How exactly do you use the developer textures?

Outscisor

L1: Registered
May 27, 2009
21
1
Hi,

I'm fairly new to mapping, and am texturing my map with the developer textures until I've finished making the geometry, as it seems you're supposed to. However, I've been wondering if I'm doing it right. When am I supposed to use each texture - for instance, do I use the wall one on just walls, or on floors too? When do I use the general purpose textures? And the orange and grey colours - how do I know when to use grey, and when to use orange? Or is there no specific rule on what to use when...

Thanks.
 

TotalMark

L6: Sharp Member
Feb 13, 2008
331
78
Protocol is grey on the floor, orange on the walls and ceiling, if you are using the special dev textures however, use the blue on BLU base areas and the red on RED base areas with orange or grey in between.

The basic idea is these are supposed to be replaced later with standard textures and the different colors help distinguish between areas.

The gridded dev textures are there to help the user align textures for proper appearance.
 

Terr

Cranky Coder
aa
Jul 31, 2009
1,590
410
If you wanted, you could do everything in puke-yellow. It's really just a way for you to put in placeholders that make sense to you.

Might consider grey/blue/red for floors and neutral zones, and each base, and reserve orange for special emphasis...
 

RavenStryker

Former Alias: †Blade†/Xi.Cynx
aa
Nov 25, 2008
782
844
Yes, if I were you, I would download the special dev texture as they will be easier to use then the standard dev ones that they give you. This is what I do:

devtextures_4l0.jpg


I use each color to represent a base, obviously red for red and blue for blue with the grey at the end for neutral. But I use the big 128x128 without the person for walls and the small gridded ones for the floors as it's easier to contrast them apart even though they are the same color.

If i'm making a tunnel or something out of dirt/displacement I use the light and/or dark brown textures. Kind of a place marker for I want this to be dirt.(ya know?)

I tend to stay away from the yellow, purple, green and orange due to the fact that they don't flow well when testing them in game. I guess you "could" use green on a grass like displacement area if you wanted and could get away with it. but if I were you I would stick with what I listed as you should be on your way to glory with the dev textures. =)
 

III_Demon

L2: Junior Member
Sep 28, 2008
57
29
the actual purpose of the dev textures is just to make things easy while getting a map started. it does a few things:

- serves as a big "WORK IN PROGRESS!" sign to anyone playing or looking at your map. they will clearly understand that this is an unfinished map. it keeps people from giving you feedback like 'the wall looks funny here'

- gives you a bunch of basic reference points. the grid size, the variations with people, rails, stairs, etc... you can slap those on something and get an idea of scale, alignment, etc, just by looking at the texture.

- keeps the theme neutral, so everyone can focus on gameplay first. if you started with desert textures, you'd be more likely to try and build canyon shapes and put rocks in it. if you started with sewer textures, you'd be more likely to make small tunnels. with the dev textures, you just map for gameplay, then build the theme later.

theres no big firm reason to even use dev textures, and definitely no requirement. you could just as easily slap a plain concrete texture on everything.
 

Nineaxis

Quack Doctor
aa
May 19, 2008
1,767
2,820
Here's my standard.

For Team Fortress 2 maps, it is advised to use dev/dev_measuregeneric01b (a gray texture with faint 16-unit divisions) for floors and dev/dev_measurewall01d (a gray 64 unit division texture) for neutral walls. For team bases, customdev/dev_measurewall01blu and customdev/dev_measurewall01red (blue and red versions of the 64-unit gray wall texture) can be used for walls.

http://fabrydesign.com/2009/06/29/tf2-map-development-cycle
 

Outscisor

L1: Registered
May 27, 2009
21
1
Thanks for the help guys. Where can I get those custom developer textures that BladeMasterPsi mentioned?