Duke John
07-12-2006, 09:21
Creating new skies for battlemaps
In this tutorial you will learn how to add new sky textures to R:TW.
Tools used in this tutorial
3ds Max 6.0, the image http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload0/tut_tree_3dsmax.jpg indicates that a 3ds max command or menu option is used.
PhotoShop or any other image editing program.
Skybox creator scene, see appendix A for link.
Step 1: Sky texture
You will need to have a texture depicting a sky with clouds. The ratio width:height should be around 4:1. Try to get an image that does not have strong lighting effects. The left side of the image needs to match up seamlessly with the right side.
Step 2: Setting the material
Open the Sky Creator scene in 3ds max. You probably get warnings about textures that cannot be found, so lets first fix that:
http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload0/tut_tree_3dsmax.jpg Open the Material Editor and select the second material. Set the Diffuse Color Map to your sky texture you made in step 1.
http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload4/how_skies_are_made_material.jpg
Step 3: Rendering
http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload0/tut_tree_3dsmax.jpg Open the Material Editor again and select the first material. Then click on "Pick Object and Render Maps" (see image in step 2). Then select "Box01" (see image below).
http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload4/how_skies_are_made_scene.jpg
3ds max will now render the sphere with the sky texture as reflected on the sides of the cube. The renders will automatically be saved. You can remove the render of the bottom side.
Step 4: Image editing
The image below should explain clearly enough what steps you need to do. But first remove all the black parts from the horizontal renders and resize them to 1008x506 and resize the top image to 1008x1008.
http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload4/how_skies_are_made_-_diagram.gif
And in plain text:
Non-overlapped dimensions
Resize to:
cloud_01 BK: 1008x506
cloud_02 RT: 1008x506
cloud_03 LT: 1008x506
cloud_04 FR: 1008x506
cloud_TOP UP: 1008x1008
Additions
1 to 4: add 8 pixels from a horizontal neighbour.
TOP: add 8 pixels from the top of each horizontal texture.
1 and 3: add to the top 6 pixels from bottom/top of the top texture with a 8 pixel offset.
2 and 4: add to the top 7 pixels from left/right side of the top texture with a 8 pixel offset.
Cropping
2 and 4: bottom row of pixels is removed.
Merging
Attach 2 to the bottom of 1.
Attach 4 to the bottom of 3.
Step 5: Naming the files
The images containing side 1 and 2 are called cloud_01-02_##.tga.dds.
The images containing side 1 and 2 are called cloud_03-04_##.tga.dds
The images containing the top side are called cloud_top_##.tga.dds
Where ## is a number depending on wether the cloud is put in the light, medium or heavy cloud folders; Data\sky\clouds\. Each folder has a range of allowed numbers as follows:
- light: 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 22, 23, 26;
- medium: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21;
- heavy: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
A few remarks
You can dictate which cloud type (light, medium, heavy) is used for which type of weather in descr_daytypes.txt.
R:TW seem to randomly pick a sky texture from a folder so edit all textures with the same style for an uniform look.
This method does not use alpha maps and as a result you will not see the actual sky colour of the R:TW engine.
You can probably use programs such as TerraGen to create the same kind of textures as the original R:TW skies. I would suggest using photos though for a more realistic and natural look.
This method is most likely also used for M2:TW.
And the sky textures featured in NTW2:
http://forum.thelordz.co.uk/files/image70_399.jpg
Note that I will not upload these sky textures and neither will the NTW2 sky textures be allowed to extracted and used for public use. This has nothing to do with making an unique mod as I have already released some vegetation models and have kept nothing secret. Lets just say that the skies might look familiar to some people :wink:
That was the end of the tutorial. I hope I have included every step. If it is not working for you then please describe your problem in detail and include screenshots if needed. Anything less is not honouring the time I put in researching and writing this method and you might not get a reply from me.
Have fun and good luck with making skies!
Good luck,
Duke John
Appendix A: Sky creation tools
I have made a pack containing a scene to setup and render your skies.
User Agreement
Do whatever you like with the files.
Download
http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Rtw_Uploads/RTWupload/skybox_creator.zip Please PM me if the link is broken.
In the ZIP-file you will find images used for this tutorial, plus a quick rundown of all edits in the textfile.
skybox creator.max is the 3ds max scene that contains the sky sphere and the materials to render the sides for the skybox.
