reuse their original brushwork/patches textured with tdm_nodrawsolid_grass (or a collision type appropriate). This ensures that AI will traverse it correctly and footstep collision sounds wont be faulty.

Use textures that blend well together. Some textures just don't look too good side by side, so finding the right combination is key. Also creating a secondary distress/grunge texture from the original image has fantastic benefits of the two materials sharing similar details. This aids the blending and doesn't present as hard of a visual gradient where the blend occurs.

Use noshadows in your MTR definition when appropriate. Any time you know the model in question will never need to cast shadows, add this option. Since most scenarios require us to pad and, "insulate" or models with brushes, those solids will block lights for us. Anything you can do to chip away at the tris considered for shadow casters will help performance.

----

'''Hotkeys for Lightwave Modeler.'''

-S (save current model to file)

-Alt+LeftClick (rotate Camera)

-Alt+Ctrl+LeftClick (zoom Camera)

-Alt+Shift+LeftClick (pan Camera)

''-Epifire 8/15/2017''

Vertex Painting in Lightwave

2017-08-15T05:40:43Z

Epifire:

Here we'll discuss from start to finish, a Vertex Color Material for a model converted from Dark Radiant brushwork. Software you'll be using are Dark Radiant and Lightwave Modeler. How you procure a copy of Lightwave is entirely up to you; I happen to be using ''Lightwave Modeler 11.5'' for this tutorial. It's worth noting that Lightwave saves it's model data into the proprietary binary file type LWO. LWO is one of two primary formats supported to run in the Doom3 engine (the other being ASE). This painting method can be done in either format but LWO is by far a superior type as it usually only amounts to mere kbs of data for multiple files.

This tutorial already assumes you know how to create levels and manage brushwork in Dark Radiant. After covering this tutorial you should cleanly be able to add in material blending to your levels, with no prior modeling experience. ''See the bottom of this page for basic hotkeys to use for Modeler.''

== Step 1: Prep and Export Brushwork ==
Here I already have a prepped small space done up in DR. It's important that you texture and scale the surface properties to your liking. When we export this data in the OBJ script, '''this will be used as your UV data in Lightwave'''. When ready to export in DR go Scripts>ExportOBJ and be sure to center objects.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 001.jpg|800px|]]

== Step 2: Importing and Painting in Lightwave ==

Now it's time to head to Lightwave and open your OBJ file you've exported. First thing you'll want to do is press '''F5''' to bring up the Surface Editor panel. Two things you'll want to do is check smoothing on and find a good value (I use 60 degrees) and then press rename in the top right corner to specify the material name you want to embed in the saved LWO. Here I use vertex_blend_test for my example material name and it must be devoid of typos to match the name we'll declare in the MTR later.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 002.png]]

Next we're going to paint black and white vertex colors to define material blending. To find the painting window you'll have to go to the Map tab and find Vertex Paint under Color.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 005.png]] >> Once the paint window loads, hit Edit and Create Vertex Color Map from this drop down >> [[File:Vertex Paint Tut 006.png]]

Here's an example of how your mesh should look when painted. Be sure you use solid white and black to paint with. The exception being grays where you want longer blend transitions. Once complete save and exit the paint window.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 007.png|1000px|]]

== Step 3: Final Model and Material ==

Finally we just need to triangulate the polygons (since TDM can't render straight quads) and then save your new mesh to your desired output folder. To Triangulate the mesh simply go to the Multiply Tab and press Triple. You can now save the file to it's output directory. Note: LWO is Lightwave's native format and will save a working model for TDM by default.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 004.png]]

A short rundown here on the material composition. This is a material I put together from stock assets so you can plug this right in (or modify it) to your heart's content!

<nowiki>vertex_blend_test
{
surftype15
description "grass"

{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small_local
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}
{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones_local
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
}</nowiki>

Save that into an MTR and make sure that name matches with the one you chose in the Surface Editor. If all goes well you should be able to pull of some more natural looking blends like this.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 008.jpg|1000px|]]

== Ending Tips ==

Lastly I'd suggest to anybody doing floors or terrain, to save and reuse their original brushwork/patches textured with tdm_nodrawsolid_grass (or a collision type appropriate). This ensures that AI will traverse it correctly and footstep collision sounds wont be faulty.

Use textures that blend well together. Some textures just don't look too good side by side, so finding the right combination is key. Also creating a secondary distress/grunge texture from the original image has fantastic benefits of the two materials sharing similar details. This aids the blending and doesn't present as hard of a visual gradient where the blend occurs.

Use noshadows in your MTR definition when appropriate. Any time you know the model in question will never need to cast shadows, add this option. Since most scenarios require us to pad and, "insulate" or models with brushes, those solids will block lights for us. Anything you can do to chip away at the tris considered for shadow casters will help performance.

----

'''Hotkeys for Lightwave Modeler.'''

