this may be a silly question but is there any d3 equivalent to the q3map2 alpha volume blending?
how do you guys blend textures on terrain etc… please take into consideration I don`t have d3 yet, but I should be able to understand the principles, if someone can give me a brief description?
I’d recommend popping over to http://www.doom3world.org as everything you could think of has aready been answered over there and usually in quite some depth.
Essecially though the ‘method’ is still the same but the way it’s done different, shaders are still involved but the actual ‘controling device’ are vertex colours on models (black > white).
thanks kat, and just a quick question before I head over there… you say ‘models’ but can we also use that method of alpha fading on brush work?
iow, could I take a trisouped brush terrain from et or ja, and convert it d3 and have the same look to the blending? not counting the lighting, just the tex manipulation… knowing whether this was possible or not would be a major weight off my mind 
No, as far as I know you can’t use blending on brushwork becasue you can’t alter vertex colours (for obvious reasons). Anything you want to have a blend on will need to be a model or converted into one. It’ll be quite tricky to match exactly the result of AlphaMOD on brushwork to that on a model, but the priciple that sock used in his last map and set of tutorials stands good; you can basically split a model and use different blends in the same way that sock showed you could do with brushwork although you need to concentrate a bit one what you’re doing if you’re not familiar with 3D modelling apps.
Also the blend ‘quality’ is dependant on the number or triangles a mesh has (the density of the blends) in exactly the same way alphaMOD is on brushwork
thanks, although that is a shame.
but if I built my trisouping brush work in gtk radiant or doom edit then I could convert the brushes to an .ase model, load it back in and then tweak the alpha, vertex colors? …how are the colors tweaked in doom edit?
The colours aren’t tweaked in DOOMEdit, you need a modeling program, such as 3dsmax (which in my opinion has the best vertex paint tool around)
Z
k thanks, but what if we cant afford 3dsmax, which I definitely cant… can gmax or milkshape do this?
MS can do it but you’re restricted in terms of the work area you have. The only apps you’d really want to consider in any serious capacity (if not wanting to use warez) is Blender3D and Wings3D. There are also a couple of other freebie apps around but you’ll need to check whether they can export to LWO, ASE and OBJ which I think Blender and Wings can do. Gmax can do it tecnically but you’ve got problems exporting to the supported formats.
thanks kat, and I dont personally use warez on moral grounds, although if other people want to thats their decision… so can these programs just output to one of those file formats or do they need all 3 of them to work in d3?
edit: just visited the blender and wings sites and they appear to be free? if so that is great! but which one do you recommend?
I used to model a long time ago in a program called real3d which was spline based, but I don`t mind modeling in polys if the gui and camera window are nice.
Yes they’re both free. I’d suggest download both and having a play around with them. Personally I’ve been using Blender with reasonable success (see my current WIP here http://www.quake3bits.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=88 ) for a while but have to say the some people find it very tricky to get their head around. Wings3D has more similarities to Max and MS than Blender which is in a world of it own, but both apps are more than capable of doing what you’ll need to do for high and low res models. I have to add though, I’m not 100% sure what export formats Wings3D has… I know OBJ is one of them (Doom3 supports LWO and ASE for in game models and OBJ for renderbump)
thanks kat, I really appricate your advise on this, especially as I know you love making terrain as I do, for that reason I think I`ll try blender first.
I can`t open that link you gave me, although I can visit your home page, any idea why?
yeah, funky server. You’re not using BT as your ISP are you? They have some kind of IP blocking in place that is notorious for causing random connection problems. I’m using BT myself and constantly have connections problems to my own blinking forums…!
I`m using blueyonder isp… should I just try periodically your forums then?
yeah, it’s probably just a server glitch, happens quite frequently. I’ve got the saem info posted to the ‘Blender’ section of doom3world where you can pick up a bit more info on what the app can do.
understood and Ive just dl blender, and will be going through some of the basic tutorials from their site later on tonight ...and I hadnt noticed the blender section of doom3world, but will now go have a look, thanks
@kat, your ‘blender bob’ model looks very cool, is that your first character model? …if so I`m really impressed
have you used blender to make any terrain yet? …I think me learning to do that first should be easier then a character model, but if I get on well with the app, and everything Ive read about it so far suggests I will, then its cool to know I might be able to make my own character models one day
in the past (before I got into mapping) I`d modeled a human head for a music video but never a full body, so I can imagine how much work went into ‘bob’
hee hee, I need to get d3 first 
seriously though, Im really just preparing myself for the next engine I use, and having the basics at least worked out in theory means Im less likely to spend the next few months being apprehensive about the upgrading.
if it is the d3 engine I end up using, which Im pretty sure it will be, then I will definitely release at least one terrain map (I need to do this for several reasons) ...but the main work Ill be doing will be a demo project I`ll be porting over from rtcw, but it will be a long time before that sees the light of day… if you can excuse the pun.
and zombie, I know your just kidding, but so anyone who doesnt know me from the q3map2 forum, doesnt think Im just spamming these forums, heres some ‘recent’ test pics from my et and ja sample map Im going to be releasing on the q3map2 forum... to show Im serious about mapping
