/-/S'pht-Translator-Active/-/


Texture modifications
Posted By: Forrest of B.orgDate: 3/1/07 3:14 p.m.

In Response To: Re: level 19-21 (goran)

I'm happy to incorporate suggested changes to textures as made by mappers, and I've asked the mappers to please let me know if there's any particular texture that they find lacking or thinks needs improvement. In fact most of the initial improvements in the Marathon textures were made by talking to Adam while he was working on Ch1 maps, which was quite an enjoyable process; and Andreas has given me a lot of useful input on the Forerunner (Ch5) textures. So yeah, please, let me know if you think something could be improved and how - and if you think you can make the improvement yourself, send me a PSD file and I'll incorporate those changes into the main PSD from which I generate all the textures.

On another note, I'd be happy to incorporate variations on textures within the color schemes, provided (as Adam noted) that it doesn't require retexturing a ton of things to do. So, making the orange grid texture different from the blue grid texture is not a problem to me, nor is making various horizontal or vertical patterns differ between colors. So long as the features (i.e. larger-scale shapes) are roughly coextensive, so that what was once a logo on a wall small enough to fit on a particular surface is now something else on a wall which will no longer fit on that surface (i.e. it gets cut off), it's not a problem. And there's obviously a lot of variety in that area.

However, there are two problems here which I readily admit lie entirely at my own feet. See, for each texture set, I have individual PSDs for the first 10 "special" textures (switches, chargers, terminals, doors, windows, lights-panels, and media), and then one huge PSD for all the rest of the textures. In that PSD are three layer sets at the bottom, for the "indoor", "outdoor" and "metal" material bases (just plain flat omni textures with no features on them; corresponding to textures whose replacement files are numbered 11, 21, and 31). Then there are a bunch of layer sets on top of that for each of the various larger-scale patterns. There used to be just eight of these, which in combination with the base 3 materials gave 24 combinations; but now in Eternal X I've got three variations of each pattern, one for each material base. I was comfortable making that change after being convinced that most levels would need to be seriously revised and retextured anyway.

The reason I've got it set up like this is so that I can make sweeping changes to particular materials across all the different patterns and colors (as I just recently went in and changed the Outdoor and Metal material bases of the Pfhor set, taking into account some of your comments, which I think greatly improved a lot of the Pfhor levels). I can then just show/hide the various layer sets and save out 24 updated files, duplicate that folder four times, and then run a couple simple Action scripts in Photoshop which produce color variations of those 24 textures (basically just doing a series of batch hue/saturation changes). This is much easier than opening up 24 individual PSD files and for each one, copy and pasting the new material layer over, deleting the old layer, and saving as a PNG.

So, the two problems I have with making variations for each different color are: (1) it would be five times the work to save out all these textures every time I make a little change to something, which I do fairly often when I spot something that could use improvement; and (2) on a completely different note, I'm not really sure what I'd make as far as variations go. I'm a very systematic thinker, and not good at introducing randomness, which is why I so often think in grids when I'm looking for variety - I think, What are all the different variables here, and what are all the different possible combinations of those variables?

However, I do see possible solutions to both of these problems, though they will both require help from others. The solution to the first is, hopefully, rather simple. Action scripts are the one area of Photoshop that I'm not very proficient at, and if someone could show me how to make a script which goes through all the steps I normally go through when saving out a texture set from it's PSD file - showing and hiding particular layer sets and saving that out to a PNG file with a particular name in a particular folder, creating that folder if need be - so that I could just hit "Go" and let Photoshop crank out all the changes I just made into individual PNG files, that would be awesome, and overcome the biggest obstacle to doing this (and to making texture changes in general).

As for the solution to the second problem, what I'd probably do at first is just copy different similar patterns from other collections and modify them slightly as necessary to fit in where the pattern from this collection does, and then maybe tweak things from there later as I find room for improvement. But also, as you were suggesting, I'd happily be open to other people's suggestions for new tweaks and variations, too.

So basically - if someone can figure out and show me how to automate all the tedium of saving out combinations of different layer sets to PNG files every time I change something, that will open up the window for introducing significant variations into the Eternal texture set, and I'll happily accept input on how to vary things, provided the suggestions don't require that we go back and retexture a bunch of things.

[ Post a Reply | Message Index | Read Prev Msg | Read Next Msg ]
Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

Eternal X Alpha 4Forrest of B.org 2/22/07 10:10 p.m.
     Re: Eternal X Alpha 4D-M.A. 2/23/07 12:02 a.m.
           Re: Eternal X Alpha 4Forrest of B.org 2/23/07 8:00 a.m.
                 Re: Eternal X Alpha 4D-M.A. 2/23/07 9:32 a.m.
           Re: Eternal X Alpha 4goran 2/23/07 8:38 a.m.
                 Re: Eternal X Alpha 4Forrest of B.org 2/23/07 9:25 a.m.
                       Re: Eternal X Alpha 4treellama 2/23/07 11:39 a.m.
                       Level 4-6goran 2/25/07 3:14 a.m.
                             Level 7-12goran 2/26/07 3:07 a.m.
                                   level 15-18goran 2/26/07 7:46 a.m.
                                         Re: level 15-18Forrest of B.org 2/26/07 8:49 a.m.
                                               Re: level 15-18goran 2/26/07 9:35 a.m.
                                                     Re: level 15-18Forrest of B.org 2/26/07 10:41 a.m.
                                         Re: level 15-18Forrest of B.org 2/26/07 11:04 a.m.
                                         level 19-21goran 2/27/07 2:12 p.m.
                                               Re: level 19-21Forrest of B.org 2/28/07 1:33 p.m.
                                                     Re: level 19-21goran 2/28/07 5:00 p.m.
                                                           Re: level 19-21Forrest of B.org 2/28/07 5:26 p.m.
                                                                 Lava lava lava lava lava lava duckForrest of B.org 2/28/07 5:57 p.m.
                                                                       2nd picture is damaged *NM*goran 2/28/07 10:26 p.m.
                                                                             Try again now *NM*Forrest of B.org 2/28/07 11:12 p.m.
                                                                 Re: level 19-21goran 3/1/07 2:12 a.m.
                                                                       Re: level 19-21Adam Ashwell 3/1/07 8:06 a.m.
                                                                             Re: level 19-21goran 3/1/07 12:43 p.m.
                                                                                   Texture modificationsForrest of B.org 3/1/07 3:14 p.m.
                                                                                   Re: level 19-21Adam Ashwell 3/1/07 5:11 p.m.
                                               Re: level 19-21Forrest of B.org 2/28/07 4:41 p.m.
                                               22-28goran 3/1/07 12:24 p.m.
                                                     Re: 22-28Forrest of B.org 3/2/07 8:40 a.m.
                                                           Re: 22-28goran 3/4/07 8:48 a.m.
                                                                 Re: 22-28Forrest of B.org 3/5/07 8:11 a.m.
                                                                       Re: 22-28Erlin Tanner 3/5/07 11:29 a.m.
                                                                             Re: 22-28Forrest of B.org 3/5/07 12:47 p.m.
                                                     29-38goran 3/6/07 6:57 a.m.
                                                           Re: 29-38Forrest of B.org 3/6/07 4:32 p.m.
                                                                 Re: 29-38goran 3/6/07 10:18 p.m.
                                                                       Re: 29-38D-M.A. 3/7/07 12:17 a.m.
                                                                             Re: 29-38goran 3/7/07 6:22 a.m.
                                                                                   Re: 29-38Pfhorever 3/12/07 9:58 a.m.
                                                                                         Re: 29-38D-M.A. 3/12/07 10:57 a.m.
                                                                                               Re: 29-38Pfhorever 3/12/07 11:54 a.m.
                                                                                                     Re: 29-38Forrest of B.org 3/12/07 2:31 p.m.
                             Re: Level 4-6Forrest of B.org 2/26/07 10:47 a.m.
                                   Re: Level 4-6goran 2/26/07 11:21 a.m.
                       Re: Eternal X Alpha 4goran 2/25/07 5:18 a.m.
                             Re: Eternal X Alpha 4irons 2/25/07 9:19 a.m.
                                   Re: Eternal X Alpha 4goran 2/25/07 1:20 p.m.
                                         Re: Eternal X Alpha 4RyokoTK 2/25/07 5:10 p.m.
                                               Re: Eternal X Alpha 4goran 2/26/07 12:14 a.m.
                                               Re: Eternal X Alpha 4treellama 2/26/07 3:08 a.m.
                                                     Re: Eternal X Alpha 4goran 2/26/07 5:08 a.m.
                                                           that's psychopath *NM*thermoplyae 2/26/07 6:44 a.m.
                                                                 sighgoran 2/26/07 7:39 a.m.
                                                                       Are you on drugs? *NM*RyokoTK 2/26/07 7:43 a.m.
                                                                             Er, apparently *I'm* on drugs.RyokoTK 2/26/07 7:44 a.m.
                                                                             Re: Are you on drugs? *NM* *LINK*irons 2/26/07 10:23 a.m.
                                                                                   Gets me every time. *NM*RyokoTK 2/26/07 10:27 a.m.
                                                           Re: Eternal X Alpha 4RyokoTK 2/26/07 7:41 a.m.
                                                                 Re: Eternal X Alpha 4Forrest of B.org 2/26/07 9:02 a.m.
                                                     Re: Eternal X Alpha 4thermoplyae 2/26/07 6:45 a.m.
                                   Re: Eternal X Alpha 4D-M.A. 2/26/07 4:28 a.m.
                                         Re: Eternal X Alpha 4thermoplyae 2/26/07 6:49 a.m.
                                               Re: Eternal X Alpha 4Forrest of B.org 2/26/07 9:08 a.m.
                                         Re: Eternal X Alpha 4goran 2/26/07 8:15 a.m.
                                               Re: Eternal X Alpha 4D-M.A. 2/27/07 12:24 a.m.
     Re: Eternal X Alpha 4Nicholai 2/23/07 5:49 p.m.
           Re: Eternal X Alpha 4Forrest of B.org 2/23/07 9:40 p.m.
                 Re: Eternal X Alpha 4Nicholai 2/24/07 6:48 a.m.
     Re: Eternal X Alpha 4PI 5/7/07 2:13 a.m.
           Re: Eternal X Alpha 4Forrest of B.org 5/7/07 9:00 a.m.
                 Re: Eternal X Alpha 4PI 5/7/07 2:02 p.m.
                       Re: Eternal X Alpha 4Forrest of B.org 5/7/07 3:33 p.m.
                             Re: Eternal X Alpha 4D-M.A. 5/7/07 7:47 p.m.
                             Re: Eternal X Alpha 4PI 5/8/07 8:19 a.m.
                             Re: Eternal X Alpha 4LegacyTyphoon 5/8/07 11:45 a.m.
                                   Re: Eternal X Alpha 4Forrest of B.org 5/8/07 7:55 p.m.

[ Post a Reply | Message Index | Read Prev Msg | Read Next Msg ]
Pre-2004 Posts

 

 

Your Name:
Your E-Mail Address:
Subject:
Message:

If you'd like to include a link to another page with your message,
please provide both the URL address and the title of the page:

Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:

If necessary, enter your password below:

Password:

 

 

Problems? Suggestions? Comments? Email maintainer@bungie.org

Marathon's Story Forum is maintained with WebBBS 5.12.