Terrain Texture

[Guest Houdini]

My last post for awhile I promise. I have been in and out of forums, tutorials, and everything else the past few days and I still cannot figure out why I cant add texture to my terrain. I am running Vista64, Mobile Intel® 965 Express Chipset for video card if it helps. I have downloaded textures in both jpeg and bmp, but only a small portion of them show in the browser, and even fewer show on the object,(just a plain old box). They usually show up gray. As far as the terrain goes, I have followed the manuel many times and cant seem to get it. My exact actions for the terrain after opening the program are terrain editor-->new-->256x256-->texture category-->texture-->apply. Then nothing happens. I can alter the terrain fine, and every once in awhile I get a texture to show up on a box, but that is it. I hope I am just a newbie and am missing a step or something, but anyway if anyone has any idea what I am talking please respond! This is really giving me a bad weekend thus far...

 

EDIT - I ran it on my HP which runs XP and it is perfect...do I need to do something different for Vista? I have already disabled UAC so I know its not an administrative issue.

[Pixel Perfect]

When you first create the terrain (with the Terrain Editing window open) it creates a default base layer for you and this normally is automatically assigned the currently selected texture in the texture dropdown in the main 3DWS window. If you change the texture whilst the Terrain Editing window is still open the texture on the terrain should change too.

 

The base texture will cover the entire terrain. To add additional texture layers and paint these on you need to add additional layers in the Terrain Editor by clicking on the Layer Tab and clicking on the New button. Choose the texture you want for the layer from the Texture Dropdown and click apply. Now select Paint from the Tools section of the Terrain Editor and click on the terrain to paint the texture layer onto it. CTRL click will take it off again. Using this method you can build up layers of blended textures on your terrains.

 

Hope this helps.

[Guest Houdini]

That is helpful, however the bigger problem is that the textures are not showing up. It very well may be applying the texture to the terrain, but in texture mode it only appears as a solid...and very depressing...grey. I have read several posts about this topic in other forums, but I have not been able to find a good solution yet. Are you familiar with this problem at all? I mean it could be the images themselves, but I cant see how that large of a percentage of them wouldnt work. They are the right format, some are 256x256 and some 512x512.

[Pixel Perfect]

I can't say I've experienced that before! I normally use png format files and so long as they are in the Materials folder under your 3DWS installation all is well. I can't see why bmp and jpg wouldn't work though but I'd avoid using compressed jpg textures myself as you lose overall quality of the image. Better to use formats that support an alpha channel too should to want to start adding transparency effects.

 

So this is with the rendering mode set to 'Textured' and not 'Textured + Lighting'? Does the texture display correctly in the Texture selection box?

[Guest Houdini]

I can't say I've experienced that before! I normally use png format files and so long as they are in the Materials folder under your 3DWS installation all is well. I can't see why bmp and jpg wouldn't work though but I'd avoid using compressed jpg textures myself as you lose overall quality of the image. Better to use formats that support an alpha channel too should to want to start adding transparency effects.

 

So this is with the rendering mode set to 'Textured' and not 'Textured + Lighting'? Does the texture display correctly in the Texture selection box?

 

 

It is when it is in 'textured', but when it is in 'lighting and textured' it just appears white...as does the object. Some display correctly in the box and some dont, not many display in the browser, and sometimes it displays in one and not the other and vice versa! It is strange. I ran it on laptop that runs XP and it works perfect, although a little choppy in single viewpoint for some reason. I am thinking maybe it is more of a problem with Vista, but I already disabled the UAC and tried compatibility to XP service pack 2 with no luck.

[Pixel Perfect]

That sounds very strange. I have no experience of Vista (I never upgraded having seen so many issues with it initially). This does sound very much like a graphics issue though. Have you tried changing your graphics driver?

[Guest mattyhalewood]

I have run it on Vista and I dont have this issue, sorry I can't help more.

[Guest Houdini]

Actually matty is is good to know it works for you on Vista so at least I know its possible. For now I am running it on XP and it is working great, imagine that. Thanks for the help I will post if I figure it out.

[Josh]

Sounds like maybe you need to install graphics drivers?