Meshing Question How do I eliminate a mesh "base"?

[stevcast]

I have just recently uploaded my Hellsgate base to OHM, and although I am relatively satisfied with the final product, there is always room for improvement. My question is this; I used terranim8or with a gray scale height map to render a volcano mesh (which worked just fine), but the end result was a volcano with a square base. I am of the understanding that Orbiter does not recognize opaque/transparent texture combinations. Is there any way to make a terrain type mesh that blends in to the surface tile (i.e., would be transparent at it's base), or is there some technique to hide the "base" of the texture and eliminate the square appearence?
Thank You in advance.

stevcast

 

[Loru]

Orbiter accepts transparent/opaque textures - you have to merge your texture and opacity map into one dds file and save it as dxt5 version.

How else you've blended surface tile of entire island into the sea?

 

[stevcast]

Orbiter accepts transparent/opaque textures - you have to merge your texture and opacity map into one dds file and save it as dxt5 version.

How else you've blended surface tile of entire island into the sea?

I've tried the same technique on the mesh, (i.e., using the feathering function in paint.net), but I end up with a dark square where the original was. I had no trouble blending the tile.

 

[Donamy]

Are you using the D3DX9 client?

 

[Loru]

Here is the example showing it works: - my mars impact crater on land/sea border.

You have textured mesh with opacity map (inside main texture as alpha channel) on surface tile also with opacity map (crater is located on the opaque/transparent border.

Also base mesh group should have "no-shadows" flag in msh file so orbiter won't use it to cast black shadow under the mesh. If you want to mountain to cast shadow you must use 2 separate meshgroups inside single file: base casts no shadows and mountain (without transparency) casts shadows however it may cause artifacts since orbiter vessels cannot cast shadows on itself.

I suggest reading 3dmodel.pdf located in OrbiterSDK/Doc folder

 

[stevcast]

Thanks!! At least I know it can be done. Now I have some "homework" to do!!:thumbup: I am basically learning as I go along. What is D3DX9 client? ( I really hate being a chronic nube).

---------- Post added at 02:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:53 PM ----------

Loru, could you possibly go through the steps you need to take to obtain the results you did?I would really appreciate it!!

 

[Loru]

Steps are dependent on software you're using, but here are mine:

1: Create mesh in 3d modeller - make sure you have enough "flat space around your mountain since "blending" must occur on flat surface

2. Create texture map: - use whatever paint program you want

3. Create alpha map (256 greyscale BMP) - while making mesh note how much space you have around. Then use this data to create black frame blended into full white in the middle (white is opaque, black is transparent)

4. Combine texture with alpha map (I'm using DXTBMP) and save it as dds file (DXT5 format)

5. open msh file you've created in notepad and find meshgroup you want to blend in - put apropriate flag in this mesh group.

Rest info (what flag end where exactly to put) is in "3dmodel.pdf"

 

[stevcast]

Thanks!! I'm going start working on my next project, and this will help a great deal!!:thumbup:

stevcast

---------- Post added 06-03-12 at 12:14 AM ---------- Previous post was 06-02-12 at 03:19 PM ----------

Steps are dependent on software you're using, but here are mine:

1: Create mesh in 3d modeller - make sure you have enough "flat space around your mountain since "blending" must occur on flat surface

2. Create texture map: - use whatever paint program you want

3. Create alpha map (256 greyscale BMP) - while making mesh note how much space you have around. Then use this data to create black frame blended into full white in the middle (white is opaque, black is transparent)

4. Combine texture with alpha map (I'm using DXTBMP) and save it as dds file (DXT5 format)

5. open msh file you've created in notepad and find meshgroup you want to blend in - put apropriate flag in this mesh group.

Rest info (what flag end where exactly to put) is in "3dmodel.pdf"

In step 4, when you combine the alpha map with the texture, are you adding the alpha map to the texture as a layer? If so, how is the final texture supposed to look before it is saved as a .dds?

 

[Loru]

In step 4, when you combine the alpha map with the texture, are you adding the alpha map to the texture as a layer? If so, how is the final texture supposed to look before it is saved as a .dds?

Since I've found Nvidia dds exporter for Photoshop pretty unstable I'm just creating colormap as one image and opacity map as second. Then combine it in DXTbmp program - there I open color map and import opacity map and just save it as dds (DXT5)

 

[stevcast]

Since I've found Nvidia dds exporter for Photoshop pretty unstable I'm just creating colormap as one image and opacity map as second. Then combine it in DXTbmp program - there I open color map and import opacity map and just save it as dds (DXT5)

I have gotten to the point of combining my alpha map with the texture file ( using DXtbmp program), but I have no idea as to where to put the flag to create a transparent base to the texture. I have read through the Orbiter sdk, but I am not sure as to where or what values to change, or where to put the flag.

 

[Loru]

I'm not sure what do you mean by that - I simply put flag in msh file (using notepad) to group I need to exclude from casting shadows

This is fragment of my crater.msh file

GROUPS 1
LABEL Plane01
MATERIAL 1
TEXTURE 1
[b]FLAG 0x00000001[/b]
GEOM 2601 5000 ; Plane01

and so on - I won't post entire msh file as it's almost 211kb big

 

[stevcast]

I'm not sure what do you mean by that - I simply put flag in msh file (using notepad) to group I need to exclude from casting shadows

This is fragment of my crater.msh file

GROUPS 1
LABEL Plane01
MATERIAL 1
TEXTURE 1
[B]FLAG 0x00000001[/B]
GEOM 2601 5000 ; Plane01

and so on - I won't post entire msh file as it's almost 211kb big

Thank you!!!! I got it to work and it looks alot better. Thank you for your patience and support, I really do appreciate it!
I am going to try to "fix" the volcano and island in my Hellsgate addon, then it's on to my next project.:woohoo:

stevcast