UGX-Mods

Call of Duty 5: World at War => Tutorial Desk => Mapping => Topic started by: Exofile on January 30, 2016, 11:40:38 am

Title: [Tutorial] Patches, what & how.
Post by: Exofile on January 30, 2016, 11:40:38 am
Hello!

In this tutorial I'll be showing you how you can use patches, to add detail and terrain into the map.
It's required you have basic knowledge in Radiant, but I'll be explaining anything to do with patches.

This can be useful for you if:



The first part for making a patch, involves creating a brush. Select the brush, and then, based on how you want to move on, you do either of these:

Below you will find several tutorials, so you easily can follow the tutorial(s) you so wish to use.

The Basics
Spoiler: click to open...

(http://i.imgur.com/1M290O9.png)

The first part for making a patch, involves creating a brush. Select the brush, and then, based on how you want to move on, you do either of these:

It's important to note, that the side of your brush that is displayed in the 2d-view, is the side that will turn itself into a patch. This applies to Curve & Terrain patches. You can always rotate the patches if they're not oriented correctly.

Marked with 1, a simple curve patch is made when you want fine curves. An archway, a nice bend around a corner, or anything you can think of, a curve patch can be used to.

Spoiler: click to open...

(http://i.imgur.com/wx8PkLj.png)

The first thing you're presented with when selecting Simple Curve Patch is the options for how many verts you want in the patch. Pretty self explanatory, you choose how many verts you want on the vertical and horizontal part of your patch. A simple 3x3 will give you a total of 9 verts. Simple Math, yes?

Here is an example of how you can use a Curve Patch to get a smooth curve, for example when creating a hangar.

(http://i.imgur.com/fvwobUZ.png)


Marked with 2, a simple terrain patch is made when you want to work with terrain, or work with blends. Terrain with different levels of elevation on different parts of the patch, blending out a texture to add more detailing, and more.

Spoiler: click to open...

Just as with a curve patch, you're firstly presented with the option to select how many verts you wish to add into your patch. It's a simple multiplication, having 2 in width and 2 in height gives you a total of 4 verts. In this example, that would be each corner.

(http://i.imgur.com/TJ72fTi.png)

Here is an example of how a Terrain Patch can be used to make a blend:

(http://i.imgur.com/UH2PGZi.png)

Marked with 3, primitives are mostly cylinders, but also offer for bevels, and bevel-caps. Water tanks, pillars, pipes, anything that might require some round parts.

Spoiler: click to open...

There are multiple options inside Primitives, although Cylinders tends to be the main reason to visit this part.
(http://i.imgur.com/clqjW7W.png)

Playing around with the different options here can give you different shapes. Just like a Curve & Terrain patch, it comes with verts.

Here is an example of how a cylinder can be used to produce pipes. You can also create pillars, and similar structural features using cylinders:

(http://i.imgur.com/w9aFYHR.png)


Moving & Editing Patches


If your patch is positioned correctly, and/or you want to flip which side of the patch is displaying a texture, CTRL + I will alternate inbetween both sides.

To enter vert-editing mode, simply hit V when a patch is selected.

To add more verts, select two verts on the same axis of the patch, and press CTRL + A

To select a vert on your patch, simply drag-select with the mouse. When you're in vert-editing mode, Radiant will switch to a drag tool, so just drag your mouse over the verts you want to select. Re-selecting an already selected vert will deselect it. It's worth noting that when you try to select more verts, the previously selected verts will be deselected. To prevent this, simply hold down CTRL while you select your verts.
Spoiler: click to open...
(http://i.imgur.com/NEt3mzf.png)

When you want to move a vert, you want to hold down ALT, and use Right Mouse Button to drag the verts. Switching between all 3 view in the 2d view, you can easily move it in all directions; x,y & z.

If a vert is not in place, CTRL + G will move the vert into it's closest location on the grid, so depending on how fine tuned you have the grid at the time, the movement for the verts may change.


Blends
Spoiler: click to open...

So, you know the basics of working with patches, and you want to add blends. Blends is a nice way to add more detail to a plain texture, giving it a more "dirty" look, if you so choose.
As you can see in this image, a blend has been used to make the edges of the walkway seem more "dirty", as it's next to a grassy area.

(http://i.imgur.com/UH2PGZi.png)

A blend is essentially a terrain patch, with a _blend texture on it. (This means any texture that is set to be a blend texture. Generally they have _blend at the end of their name).

But applying the texture isn't all! We still need to actually blend out the texture, whish essentially means making it fade. Changing it's transparency allows us to control what parts of the patch will, and which will not show the texture, and in what degree.

Firstly, create a Terrain Patch. Select your patch, and apply a _Blend texture to it. These can be found by looking at a texture's name. Easiest way to find _blend textures is to open the texture-search, and put in "_blend".
(http://i.imgur.com/HZ9Esl0.png)

Here is an example of how you can use blending to produce the feeling of a texture being "overgrown":

Firstly, I start off with having my base, a brush textured with "berlin_floors_concrete_tile5". Note that this isn't a blend texture, as it's not the texture we'll be blending.

Then, I create a patch, 10x10 above my brush, and apply a _Blend texture to it, "okinawa_terrain_grass_densedmoss_drk_blend"

(http://i.imgur.com/PKTk8GN.png)

It's worth noting, that the blend texture can lay right ontop of the brush. It might flicker in Radiant, but ingame it'll look good. It's when you have more than 1 blend you need to have them atleast .25 units above eachother, to not get an error. For demonstration, I put the blend .25 above, so its easier to see.

moving on, I made a 10x10 patch, which means there is a total of 100 verts for me to change upon. I can move these verts around if I choose, but for this example, they can stay right in place.

Selecting a few verts, I press G to open up "gVertex Color/Alpha Editing.
(http://i.imgur.com/ouVcsIF.png)

Now I can choose how transparent I want my selected verts to become. For my sake, I'll take it to completely transparent, 0. Dragging the Alpha Value to 0, I then make sure to check off Alpha, before I hit apply.

As you see, the texture slowly fades into the verts that are now invisible, creating a nice effect that looks smooth.

(http://i.imgur.com/amYZa6e.png)

The result? A nice transition from the two textures. Add in some foliage, lighting and maybe a few models, and you've got yourself a nicely detailed area!



Questions?
Spoiler: click to open...
Do you have anything you wish to comment, or anything you want me to add? Send me a PM, or comment here. ;)
I'll be adding more tutorials as I have the time.


Yes, I know BlackJackJonnyy has made several tutorials for patches. This tutorial is here to explain everything you possibly need to know in an easy method to look up, so if you're looking for just one thing, it won't be hard to find.

BlackJackJonnyy's Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIkU1xPvgfJQgo0w3o1PzVw (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIkU1xPvgfJQgo0w3o1PzVw)
Title: Re: [Tutorial] Patches, what & how.
Post by: Linoxet on January 31, 2016, 07:11:18 am
Thanks, will help me a lot  :D
Title: Re: [Tutorial] Patches, what & how.
Post by: Tim Smith on February 03, 2016, 12:01:50 am
Good job Exo.
Title: Re: [Tutorial] Patches, what & how.
Post by: gamer9294 on April 04, 2016, 08:22:43 pm
nice tutorial man good job ;)


best regards,
Gamer9294
Title: Re: [Tutorial] Patches, what & how.
Post by: Centric on April 04, 2016, 08:40:02 pm
Hopefully this tutorial will boost the quality of the average box map :troll: