Now that we know how to create a variety of texture effects using the various aspects of the texture editor, it's time to see how to use these textures in multiple channels of a material. That's right! You can apply textures to many different aspects of the surface attributes of a 3D Object or Terrain model. As we will see in Part 9 of this tutorial series, you can apply texturing to a wide range of other aspects of the program, including terraffector intensity, Foliage density and height, Water displacement, Walls, and Lights. 3D Object Materials have a wider range of surface parameters available than many of the other surface types. Since it is not my intention to cover 3D Material properties in this tutorial, We will stick to observing the changes that can be achieved with simple Ground Effect texturing.

1. Run WCS and locate and load your GroundCover.proj file.

2. Select Land Cover task mode and expand the Ground Effects group in the s@g.

3. Double click on the GroundCover Ground Effect to open its editor, and select the Material tab. You should see something like this:

4. First we want to reset any changes you may have made to the ground Effect while experimenting in the last stages of the last part of the tutorial. Click the component Gallery icon on the right hand edge of the Ground Effect Editor Window. The Component Gallery will Open.

5. Locate the Ground Effect Component saved in the last part of the Tutorial (it should have been called Ground Cover Ground), and double click on it to load it.

6. Switch to Terrain Task Mode by clicking the icon above the s@g

7. Expand the Terrain Parameters Group and double click on the GroundCover Terrain Parameters component to open its editor.

8. Make sure your Maximum Fractal depth is set to 0 for speed of rendering. Do a quick preview render (F9) to remind yourself of how our materials look:

9. Switch back to Land Cover Task Mode by clicking the icon above the s@g.

10. With the Ground Effect Editor active, and the grass material selected, click the Texture Operations icon to the right of the Diffuse Color well, and select Copy Texture from the popup menu. This will copy all the texture settings from that material channel to the clipboard. We can now paste them into any of the other available channels.

11. Click the icon to the right of Bump Map Texture.

12. Select Paste Texture from the popup menu. The following interface will appear:

This is designed to allow us to paste one texture source simultaneously to multiple targets.

13. Click on Bump Map (Texture) in the list, hold down the Ctrl key and multiselect Specularity (%) (Texture) and Specular Exponent (Texture), then click Apply

14. When prompted, confirm each of your three choices.

15. Do another Preview Render and see the effect:

Hmmm...I don't think much of the changes so far! It looks really very similar to the previous renders, but took slightly longer due to the added textural complexity (specifically in the bump channel). Let's see what we can do to change that.

16. Click the icon to the right of each of the texture channels (Bump, Specularity and Specular Exponent) in turn, and select Delete Texture from the popup menu.

17. Click the icon to the right of the Diffuse Color well and select Edit Texture from the popup menu. The Texture Editor should appear.

18. Select the first planar Image element in the list and change it's scale from 5m in each axis to 50m in each axis. Do the same for the second Planar Image but change the dimensions in each axis from 6m to 60m. This will have the effect of allowing us to see some detail in the grass images blended together in our Grass Material.

19. Do another preview render to check the changes:

20. That's a little better - let's try copying that texture combination to the other channels as before. Repeat steps 11-14 to copy and paste the settings we have just created to the channels used before. This time, also change the Bump Map Intensity (%) value to 200%, and the Specularity (%) value to 100%. Note that these parameters can be set to values well in excess of 100%, to achieve the effect that you are seeking. Do another preview render to see the effect of our changes:

That's getting better - the bump map texture is scaled appropriately to show some detail, and the effect of the bump map is to create the effect of a perturbed surface, when in fact there is no distortion of the geometry at all. This bump mapping is allowing the creation of Specular highlights (or "hotspots") on these simulated "ridges".

21. Let's zoom in on Our Texture to get a better view: Select your GroundCover Camera view.

22. Clear the last Preview Render (F8), if you have one in the viewport. Discard Diagnostic Data if prompted to do so.

23. Hold down the space bar and select the Scale or Zoom icon .

24. Click and drag in the viewport to zoom in on a smaller area of our terrain:

25. Do another Preview Render, to see the detail in our textures:

26. Select the Rock material in your Ground Effect Editor materials list

27. Click the Texture Operations icon to the right of the Diffuse Color well, and select Copy Texture from the popup menu.

28. Click the icon to the right of Bump Map Texture.

29. Select Paste Texture from the popup menu. In the interface that appears, click on Bump Map (Texture) in the list, hold down the Ctrl key and multiselect Specularity (%) (Texture) and Specular Exponent (Texture), then click Apply.

30. When prompted, confirm each of your three choices.

31. Set your Specularity (%) value to 100%

32. Render another Preview Render to see the changes:

33. Now let's finish off with the Mud material - select it in the materials list of your Ground Effect editor.

34. Perform the same steps with it's diffuse color texture - copy it to the Bump, Specularity and Specular Exponent channels.

35. Set your Specularity (%) value to 100%, your Specular Exponent (%) value to 1, and set your Bump Map (%) value to 250%.

36. Switch to Terrain Task Mode by clicking the icon above the s@g

37. Expand the Terrain Parameters Group and double click on the GroundCover Terrain Parameters component to open its editor.

38. Set the parameters in this editor thus:

39. Do another Preview Render:

 

40. Unfortunately, because we copied the Diffuse Color texture directly to the Specularity channel, the lighter areas of mud are more "shiny" than the dark areas. Since mud is only really specular when damp or wet, we need to invert the texture driving Specularity so that the highlights appear on the darker areas of mud while the lighter areas have less specularity. The texture driving Specular Exponent is also doing the wrong job - dark areas are reducing Specular exponent, forcing a broader highlight on the darker (wetter) areas and a tighter highlight on the Lighter areas. This may not be clear from our render, so let's zoom in again.

41. Select your GroundCover Camera view.

42. Clear the last Preview Render (F8), if you have one in the viewport. Discard Diagnostic Data if prompted to do so.

43. Press the + key. You should see the camera zoom the view.

44. Do another Preview Render:

45. Now switch back to Land Cover Task Mode by clicking the icon above the s@g.

46. With the Ground Effect Editor active, and the Mud material selected, click the Texture Operations icon to the right of the Specularity (%), and select Edit Texture from the popup menu

47. The easiest way to invert our texture is to swap the Low % and High % values. Enter 100% for the Low Value and 0% for the High Value. The colors should invert in the Preview windows of the Texture Editor.

48. Click the Texture Operations icon to the right of Specularity (%), and select Copy Texture from the popup menu.

49. Click the Texture Operations icon to the right of Specular Exponent, and select Paste Texture from the popup menu.

50. Confirm your choice when prompted. Note that because we already had a texture in the Specular Exponent channel, WCS assumed we wished to replace it, and did not offer the option of copying to multiple channels at once, as before. If we wished to save time and copy this modified texture to multiple channels (in this case we don't), then we should delete the texture from the Specular Exponent Channel first, or click on an unused texture Operations icon and select paste texture from the popup menu. Render another preview if you want, to see any changes (which in this case may be subtle).

51. By now, you should be feeling very comfortable with the various operations and functions present in the Texture Editor. Let's tie all these concepts together in a simple example project where texturing can be used throughout the project to enhance the scene. Follow me to the last part of our Texture Editing series!