Repeating textures?

Moonrat

nothing left
aa
Jul 30, 2014
932
585
I want to make a nice ol' rock texture because I'm offended by the lack of one I want in TF2.

Though making a texture like this would mean I'd have to have it repeat. Is there any particular recommended ways to make a texture repeat seamlessly, or is it just trial and error?
 

Diva Dan

hello!
aa
Mar 20, 2016
1,024
1,951
Here's what I do!

First, make your texture to a state that you think looks okay and won't need much changing.
Ec3uzdM.png


Next, create a new imagine that is twice as large and paste the original in it. Place it in a corner.
ooZMe5X.png


Copy and paste the image into the other 3 corners of the large square, making sure that the texture lines up with each side.
fdCCxCf.png


Now you will notice the issue. The texture is obviously not tilable in it's current state. Lines are cut off. We're almost done!

Select the square in the center of the image, or just somewhere where the corners of all 4 textures meet.
Z8h1Cvg.png


Make this it's own file.
YeliVO2.png


Finally, fix any cut-offs or issues.
K46gAlX.png


Now you have a perfectly tilable image!

14BppzI.png


Double check to make sure every selection you have is perfectly square. If you notice, mine isn't. this will cause the tilability to look a bit off by a few pixels. If you are smart - unlike me - it will work 100% of the time!
 

Moonrat

nothing left
aa
Jul 30, 2014
932
585
Here's what I do!

First, make your texture to a state that you think looks okay and won't need much changing.
Ec3uzdM.png


Next, create a new imagine that is twice as large and paste the original in it. Place it in a corner.
ooZMe5X.png


Copy and paste the image into the other 3 corners of the large square, making sure that the texture lines up with each side.
fdCCxCf.png


Now you will notice the issue. The texture is obviously not tilable in it's current state. Lines are cut off. We're almost done!

Select the square in the center of the image, or just somewhere where the corners of all 4 textures meet.
Z8h1Cvg.png


Make this it's own file.
YeliVO2.png


Finally, fix any cut-offs or issues.
K46gAlX.png


Now you have a perfectly tilable image!

14BppzI.png


Double check to make sure every selection you have is perfectly square. If you notice, mine isn't. this will cause the tilability to look a bit off by a few pixels. If you are smart - unlike me - it will work 100% of the time!
This method sounds good, but how do you get an exact size like 512x512 or something else. Seems like there is a lot of room for error here
 

Diva Dan

hello!
aa
Mar 20, 2016
1,024
1,951
The select tool in paint.net lets you see your measurements in the bottom of the screen. You can see it in the screenshots. Adjust it to what you need by reading those values
 

Tumby

aa
May 12, 2013
1,084
1,192
What I like to do for quickly making a selection of a specific size, is make a new layer, make the selection box and then hit backspace to fill the area. Now if I need that selection box again i go to that layer and just select the box using the wand tool.
Paint.net doesn't have that functionality. You would need to download a plugin, but the downloads are very old (2006-9)
That doesn't matter, they still work.
 

LadyRaee

CHEERFULLY SUICIDAL
Sep 1, 2012
197
216
Use free Photoshop-esque tool called Krita, make 512px × 512px image, press W to go into tileing mode and voila! you can make seamless textures!
 

UKCS-Alias

Mann vs Machine... or... Mapper vs Meta?
aa
Sep 8, 2008
1,264
816
This method sounds good, but how do you get an exact size like 512x512 or something else. Seems like there is a lot of room for error here
exact512_1.png

(its not a regular resize, its a cropping resize)

exact512_2.png

And it will just take the central 512.

(and yes, the tools are dutch here. but for english it should be the same commands/tooltip images and help you enough there)
 
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