Gorans Highres Infinity Textures

[President People]

How about these?

I'm sure just about everyone knows the second one to some degree or another.

[Crater Creator]

[attachment=5462:lava_blend.jpg]
Just a doodle. What if Aleph One had texture blending? Before long we'll have a Grand Unified Theory of Textures.

[goran]

The lava set is 50% done now

I went with metal on the box texture. For fun, I've also uploaded a screenshot of how the wood looked in game.

[Drictelt]

I always saw it as wood but metal definitely looks better.

[Ares Ex Machina]

Before you guys get too philosophical about this, know that the infinity texture designer was lazy/smart enough to create a lot textures by combinations.

That's why I added this comment, regarding texture 16:

The same cracks would likewise be accented in other similar textures (though not necessarily to the same degree), such as texture 20.

Also, just tried out your animated water. Very nice job on that. Looks great! Does Caustics Generator Free let you further vary the size and contour of the shapes formed by the caustics? Right now the pattern appears more repetitive than the original water texture, with shapes that are more uniform in contour and size. More variety might give it a more natural and realistic feel, while being truer to the original at the same time. But everything else looks perfect.

[goran]

Also, just tried out your animated water. Very nice job on that. Looks great! Does Caustics Generator Free let you further vary the size and contour of the shapes formed by the caustics? Right now the pattern appears more repetitive than the original water texture, with shapes that are more uniform in contour and size. More variety might give it a more natural and realistic feel, while being truer to the original at the same time. But everything else looks perfect.

It has 5 sliders which lets you manipulate the look of the animation. Search for the program in google and try it out yourself. If you find some magic settings, do share

I've been thinking of animating the water with a bump map that mimics a sinus wave (Seen from the side)...just not sure how I am going to go about creating it.

[goran]

I converted this height map to a bump map for lava, but the effect was hardly noticeable. Not at all as I had expected. I think attempting to animate waves with bump maps will fail.

[Crater Creator]

The lava set is 50% done now

I went with metal on the box texture. For fun, I've also uploaded a screenshot of how the wood looked in game.

Looking strictly at the textures in those two screenshots on their own, I think the wood-based one is a better looking texture. The realism/believability of the wood version is enhanced by the grain. The metal version has no such qualities working in its favor - it's not corroded or brushed or hammered or anodized; it has no corresponding surface treatment I can see that would make calling it metal non-arbitrary.

Couple that with how the original texture looks like wood to me, and my choice is easy - I think the texture in the second image is best. But I'm not out to sway people's opinions, just to explain my critique. It'd be a shame to let such a good texture go to waste. Perhaps you might offer an 'alternates' texture pack, goran, so in cases like this people can further customize their game to their liking.

Regarding the animated liquid bump maps, do you think the effect is too subtle to notice, or does it look like bump maps don't work with liquids at all?

[goran]

Regarding the animated liquid bump maps, do you think the effect is too subtle to notice, or does it look like bump maps don't work with liquids at all?

The effect from the height map I supplied earlier was too subtle to notice. Since this height map is as extreme as it gets, I say I doubt creating a big wave like effect with bump maps will work. Could perhaps be possible if the bump map was scaled down to 2 or 4 waves per WU, but I still doubt it.

[Ares Ex Machina]

You should edit your water set plugin to disable the animated water when OpenGL isn't used. Otherwise your place holders from the shapes patch show up in Software mode.

[treellama]

Like this:

Code: Select all

<shapes_patch file="Foo.ShPa" requires_opengl="true"/>

[Hopper]

Disabling the shapes patch doesn't disable the MML, which causes the water to disappear on my machine. How about filling your placeholders with copies of the default water texture, so it looks no different when it's "animated"?

[goran]

Really not something I would call a problem since you can disable plugins. However, I will fix this for the new users of Aleph One who do not know about the plugins in the first place.

[treellama]

Another problem: maps that use shapes patches conflict with the water in your shapes patch. For example, Clash of Kings from Paradise Lost XV.

[goran]

Would it help(or even be possible) to place the frames somewhere else? E.g. tick collection.

[goran]

I have moved the animated water to a separate plugin. Easy to turn on off depending on what you do. It is the fastest solution. Alternatively, I could place the frames in the scenery collections, but I think it could be bad for the future, should anyone want to do a 3D scenery plugin.

[Ares Ex Machina]

Currently transparent liquids don't work in Software mode when the animated water plugin is enabled. I could see someone switching to Software mode and wondering why their transparent liquids aren't working. As a courtesy to prevent that, it would be nice if there were a way to have the plugin automatically disabled when Software mode is selected.

[goran]

Currently transparent liquids don't work in Software mode when the animated water plugin is enabled. I could see someone switching to Software mode and wondering why their transparent liquids aren't working. As a courtesy to prevent that, it would be nice if there were a way to have the plugin automatically disabled when Software mode is selected.

I can't get transparent liquids in software mode even if I turn all plugins off and enable it the graphics settings. Neither faster nor nice does anything for me. Is this really an important issue though?

[treellama]

Currently transparent liquids don't work in Software mode when the animated water plugin is enabled. I could see someone switching to Software mode and wondering why their transparent liquids aren't working. As a courtesy to prevent that, it would be nice if there were a way to have the plugin automatically disabled when Software mode is selected.

Unfortunately, only shapes patches can be disabled when OpenGL isn't available. When I designed plugins, I figured any OpenGL stuff would be in the <opengl> tag and be ignored--but I forgot about <animated_textures>

Fortunately there is a better solution for this problem: include the appropriate MML for making animated water transparent. See Software_Transparent_Liquids.mml.

[goran]

Fortunately there is a better solution for this problem: include the appropriate MML for making animated water transparent. See Software_Transparent_Liquids.mml.

Ares Ex Machina, are you willing to write this mml for me?

[treellama]

Ares Ex Machina, are you willing to write this mml for me?

Just copy and paste this line inside the <marathon><software> </software></marathon> tags:

Code: Select all

<texture coll="17" bitmap="19" opac_type="3" opac_scale="0.5" opac_shift="0.5"/>

And change the bitmap to match the ones in the shapes patch. You can remove the ones for the other texture collections.

[Ares Ex Machina]

Fortunately there is a better solution for this problem: include the appropriate MML for making animated water transparent. See Software_Transparent_Liquids.mml.

I was wondering if that would work! Good to hear it does.

[goran]

I wanted to try.

[Destiny]

That looks awesome! Do more!

[Crater Creator]

Neat. I think I already know, but is that made in 2D or 3D?