[TIP] Skew/Vertex edit Overlays

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818
This may have been an obvious feature to many, but for others it's unknown and I don't really see it ever mentioned anywhere so it's easy to miss this feature completely.

Example:
1.png

2.png


See how there are no overlapping edges? Great!

Let's just get on with the "how to" part~

1. Place your overlays in a rough shape, no need to be perfect on this step. Just a general feel for how your path will eventually look:
3.png

(I rotated my tracks in 15 degree increments)

2. Select all the overlays you want to edit, and select the Overlay tool :overlaytool: again. This will display vertexes in the corners of each overlay.
4.png

Unlike regular vertexes they don't show up in the 2d views. And they don't snap to grid. You can however hold Shift to snap to other verticies (Thanks honeymustard for this tip)

3. Simply connect the corners with your mouse in the 3d view.
5.png

6.png


4. Results!
7.png

8.png

9.png


This works for any overlay and not just roads, but don't go crazy, I don't recommend bending your signs around too much, it just looks odd!
I hope this little mini-guide is helpful! Tell me if there is something you think I should add or edit.
 
Last edited:

Psy

The Imp Queen
aa
Apr 9, 2008
1,706
1,491
Heh. I remember finding this out a while ago. It's always perplexed me why they don't snap to the grid.
 

Nutomic

L11: Posh Member
Feb 7, 2009
888
177
Thank you so much, this is exactly what i need. Tried it yesterday with the vertex edit tool, but it didnt work, already thought i had to do it in photoshop (where i suck).

:thumbup1:
 

Ravidge

Grand Vizier
aa
May 14, 2008
1,544
2,818

Bermuda Cake

L9: Fashionable Member
Feb 20, 2009
679
480
why did I never know this!
This helps so much! I've been wondering this for ages and felt very tied down just having straight roads.

<3
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
Bumping this guide from five years in the future because it's useful (I never knew about the Shift trick) and to add one point: You see that muddy tire track in the first two pictures where it looks like one of the overlays was chopped in half to bend more smoothly? There's a trick to that. If you try to make a half-overlay by just resizing it with Texture Lock off, it anchors the texture alignment to one specific corner, so you can't get a matched pair. But if you open the properties window, you can fix this by editing the U or V Start and End values manually. Open the one that's wrong, find where one of them is set to 0 and 0.5, and change it to 0.5 and 1 respectively. The 3D preview pane may or may not actually update correctly, but it'll be correct when you compile (and when you close and reload the map).