In this tutorial you will learn how to add new sky textures to R:TW.
Tools used in this tutorial
3ds Max 6.0, the image http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload0/tut_tree_3dsmax.jpg indicates that a 3ds max command or menu option is used.
PhotoShop or any other image editing program.
Skybox creator scene, see appendix A for link.
Step 1: Sky texture
You will need to have a texture depicting a sky with clouds. The ratio width:height should be around 4:1. Try to get an image that does not have strong lighting effects. The left side of the image needs to match up seamlessly with the right side.
Step 2: Setting the material
Open the Sky Creator scene in 3ds max. You probably get warnings about textures that cannot be found, so lets first fix that:
http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload0/tut_tree_3dsmax.jpg Open the Material Editor and select the second material. Set the Diffuse Color Map to your sky texture you made in step 1.
http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload4/how_skies_are_made_material.jpg
Step 3: Rendering
http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload0/tut_tree_3dsmax.jpg Open the Material Editor again and select the first material. Then click on "Pick Object and Render Maps" (see image in step 2). Then select "Box01" (see image below).
http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload4/how_skies_are_made_scene.jpg
3ds max will now render the sphere with the sky texture as reflected on the sides of the cube. The renders will automatically be saved. You can remove the render of the bottom side.
Step 4: Image editing
The image below should explain clearly enough what steps you need to do. But first remove all the black parts from the horizontal renders and resize them to 1008x506 and resize the top image to 1008x1008.
http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload4/how_skies_are_made_-_diagram.gif
And in plain text:
Non-overlapped dimensions
Resize to:
cloud_01 BK: 1008x506
cloud_02 RT: 1008x506
cloud_03 LT: 1008x506
cloud_04 FR: 1008x506
cloud_TOP UP: 1008x1008
Additions
1 to 4: add 8 pixels from a horizontal neighbour.
TOP: add 8 pixels from the top of each horizontal texture.
1 and 3: add to the top 6 pixels from bottom/top of the top texture with a 8 pixel offset.
2 and 4: add to the top 7 pixels from left/right side of the top texture with a 8 pixel offset.
Cropping
2 and 4: bottom row of pixels is removed.
Merging
Attach 2 to the bottom of 1.
Attach 4 to the bottom of 3.
Step 5: Naming the files
The images containing side 1 and 2 are called cloud_01-02_##.tga.dds.
The images containing side 1 and 2 are called cloud_03-04_##.tga.dds
The images containing the top side are called cloud_top_##.tga.dds
Where ## is a number depending on wether the cloud is put in the light, medium or heavy cloud folders; Data\sky\clouds\. Each folder has a range of allowed numbers as follows:
- light: 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 22, 23, 26;
- medium: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21;
- heavy: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
A few remarks
You can dictate which cloud type (light, medium, heavy) is used for which type of weather in descr_daytypes.txt.
R:TW seem to randomly pick a sky texture from a folder so edit all textures with the same style for an uniform look.
This method does not use alpha maps and as a result you will not see the actual sky colour of the R:TW engine.
You can probably use programs such as TerraGen to create the same kind of textures as the original R:TW skies. I would suggest using photos though for a more realistic and natural look.
This method is most likely also used for M2:TW.
And the sky textures featured in NTW2:
http://forum.thelordz.co.uk/files/image70_399.jpg
Note that I will not upload these sky textures and neither will the NTW2 sky textures be allowed to extracted and used for public use. This has nothing to do with making an unique mod as I have already released some vegetation models and have kept nothing secret. Lets just say that the skies might look familiar to some people :wink:
That was the end of the tutorial. I hope I have included every step. If it is not working for you then please describe your problem in detail and include screenshots if needed. Anything less is not honouring the time I put in researching and writing this method and you might not get a reply from me.
Have fun and good luck with making skies!
Good luck,
Duke John
Appendix A: Sky creation tools
I have made a pack containing a scene to setup and render your skies.
User Agreement
Do whatever you like with the files.
Download
http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Rtw_Uploads/RTWupload/skybox_creator.zip Please PM me if the link is broken.
In the ZIP-file you will find images used for this tutorial, plus a quick rundown of all edits in the textfile.
skybox creator.max is the 3ds max scene that contains the sky sphere and the materials to render the sides for the skybox.