-S (save current model to file)

-Alt+LeftClick (rotate Camera)

-Alt+Ctrl+LeftClick (zoom Camera)

-Alt+Shift+LeftClick (pan Camera)

Vertex Painting in Lightwave

2017-08-15T05:23:07Z

Epifire:

Vertex Painting in Lightwave

2017-08-15T05:05:17Z

Epifire:

Here we'll discuss from start to finish, a Vertex Color Map on a model converted from Dark Radiant brushwork. Software you'll be using are Dark Radiant and Lightwave Modeler. How you procure a copy of Lightwave is entirely up to you; I happen to be using ''Lightwave Modeler 11.5'' for this tutorial. It's worth noting that Lightwave saves it's model data into the proprietary binary file type LWO. LWO is one of two primary formats supported to run in the Doom3 engine (the other being ASE). This painting method can be done in either format but LWO is by far a superior type as it usually only amounts to mere kbs of data for multiple files.

This tutorial already assumes you know how to create levels and manage brushwork in Dark Radiant. After covering this tutorial you should cleanly be able to add in material blending to your levels, with no modeling skills required.

== Step 1: Prep and Export Brushwork ==
Here I already have a prepped small space done up in DR. It's important that you do you texture and scale the surface properties to your liking. When we export this data in the OBJ script, '''this will be used as your UV data in Lightwave'''. When ready to export in DR go Scripts>ExportOBJ and be sure to center objects.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 001.jpg|800px|]]

== Step 2: Importing and Painting in Lightwave ==

Now it's time to head to Lightwave and open your OBJ file you've exported. First thing you'll want to do is press '''F5''' to bring up the Surface Editor panel. Two things you'll want to do is check smoothing on and find a good value (I use 60 degrees) and then press rename in the top right corner to specify the material name you want to embed in the saved LWO. Here I use vertex_blend_test for my example material name and it must be devoid of typos to match the name we'll declare in the MTR later.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 002.png]]

Next we're going to paint black and white vertex colors to define material blending. To find the painting window you'll have to go to the Map tab and find Vertex Paint under Color.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 005.png]] >> Hit Edit and Create Vertex Color Map from this drop down >> [[File:Vertex Paint Tut 006.png]]

Here's an example of how your mesh should look when painted. Be sure you use solid white and black and only grays on vertexes where you want softer blending to be present. Once complete save and exit the paint window.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 007.png|1000px|]]

== Step 3: Final Model and Material ==

Finally we just need to triangulate the polygons (since TDM can't render straight quads) and then save your new mesh to your desired output folder. To Triangulate the mesh simply go to the Multiply Tab and press Triple. You can now save the file to it's output directory. Note: LWO is Lightwave's native format and will save a working model for TDM by default.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 004.png]]

A short rundown here on the material composition. This is a material I put together from stock assets so you can plug this right in (or modify it) to your heart's content!

vertex_blend_test
{
surftype15

description "grass"
{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small_local
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}

{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/foliage/leaves_small
VertexColor
//This is white coverage
}

{
blend bumpmap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones_local
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}

{
blend diffusemap
map textures/darkmod/nature/dirt/dry_earth_stones
inverseVertexColor
//This is black paint in coverage
}
}

Save that into an MTR and make sure that name matches with the one you chose in the Surface Editor. If all goes well you should be able to pull of some more natural looking blends like this.

[[File:Vertex Paint Tut 008.jpg|1000px|]]

File:Vertex Paint Tut 008.jpg

2017-08-15T04:54:20Z

Epifire: The final result of Vertex Painted materials in action for terrain.

The final result of Vertex Painted materials in action for terrain.

File:Vertex Paint Tut 007.png

2017-08-15T04:05:32Z

Epifire: The Vertex Paint window (only blends between black and white).

The Vertex Paint window (only blends between black and white).

Vertex Painting in Lightwave

2017-08-15T04:02:14Z

Epifire:

File:Vertex Paint Tut 006.png

2017-08-15T04:02:06Z

Epifire: Once you open the window go Edit>Create Vertex Color Map

Once you open the window go Edit>Create Vertex Color Map

Vertex Painting in Lightwave

2017-08-15T03:56:46Z

Epifire:

File:Vertex Paint Tut 004.png

2017-08-15T03:49:03Z

Epifire: Go to the Multiply tab and then find triple under Subdivide. This will triangulate your mesh so that it can be properly rendered in-game.

Go to the Multiply tab and then find triple under Subdivide. This will triangulate your mesh so that it can be properly rendered in-game.

File:Vertex Paint Tut 005.png

2017-08-15T03:36:49Z

Epifire: Go Map>Vertex Paint to bring up the painting window.

Go Map>Vertex Paint to bring up the painting window.

File:Tut 003.png

2017-08-15T03:31:30Z

Epifire: After selection your polygon region via Polygon Mode>Shift+RightClick drag out a region around your mesh to select and then press weld edges.

After selection your polygon region via Polygon Mode>Shift+RightClick drag out a region around your mesh to select and then press weld edges.

File:Vertex Paint Tut 002.png

2017-08-15T03:19:02Z

Epifire: Htting the 'F5' key brings up the surface inspector where the smoothing and material name can be changed.

Htting the 'F5' key brings up the surface inspector where the smoothing and material name can be changed.

File:Vertex Paint Tut 001.jpg

2017-08-15T02:56:41Z

Epifire: Here we see a group of four patches prepped for export to Lightwave.

Here we see a group of four patches prepped for export to Lightwave.

Vertex Painting in Lightwave

2017-08-14T22:50:15Z

Epifire: A tutorial on authoring and using Vertex Painting in modeled assets