Post by Chavez on Aug 22, 2005 18:23:51 GMT -8
Some basics of 3dsmax...
For rolling hills, after you have converted your plane to editable mesh click your object/terrain select convert to then select Editable mesh),...click the modify button on right side (looks like a rainbow icon)) then scroll down in the edit geometry section and select vertices under the "selection" header(3 dots in a box icon, then scroll down further and open the soft selection choices and check the "Use soft selection" box drag mouse up/down...you can increase the area involved by clicking on the up/down arrow next to the "falloff" window...
When you make the cliffs you can click "Zoom all" (lower right corner of your screen) and go back some and then select "Select Object" (top middle of your screen- looks like an arrow pointing up and to the left) and select multiple vertices at once,...or by holding down the control button while clicking your mouse on each individual vertice,...and if you get one you dont want on accident, reclick the one that accidentally highlighted and it will turn from red back to blue...
***Also whenever you screw up , which happens, your best friend is the Control-Z (to undo your messup)...this can be pressed several times to go back 10 steps if you want,...likewise Control-Y will put back what you did if you hit Control-Z too many times...
Dont forget that in your 3dsmax folder in programs of your hard drive there is a backup folder called "Autoback" which saves your work every 5 minutes,...so if worse comes to worse you can open any of those autobacks 1, 2 or 3 to restore the map back up to 15-20 minutes,...and always BACK-UP YOUR MAX FILE BEFORE MAKING ANY CHANGES TO IT,...MAKE A FILE AND PUT YOUR BACKUP (Copy/Paste) into that before you do ANYTHING!!!! This will save you alot of frustration...***
The stream/waterfall IFL.s are done the very last (they are made up of several small planes, which are attached to eachother, then attached to the map/plane at the end (after all the rolling hills, cliffs, and large rocks are made)...
make sure you make the streambed and the areas that the waterfalls will be by raising and lowering the vertices appropriately...sometimes i select on vertice, then select the move icon (at top middle of 3dsmax window) copy the Z coordinates (bottom window), then select the vertice parallel to the one you just copied the coordinates, and paste the value into the Z window...this will raise the parallel vertice to the same height as the other,..then you can move the vertice on the X&Y cordinate to desired location...
***i hope you have already extracted .dds's from cbf's in the Ptero engine editor for all the textures you will need to apply to the faces and polygons in your map...also i posted some helpful tools and steps for blending 2 textures together so that you have a smooth transformation from one texture to the next...
also i have to give you info about UVW mapping and UVW unrapping once you have all the textures you want to make your scene...
Then you will apply texture to a face by pressing M (For material Editor) then click where it says "Standard" choose "Pteromat" from the list, then under "Ptero collision properties" select your material collision property for your texture, under "Diffuse #1" click where it says "none" then choose the "load new", then direct the 3dsmax program to the folder where all your textures are stored, and choose the "All formats" in the "Files of type" and single click the .dds ( a screenshot of the texture pops up if you click it once,...once you locate that .dds then double click it and it will go into the "Diffuse #1 box in the materials editor,....now in that same Diffuse #1 box click the s, E, M, U and V buttons...Now that you have texture selected you have to apply it to face/polygon...Above where all the Circle/balls are, underneath them, is a few icons...Click the circle-with-an-arrow-pointing-to-a square first...then second click the rubix cube/checkered box...(Did that apply your texture to your face/polygon? It should have!!!) Now close your Materials Editor...
Now on the right is the editing panel where it says "Modifier List" scroll down where it says "UVW Modifiers" and select "UVW map", a pop-up window appears with several choices...select face (or if you have a texture which is 256 x 256 then you select plane and give the dimensions 4 x 4, if you have 512 x 512 textures then you give them 10 x 10, and the 1024 textures give them a planar 20 x 20,....and furthermore sometimes the box UVW selection if you map them with the same 4 x 4 x 4, 10 x 10 x 10, and 20 x 20 x 20, you will get good appearances on your terrain/object,....
now UVW unrapping is used for edges of cliffs, and edges of dropping areas near stream, and difficult areas where the regular UVW map modifier doesnt work...click unrap UVW (from the modifier list on right of the screen) and under "Parameters" select edit, then select Display "Filter selected faces", then under mapping select "Unfold Mapping, walk to selected faces, then click ok",...now use scroll wheel to enlarge/decrease size of texture behind your vertices/faces,...now if all the vertices are red, then you can click the move, rotae, scale icons at top and move the entire vertexes/aces around all together...and if you click the screen away from your vertexes/faces then now you can select individual vertexes and move them to where you want them on your texture,...This is how you get the edges of your terrain to line up with the textures to create the realistic look on the cliff edges and such... also you can make roads and pathways connect with this same method...After you do this close the unwrap UVW box and right click the perspective screen, covert to editable mesh and that texture on that face/polygon is done,...
I forgot to mention selecting an area of vertexes you can use the "tesselate" modifier from the drop down list and make more vertices for making rocks and such,...also if you right click the perspective viewbox and select the "Cut Polygons" you can cut polygons however you need them cut...and you also can select an edge and right click perspective and "Extrude edge" which this option is used to do many things like making tunnels and such (this is used in conjunction with welding vertices from your "Edit Geometry"roll out on the right of your screen-(increase the weld selected to .5 or 1 when welding vertices)
and thats the basics of 3dsmax,...have fun
Chavez
For rolling hills, after you have converted your plane to editable mesh click your object/terrain select convert to then select Editable mesh),...click the modify button on right side (looks like a rainbow icon)) then scroll down in the edit geometry section and select vertices under the "selection" header(3 dots in a box icon, then scroll down further and open the soft selection choices and check the "Use soft selection" box drag mouse up/down...you can increase the area involved by clicking on the up/down arrow next to the "falloff" window...
When you make the cliffs you can click "Zoom all" (lower right corner of your screen) and go back some and then select "Select Object" (top middle of your screen- looks like an arrow pointing up and to the left) and select multiple vertices at once,...or by holding down the control button while clicking your mouse on each individual vertice,...and if you get one you dont want on accident, reclick the one that accidentally highlighted and it will turn from red back to blue...
***Also whenever you screw up , which happens, your best friend is the Control-Z (to undo your messup)...this can be pressed several times to go back 10 steps if you want,...likewise Control-Y will put back what you did if you hit Control-Z too many times...
Dont forget that in your 3dsmax folder in programs of your hard drive there is a backup folder called "Autoback" which saves your work every 5 minutes,...so if worse comes to worse you can open any of those autobacks 1, 2 or 3 to restore the map back up to 15-20 minutes,...and always BACK-UP YOUR MAX FILE BEFORE MAKING ANY CHANGES TO IT,...MAKE A FILE AND PUT YOUR BACKUP (Copy/Paste) into that before you do ANYTHING!!!! This will save you alot of frustration...***
The stream/waterfall IFL.s are done the very last (they are made up of several small planes, which are attached to eachother, then attached to the map/plane at the end (after all the rolling hills, cliffs, and large rocks are made)...
make sure you make the streambed and the areas that the waterfalls will be by raising and lowering the vertices appropriately...sometimes i select on vertice, then select the move icon (at top middle of 3dsmax window) copy the Z coordinates (bottom window), then select the vertice parallel to the one you just copied the coordinates, and paste the value into the Z window...this will raise the parallel vertice to the same height as the other,..then you can move the vertice on the X&Y cordinate to desired location...
***i hope you have already extracted .dds's from cbf's in the Ptero engine editor for all the textures you will need to apply to the faces and polygons in your map...also i posted some helpful tools and steps for blending 2 textures together so that you have a smooth transformation from one texture to the next...
also i have to give you info about UVW mapping and UVW unrapping once you have all the textures you want to make your scene...
Then you will apply texture to a face by pressing M (For material Editor) then click where it says "Standard" choose "Pteromat" from the list, then under "Ptero collision properties" select your material collision property for your texture, under "Diffuse #1" click where it says "none" then choose the "load new", then direct the 3dsmax program to the folder where all your textures are stored, and choose the "All formats" in the "Files of type" and single click the .dds ( a screenshot of the texture pops up if you click it once,...once you locate that .dds then double click it and it will go into the "Diffuse #1 box in the materials editor,....now in that same Diffuse #1 box click the s, E, M, U and V buttons...Now that you have texture selected you have to apply it to face/polygon...Above where all the Circle/balls are, underneath them, is a few icons...Click the circle-with-an-arrow-pointing-to-a square first...then second click the rubix cube/checkered box...(Did that apply your texture to your face/polygon? It should have!!!) Now close your Materials Editor...
Now on the right is the editing panel where it says "Modifier List" scroll down where it says "UVW Modifiers" and select "UVW map", a pop-up window appears with several choices...select face (or if you have a texture which is 256 x 256 then you select plane and give the dimensions 4 x 4, if you have 512 x 512 textures then you give them 10 x 10, and the 1024 textures give them a planar 20 x 20,....and furthermore sometimes the box UVW selection if you map them with the same 4 x 4 x 4, 10 x 10 x 10, and 20 x 20 x 20, you will get good appearances on your terrain/object,....
now UVW unrapping is used for edges of cliffs, and edges of dropping areas near stream, and difficult areas where the regular UVW map modifier doesnt work...click unrap UVW (from the modifier list on right of the screen) and under "Parameters" select edit, then select Display "Filter selected faces", then under mapping select "Unfold Mapping, walk to selected faces, then click ok",...now use scroll wheel to enlarge/decrease size of texture behind your vertices/faces,...now if all the vertices are red, then you can click the move, rotae, scale icons at top and move the entire vertexes/aces around all together...and if you click the screen away from your vertexes/faces then now you can select individual vertexes and move them to where you want them on your texture,...This is how you get the edges of your terrain to line up with the textures to create the realistic look on the cliff edges and such... also you can make roads and pathways connect with this same method...After you do this close the unwrap UVW box and right click the perspective screen, covert to editable mesh and that texture on that face/polygon is done,...
I forgot to mention selecting an area of vertexes you can use the "tesselate" modifier from the drop down list and make more vertices for making rocks and such,...also if you right click the perspective viewbox and select the "Cut Polygons" you can cut polygons however you need them cut...and you also can select an edge and right click perspective and "Extrude edge" which this option is used to do many things like making tunnels and such (this is used in conjunction with welding vertices from your "Edit Geometry"roll out on the right of your screen-(increase the weld selected to .5 or 1 when welding vertices)
and thats the basics of 3dsmax,...have fun
Chavez