Hiya. This is a pretty simple technique but it wasn't obvious to me at all when I was starting out mapping and I couldn't find tutorials on it anywhere else so I thought I might as well make one.
You know those neat wiggly roads you see on a lot of official maps? Roads like this:
Here's how to replicate that effect.
First of all, open the texture browser and find a suitable coloured dirt track texture for the environment you're using. Use the overlay tool and test some of them on your map to get some idea for how they look. Note that some of these textures have different levels of transparency and some of them are for the ends of roads.
<--- Overlay tool. He is your friend.
Place some overlays in the general area you want them in your map. It doesn't have to be too accurate; you can fine tune them in a minute. If you want to resize the overlays then click these two buttons on the toolbar: These buttons will lock the scale and orientation of textures when you manipulate them which allows you to stretch, rotate and shrink them. Get the overlays to the size you want and remember to disable the texture lock afterwards or you might end up stretching other textures in your map.
Here's a simple wiggly road I've made. Don't act like you aren't impressed.
Now, with the overlay tool selected, select the overlay you want to manipulate. You should see little vertices appear on their corners. Hold CTRL and select multiple overlays if you want to try and connect them together.
Drag the vertices together and hold SHIFT when you've got them where you want them. The vertex will snap to the nearest neighbour. Let go of the mouse button and watch in delight as you click the pieces together. Look at you go! You're a legend, mate. A proper legend.
Now, repeat for all the other parts of the track.
Time to test it out!
And there you have it: a nice wiggly road.
Be careful not to skew your overlays too much as stretching them at odd angles can make them look unrealistic. Try and keep the sizes of the overlays consistent so the track doesn't warp. If you do all this right then you should be on the road to success.
You know those neat wiggly roads you see on a lot of official maps? Roads like this:
Here's how to replicate that effect.
First of all, open the texture browser and find a suitable coloured dirt track texture for the environment you're using. Use the overlay tool and test some of them on your map to get some idea for how they look. Note that some of these textures have different levels of transparency and some of them are for the ends of roads.
<--- Overlay tool. He is your friend.
Place some overlays in the general area you want them in your map. It doesn't have to be too accurate; you can fine tune them in a minute. If you want to resize the overlays then click these two buttons on the toolbar:
These buttons will lock the scale and orientation of textures when you manipulate them which allows you to stretch, rotate and shrink them. Get the overlays to the size you want and remember to disable the texture lock afterwards or you might end up stretching other textures in your map.
Here's a simple wiggly road I've made. Don't act like you aren't impressed.
Now, with the overlay tool selected, select the overlay you want to manipulate. You should see little vertices appear on their corners. Hold CTRL and select multiple overlays if you want to try and connect them together.
Drag the vertices together and hold SHIFT when you've got them where you want them. The vertex will snap to the nearest neighbour. Let go of the mouse button and watch in delight as you click the pieces together. Look at you go! You're a legend, mate. A proper legend.
Now, repeat for all the other parts of the track.
Time to test it out!
And there you have it: a nice wiggly road.
Be careful not to skew your overlays too much as stretching them at odd angles can make them look unrealistic. Try and keep the sizes of the overlays consistent so the track doesn't warp. If you do all this right then you should be on the road to success.
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