Ok so im new here at twisteddirt.com and this is a total noob question but i am really looking into doing textures with terragan or Povray for my tracks. I mean armadillo and photoshop just dont cut it for me....so i got pov ray and i got the mcm pov file and opened it....but where do i put my disp map and texture map so pov ray will find it? it has to go in which folder? and um in your guys opinion which is easier to use for a noob like me, terragan or pov ray? and when dirttwister means "type your un-rendered texture map here" at his site under the povray tutorial thingie, does this mean its just a big block of dirt like the texture maps found in the track editor/texturemaps/ontrack01 for instance?
i dunno guys just please help me i really wanna learn how to do these texutres and make them better...thanks a bunch
-Ben
You have to paint a texture map that covers your entire dispmap. It doesn't matter where you put the stuff you just have to enter the full path in the POV file.
I don't know how to use terragen so I can't comment on it.
Bruce
ok well thank you very much that actually helped me but...
but what does this mean:????
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/Mx333/povrayproblem1.jpg)
For some reason in the newer versions of POVRay they eliminated the smooth command. You can work around it, but it doesn't work as well as the older versions. There may be a better way than this but I don't know it.
Just delete the smooth command. That command blurred your dispmap. When you render your large texture I would recommend 1600x1600 or larger your 257x257 dispmap is going to get blown up to that size without any smoothing. Your one pixel is going to blow up to a pixel that is 6x6. Your shadow will look like junk.
Do one of the following options:
Option 1: Make a copy of your dispmap to use for rendering. Blow it up to at least the size of your texture and blur it slightly to smooth out any rough edges.
Option 2: Use a pure white file as a texture. Expand/blur a copy of your dispmap and use that. You will end up with a white and gray shadow map. To use the shadow map. You can blur it if there are any rough edged shadows. Whether there is or not depends on how big, how strong, and how smooth the dispmap is that is used. You then place the shadow map as a layer over your unrendered texture. Set the properties for that layer to "Multiply". You will now see your shadows on your texture. This will make your texture darker, so you may need to brighten your unrendered texture to get the results you want.
I recommend option two at least while working on your track because you can quickly work on the texture if you aren't changing your dispmap. You don't have to render your texture every time you work on it.
Bruce
;D O man, thank you so very much this is sweet. Now that i know how to do this just gets me really excited. Thanks a lot for helping me on this. I did exactly what you said and the track texture looks sweet! Thanks a whole lot for taking the time to deal with me the noob. Thanks again,
Ben