Ground Textures and Alpha channels

[Len12]

Is it possible to create a ground texture with an alpha channel? I tried by using an additional alpha config file but just comes out as an ordinary bmp ground texture.

 

[wreeder]

It depends on what you want to accomplish. If you want the alpha to control transparency then the answer is no. In both TS09 and TS10 the alpha channel of the 32 bit image used as the normal map in ground textures is used to control the amount of reflectivity of the ground texture. The more non-black the alpha channel then the more the texture will reflect the world around it. Normally it reflects the sky which gives the texture a blue sheen.

Your diffuse image should also be 32 bit with a mostly white alpha channel for the texture to look correct in game.

This is of course assuming you are wanting to make ground textures for trainz build 2.9 and higher which would be TS09 and up.

If you are making old style ground textures then use 24 bit jpeg images and forget about the normal map. Keep the size of the image at 512 x512 or smaller or it will impact performance. If you make TS09 style textures they can be 2048 x 2048 but require the normal map.

Both TS09 and TS10 compress the images at the time they are committed into a special format hence the ability to use bigger images.

William

 

[PEV]

I can't understand your objective here. Ground textures are blended if you put more than one of them in place in any case.

 

[wreeder]

Actually it isn't a bad idea. If you could have a 2 bit alpha mask then you could have ground textures with a sharp edge. I was hoping that was what the "decal" asset announced with TS2009 was going to be. With a clearly delimited edge you could replace some spline objects with ground textures. Think of assets like streams and rivers or sidewalks and dirt roads. The possibilities are endless.

William

 

[Len12]

Actually it isn't a bad idea. If you could have a 2 bit alpha mask then you could have ground textures with a sharp edge. I was hoping that was what the "decal" asset announced with TS2009 was going to be. With a clearly delimited edge you could replace some spline objects with ground textures. Think of assets like streams and rivers or sidewalks and dirt roads. The possibilities are endless.

William

Thanks for the responses above.

Yes this is exactly what I was thinking of. Particularly a river where dimensionality and transparency can be used without resorting to effecting ground level and adding water.

 

[GaryP]

Sorry I'm not home at the moment but reading this I'm wondering what would happen if you created a texture that had green on the left and red on the right. When you put it down, would it stay straight?
Could you for instance make a texture that had grass on the left and asphalt on the right, then lay it down to create a break, and then fill in the 2 sides with solid textures?
Just thinking out loud.

 

[jimabbey]

its to my understanding that trainz does not accept JPEG except for thumbnails.

 

[BuilderBob]

Sorry I'm not home at the moment but reading this I'm wondering what would happen if you created a texture that had green on the left and red on the right. When you put it down, would it stay straight? Could you for instance make a texture that had grass on the left and asphalt on the right, then lay it down to create a break, and then fill in the 2 sides with solid textures?

Textures retain the rotation that you apply when you lay them. It is quite possible to create textures that represent edges or transitions and lay them in lines with the same orientation, but only at 45-degree angles.

 

[jimabbey]

whenever i have used jpegs content creator says it could not read the mesh from 3d max

 

[wreeder]

Hi Jim,
Jpegs work for ground textures which do not have meshes. Not sure if they work for objects with meshes. My answer was only focused on ground textures. I would suggest asking in the Content Creator forum. they would know.

William