So far, my map has only been patch meshes (except for 1 caulk room). All ive really done are roads, and I want to do the city next, but its gonna take ages to do. Out of my boredom, I carelessly forged the ultimate patch mesh of death! Hahahaha! With 8192 faces, it is still growing! It will kill any game it is loaded onto! Run! Run away!
http://www.dodstudios.net/uploads/uploa ... fdeath.jpg
Patch mesh of death! The horror!
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reduce
You should reduce the size of your screenshot 66.67% will work, but I like 50% myself. Not everyone has a 20" + monitor!!!
IF you turn on "Wide Toolbar" under edit/preferances, there are more menu icons you can use (play with) for patch mesh. Have you tried making a bent pipe yet--I'm still not good at it.
IF you turn on "Wide Toolbar" under edit/preferances, there are more menu icons you can use (play with) for patch mesh. Have you tried making a bent pipe yet--I'm still not good at it.
Tom Trude,
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Bjarne BZR
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Abstract art? That's one way to explain it.
Ok, dude, you need a LOT of help. Patch meshes, curves, etc can be a real pain. I'll try to give you a little of my experience/tricks.
First off, ROADS. It seems to me that some of the road textures DO NOT make good curved roads...never look right. Also, most of them have to be laid out left to right on the screen, not up/down. Steps to take:
1. Find a texture. Is the image in your texture menu vertical or horizontal? MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE. Also, make sure to note the WIDTH of the texture image. IF it is a square, it is a 512x512, if it is a rectangle, it is most likely a 256x512. This matters.
2. Make a brush based on the direction of the texture. If it's a vertical, then your brush should be vertical too. DIMENSIONS: Ok, now from step (1) size the brush accordingly... Let's assume it is a 256x512 texture and vertical. Make your brush 256 units wide and say 1024 tall.
3. Go to the 'Curve' menu and select 'Patch Mesh'. Now, I assume you know that you can select the number of rows/columns in a mesh. I usually would go with 3 columns on a 256 wide brush and 5 on the 512 wide brush. Rows I keep to 3 or 5 for every 512 units, depending on how many bends you want to make.
4. Now you've got your mesh. You know how to bend it, I see. But the textures are a nightmare. To 'fit' your textures, just hightlight the mesh and click 'Natural'; this almost always fixes your problem, even AFTER bending it. Remember, not ALL textures work well.
BIGGEST ADVICE!!!!: DO NOT USE just meshes to make all of your roads. IF you at all can, use them only for complicated bends, elevations, etc. Meshes add tons of triangles=low FPS.... Use regular brush work and LOD when possible. LOD and MESHES do not block VIS, so an underlayment of caulk brush can help too. It can be a pain blending meshes into other brushes/LOD, but it will run much better.
Keep at it, it took me a long time to mostly-master. Curves....ugh. That's still a struggle for me sometimes...weather, planet alignment, all that needs to be perfect!
Ok, dude, you need a LOT of help. Patch meshes, curves, etc can be a real pain. I'll try to give you a little of my experience/tricks.
First off, ROADS. It seems to me that some of the road textures DO NOT make good curved roads...never look right. Also, most of them have to be laid out left to right on the screen, not up/down. Steps to take:
1. Find a texture. Is the image in your texture menu vertical or horizontal? MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE. Also, make sure to note the WIDTH of the texture image. IF it is a square, it is a 512x512, if it is a rectangle, it is most likely a 256x512. This matters.
2. Make a brush based on the direction of the texture. If it's a vertical, then your brush should be vertical too. DIMENSIONS: Ok, now from step (1) size the brush accordingly... Let's assume it is a 256x512 texture and vertical. Make your brush 256 units wide and say 1024 tall.
3. Go to the 'Curve' menu and select 'Patch Mesh'. Now, I assume you know that you can select the number of rows/columns in a mesh. I usually would go with 3 columns on a 256 wide brush and 5 on the 512 wide brush. Rows I keep to 3 or 5 for every 512 units, depending on how many bends you want to make.
4. Now you've got your mesh. You know how to bend it, I see. But the textures are a nightmare. To 'fit' your textures, just hightlight the mesh and click 'Natural'; this almost always fixes your problem, even AFTER bending it. Remember, not ALL textures work well.
BIGGEST ADVICE!!!!: DO NOT USE just meshes to make all of your roads. IF you at all can, use them only for complicated bends, elevations, etc. Meshes add tons of triangles=low FPS.... Use regular brush work and LOD when possible. LOD and MESHES do not block VIS, so an underlayment of caulk brush can help too. It can be a pain blending meshes into other brushes/LOD, but it will run much better.
Keep at it, it took me a long time to mostly-master. Curves....ugh. That's still a struggle for me sometimes...weather, planet alignment, all that needs to be perfect!
lol... slyk... i have no problem with patch meshes. its EASY to make all kinds of stuff with them. i can blend it easily with brushes, lod terrain, anything. i was just screwing around seeing how laggy i could make it.
most of the ones i make have to be made top to bottom, not left to right.
when you make basic 90 degree angle roads, i cant see why some people use the highest complexity. the next lowest level is good.
curves are real easy/fun to do. im gonna start making some prefabs to speed up my map building process.
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Also, i try to use patch meshes as much as possible with roads, whenever i have fog. if you have a brush road, its gonna get that crazy foggy crap, but if you make it a patch mesh, and bend it just a little bit, you can get rid of it, and its not that many more faces... since you got a clipplane...
this is what i mean by a foggy road:
most of the ones i make have to be made top to bottom, not left to right.
when you make basic 90 degree angle roads, i cant see why some people use the highest complexity. the next lowest level is good.
curves are real easy/fun to do. im gonna start making some prefabs to speed up my map building process.
====
Also, i try to use patch meshes as much as possible with roads, whenever i have fog. if you have a brush road, its gonna get that crazy foggy crap, but if you make it a patch mesh, and bend it just a little bit, you can get rid of it, and its not that many more faces... since you got a clipplane...
this is what i mean by a foggy road: