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Author Topic: Surface Inspector tutorial  (Read 10929 times)
Dave
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« on: December 11, 2007, 09:29:58 AM »

Hey all,

I've been creating a few maps and learning the ropes.  I'm attempting to add detail work to the maps and I'm having issues with the surface inspector.  Lining up textures on brushes has become a headache of sort and I'm pretty much failed everytime unless I alter the brush from its location or prefered shape to make the texture fit and/or look proper.

I do not know what Step means on the right hand side, and when adjusting the stretch, it appears the outcome of the change doesn't match what I think is the logical outcome.  (double the stretch and it looks like it's stretched 10 times as much) 

Also, I create a brush and say I add the pentagram to it and click "Fit"   My guess is that it would stretch it to fit the brush perfectly yet everytime I do this it actually tiles it four times across the brush.  (square brush with four evenly placed pentagrams)

Anyway, does someone know of a good tutorial for the surface inspector that could help me figure it out a little quicker than I'm grasping it now?

Thanks!
« Last Edit: December 11, 2007, 10:15:58 AM by Dave » Logged
Taiyo.uk
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« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2007, 06:45:14 AM »

The surface inspector is used to change the texture projection onto a face of a brush or onto a patch. Fit will fit the texture to the faces and not to the brush as a whole. Using the controls with multiple faces selected will produce odd results - each face will be updated to the settings that are currently in the surface inspector; for most cases the surface inspector is used for individual faces. The step boxes are used to set the increment step for each control - e.g. the rotation step is the number of degrees that the rotation field will increment each time you press the rotation up/down buttons.

Just remember that the surface inspector only deals with how to project a 2D texture onto a 3D plane.
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Dave
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« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2007, 01:24:13 PM »

Ok, I went back and used (CTRL+Shift right click) and only selected one face of the six faces of a square brush.  When when I clicked "Fit" on "Texturing->Brush" it shows in the Surface Inspector (as always) as if it was stretched to fit the entire surface of the brush.  Once I load it into Open Arena, the upside down cross is now checker boarded four times across only that single face.  The rest of the square brush is textured with a totally different texture.  (in this case, red brick)

ie: ____
    |* *|
    |* *|
    -----

Instead of just a single *  in the middle.
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pulchr
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« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2007, 05:02:08 PM »

try changing the vertical and horizontal stretch in the surface inspector window
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Taiyo.uk
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« Reply #4 on: December 14, 2007, 01:43:06 AM »

When you pressed the fit button, did the width and height boxes to the right have the value 1?
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Dave
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« Reply #5 on: December 14, 2007, 08:44:58 AM »

When you pressed the fit button, did the width and height boxes to the right have the value 1?

Yep, they were both set to 1.0

Here is all the relative information I can think of.  These numbers are the outcome after I click "Fit" in the Inspector's Brush option.  Within GtkRadiant's 3D rendering, the texture looks perfect after clicking "Fit".  Just not in Open Arena.

(Hope, this format comes out ok.
Code:
Texture: gothic_light/ironcrosslt2_10000_blend
Horizontal Shift:        48          Step: 8
Vertical  Shift:         48          Step: 8
Horizontal Stretch:     0.5          Step: 0
Vertical Stretch:       0.5          Step: 0
Rotate:                   0          Step: 0
Texture Width:          1.0
Texture Height:         1.0
Brush Size:         64*64*8
When using the Surface Inspector, I'm using Ctrl+Shift and selecting a single 64*64 brush face to apply the texture to.
« Last Edit: December 14, 2007, 09:27:47 AM by Dave » Logged
w1zrd
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« Reply #6 on: December 14, 2007, 10:56:20 AM »

Change the stepping values to lower ones, that will give you the accurate results you're after.
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Dave
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« Reply #7 on: December 14, 2007, 11:22:00 AM »

Change the stepping values to lower ones, that will give you the accurate results you're after.

What exactly is a "Step" relative to?  One grid unit? 

I appreciate you guys taking the time to help me understand this.
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pulchr
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« Reply #8 on: December 14, 2007, 04:59:17 PM »

might be wrong about this but i think the vertical and horizontal stretch works like this

1 equals the texture as displayed once, filling the surface full
0.5 equals the texture in half the size, thus twice in both width and height, you get 4 repetitions
2 equals twice the size of the texture - it does not fit the brush's surface, you will only see one fourth

anyway, it looks to me like it is that way Tongue
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Dave
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« Reply #9 on: December 17, 2007, 10:56:56 AM »

I lowered the step on Alignment to 1 and the stretch step to .5 and it became much easier to use.    The step part was what was throwing me off since they were set to 48 at times and 8 at other times.  Why the step was changing like that when working with different brushes, I'm not sure.   That can screw you up big time when you are learning how to use it without any documentation.

So, anyone trying to learn to use it.  Set your step to 1 on both alignments and .5 on both stretch settings.

The step 1 for aligment is what appears to be about 1 ACTUAL grid unit.  (not whatever you have your grid set it.  I default mine to Grid->Grid8 or about 4 units per cube)

The step .5 for stretch streches half the actual length of the texture for each positive (or negative) strech.  You can lower or raise this for fine tuning the texture application.

Dave
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pulchr
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« Reply #10 on: December 18, 2007, 01:47:26 AM »

pressing F1 when you're in gtkradiant should give you the documentation
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