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Danji
11-09-2004, 04:51 PM
I'm currently working on a mountain road. I used loft to get the shape of the road ( asphalt ). I applied a road map to the loft. So far so good, it looks like a normal road. But later i realised that on some parts of the road there are different things written on the asphalt like speed related warnings.. stripes ... etc.. My question is: can i somehow insert in the places i want a different texture ? If yes how? What could be my alternatives to getting the desired effect.

Alternatives i thought about.
1. split/cut the loft where i want to insert another texture. and in the empty spot place another loft that has the same shape with the space that is missing. ( But won't that look bad because of the place where the 2 lofts (objects) come in contact ? )

2. convert the loft to poly/mesh and then use the unwrap uvw to place the sign i want, wherever i want. But how am i going to map the rest of the road? .. wich is HUGE ! ( can i import the mapping coordonates from a loft and apply them to the mesh ? )

Well.. that's all i could think of now. Sorry if i didn't explain it too clearly, hope you understood what i ment.
Danji
11-10-2004, 06:19 AM
well , i discovered that i can save the uvw coordonates from the loft and use it on the mesh, so problem is .. solved.. but i was wondering if u can do what i asked in the 1st post directly on the loft.
EricChadwick
11-12-2004, 11:01 PM
This really belongs in the 3ds max section, since it is so application-specific. You'll probably get responses there.

One way to do the road is to use multiple UVW channels, one for each mark you want to add. Then use a Composite map to overlay all of them on top of one another. If each map within the Composite has an Alpha channel, it will allow the other maps below it to show through.
Danji
11-13-2004, 07:53 PM
yes.. maybe more ppl would reply if this were in the 3d max forum.. but i'm curious how other people map complex roads ( not the usual 1 map for the whole road ) no matter the program used.
EricChadwick
11-15-2004, 02:28 PM
Depends on how it is used. The most extreme use for me would be where I have a helicopter camera following a car going down the road in one long uninterrupted shot. Then I'd need to incorporate the entire road as a single model. Otherwise I'd break it down into sections, for easier work.

I would Loft the main road UVs, no tile on U (width of road), lots of tile on V (length). This UV would be for the base asphalt and the lines. Then I would copy that UV set into UV channel #2 and offset it some for my oilstains and dirt, a different tiling texture, maybe tiled 2x on U. Then I would apply mutiple separate planar UV channels, one for each special mark I want to add, changing the channel # each time.

I would set up a Composite material, and in each Standard I would set the UV channel appropriately. Or if I didn't need separate specular/reflection/bump controls, then I would just use a Composite map, or maybe if I needed special compositing modes I would use a bunch of nested CompositeMode (http://www.morphographic.com/Diversions/MaxPlugins/Diversions_3DMAXPluginsCompositeMode.htm) maps.

Each of the special textures I would author with an alpha channel, then use that as the mask. If you use a Composite map then each Bitmap within it will automatically use its own alpha to mask itself.

Hope that helps. This seems like pretty app-specific info to me, depends on how your program handles UVs and compositing.
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