Cliff-Snow blend

Texture Cliff-Snow blend 2017-07-22

DrSquishy

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Feb 10, 2017
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Cliff-Snow blend - A blend between cliff wall and snow texture

A blend I have used in my map, mvm_origins. It blends the tf2 cliff wall texture with the hl2 (I think) snowfloor002a texture. It results in a very nice snowy blend, perfect for snowy landscapes.
Snowblend.jpg
 
Mar 23, 2013
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Sorry, but aren't those two texture already in the game? Why didn't you just specify the original texture paths in the VMT? This way you wouldnt need a exact copy of textures everyone already has. It's wasted file size.

I know it isn't that significant but when I can safe .5 MB worth of filesize in a super easy way then you should do that.


Also you should use a blendmask, the blending looks rather basic.
 

DrSquishy

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Feb 10, 2017
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Sorry, but aren't those two texture already in the game? Why didn't you just specify the original texture paths in the VMT? This way you wouldnt need a exact copy of textures everyone already has. It's wasted file size.

I know it isn't that significant but when I can safe .5 MB worth of filesize in a super easy way then you should do that.


Also you should use a blendmask, the blending looks rather basic.
I have tried using just the file paths but it wasn't actually working
 
Mar 23, 2013
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Probably because you were specifying a file path to a VMT, while the actual VTF was called differently. You can have as many VMTs as you want with different settings while using the same single VTF.
Try opening one of the original VMTs, copy the $basetexture filepath of the texture (because that's always the original VTF path after all) and use that in your custom one.

This way you can have so many custom textures and blend texture combinations without compiling an actual texture. This basicly uses up no fielsize
 

DrSquishy

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Feb 10, 2017
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Probably because you were specifying a file path to a VMT, while the actual VTF was called differently. You can have as many VMTs as you want with different settings while using the same single VTF.
Try opening one of the original VMTs, copy the $basetexture filepath of the texture (because that's always the original VTF path after all) and use that in your custom one.

This way you can have so many custom textures and blend texture combinations without compiling an actual texture. This basicly uses up no fielsize
No. Have tried it like that and it didn't work
 
Mar 23, 2013
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ok can you tell me the file paths, so I can show you how I would do it? Perhaps you just had a typo
 

DrSquishy

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Feb 10, 2017
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The original filepath for the snowfloor texture from $basetexture: Nature/snowfloor002a
The $basetexture filepath for the cliffwall texture: nightfall/cliffwall
what I actually have in my blend's VMT after it didn't work:
"WorldVertexTransition"
"$basetexture" "blends/cliffwall"
"$basetexture2" "blends/snowfloor002a"
 
Mar 23, 2013
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"WorldVertexTransition"
{
"$basetexture" "nature/snowfloor002a"
"$basetexture2" "nightfall/cliffwall"
"$blendmodulatetexture" "nature/snowwall_blendmask"
"%tooltexture" "blends/cliffwall"
"%keywords" "tf"
"$surfaceprop" "snow"
"$surfaceprop2" "rock"

}


So uhm, I'm a bit stumped here. This is what I put into your VMT and it does shows up alright in hammer. Try it yourself. However when I delete your two VTF copies the texture becomes missing. Yes, when I delete the two texture that aren't specified in the VMT at all, the VMT breaks.... I have no idea what the fuck is going on...

I'll test it in-game. With the "mat_reloadmaterial blends" command, the texture will update immediately, in case you want to play around with it too.
As you can see I added a blendmodulate and a second surface prop.
 

DrSquishy

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Feb 10, 2017
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"WorldVertexTransition"
{
"$basetexture" "nature/snowfloor002a"
"$basetexture2" "nightfall/cliffwall"
"$blendmodulatetexture" "nature/snowwall_blendmask"
"%tooltexture" "blends/cliffwall"
"%keywords" "tf"
"$surfaceprop" "snow"
"$surfaceprop2" "rock"

}


So uhm, I'm a bit stumped here. This is what I put into your VMT and it does shows up alright in hammer. Try it yourself. However when I delete your two VTF copies the texture because missing. Yes, when I delete the two texture that aren't specified in the VMT at all, the VMT breaks.... I have no idea what the fuck is going on...

I'll test it in-game. With the "mat_reloadmaterial blends" command, the texture will update immediately, in case you want to play around with it too.
As you can see I added a blendmodulate and a second surface prop.
I would add a blend_modulate but have no idea how to make the texture...
 

killohurtz

Distinction in Applied Carving
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Feb 22, 2014
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You can use an existing blend modulate texture, like the one in Lampenpam's example.
 
Mar 23, 2013
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347
just take an existing blendmask. nature/snowwall_blendmask works great. For most things you find a fiting blend texture in the game files but in case you want to know how to make them: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$blendmodulatetexture
All you need is to only use the red and green color channel in photoshop/gimp or basicly, just paint with green and red colors.

Anyway, so I deleted your VTFs, and the texture shows up missing in hammer but after compiling and launching the game the texture shows up fine in game! This is how it looks with the blendmask: http://puu.sh/wRRAK/67e67f9105.jpg

Well, unless I can figure out why the fuck hammer is acting the way it is I guess you can just use my edited VMT but keep your VTFs. When you later pack a map I doubt the packer will also take the VTFs because the VMT doesnt mention it. So you only have the VTFs to make the texture show up correctly in hammer while the game still uses the offical textures
 

DrSquishy

we've all had better times to die
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Feb 10, 2017
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just take an existing blendmask. nature/snowwall_blendmask works great. For most things you find a fiting blend texture in the game files but in case you want to know how to make them: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$blendmodulatetexture
All you need is to only use the red and green color channel in photoshop/gimp or basicly, just paint with green and red colors.

Anyway, so I deleted your VTFs, and the texture shows up missing in hammer but after compiling and launching the game the texture shows up fine in game! This is how it looks with the blendmask: http://puu.sh/wRRAK/67e67f9105.jpg

Well, unless I can figure out why the fuck hammer is acting the way it is I guess you can just use my edited VMT but keep your VTFs. When you later pack a map I doubt the packer will also take the VTFs because the VMT doesnt mention it. So you only have the VTFs to make the texture show up correctly in hammer while the game still uses the offical textures
thanks!
 

DrSquishy

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Feb 10, 2017
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Finally got time to compile aaaand.... it looks very dodgy, as the scale of the material is much bigger...
 

DrSquishy

we've all had better times to die
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Feb 10, 2017
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I
Perhaps try a tf2 snow texture? nature/snow_grass01 is a 1024x1024 texture
mean as in since I have the actual scale of the texture in hammer set as quite large, the modulate looks weird. snowfloor002 looks amazing and it goes very well with my map
 
Mar 23, 2013
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347
well you try changing the scale: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/$blendmodulatetexture

$blendmasktransform <matrix>
Transforms the modulation texture before use in the material. Requires DirectX 9.
The default position is "center .5 .5 scale 1 1 rotate 0 translate 0 0".
  1. center defines the point of rotation. Only useful if rotate is being used.
  2. scale fits the texture into the material the given number of times. '2 1' is a 50% scale in the X axis.
  3. rotate rotates the texture anti-clockwise. Accepts any number, including negatives.
  4. translate shifts the texture by the given number of heights/widths. '.5' will shift it half-way.
Note.png
Note:
All values must be included!
Bug.png
Bug:
Scaling the texture may cause odd issues where the Texture Lock tool in Hammer will not actually lock the texture in place.


So try "$blendmasktransform" "center .5 .5 scale 2 2 rotate 0 translate 0 0"? (you must use the " ") Just play around with the values, remember to use "mat_reloadmaterial blends" in game to update the texture.