Animating
Textures and Working with
Scrolling Textures
by Bedazzled
Important!
This tutorial only covers the NGLE. If you are using the new
game engine please read the tutorial on animating textures
in Chapter 12 of the NGLE Manual -
NGLE Game Manual
Scrolling
textures are used to provide TR3 and Angkor Wat style
animated texture waterfalls, flowing rivers of lava and
falling sand. In this tutorial I’ll explain how to set them
up for use with both the original level editor and the NGLE
by Paolone.
Each of
the TR4 scrolling textures consist of a set containing two
tiles as shown below, from left to right they are Lava, Sand
and the Angkor Wat waterfall.
The Tr3
waterfall is made up of a set containing eight tiles as seen
below which shows the textures from the TR3 jungle level
extracted in Tbuilder.
The Original Level Editor
Begin by
adding the required textures to your tga set; here I’ve
added the Angkor & Tr3 waterfalls onto the end of the tut1
tga you should avoid having them as the first row in the tga
set.
Setting the animation ranges
Click on
the animating ranges button at the bottom of the texture
panel to open the ranges setting panel.
If, as seen above, any of the textures have a
green line around them, left click on them and the line
should become red. Then click the Delete Range button
because you must first remove any existing animation ranges.
The
scrolling texture ranges need to be set in the order that
they appear in the tga set, followed by setting any normal
water textures. Right click and drag to select a set of
textures then click the ok button.
Selecting the next set.
Both sets
of scrolling textures are now set.
Finally
the normal water textures can be set.
When
placing the TR3 waterfall textures in your level don’t
segment the wall where they will be applied, allow them to
stretch. Apply only a quarter of one tile as shown in this
picture to the whole area to be covered.
You must also make a 2 x 2 block room not
connected to your level, and make certain you apply all
eight of the full Tr3 texture tiles to it. If you miss just
one tile out the textures will not scroll in game.
Note
when using the Angkor Wad waterfall only apply the clear
texture of the set.
If you are using TR4 scrolling textures you
must add this line to your level in the script txt file.
Uvrotate= 8
The number determines the scrolling speed,
lower numbers = slower speed. A negative number will reverse
the direction of scrolling.
You should then save your script file and run
the Script MS-Dos batch file to convert it.
The NGLE V50 projects. (128 x 128 pixel textures)
To get 128 x 128 pixel scrolling textures to
work requires modifying them as described below under the
heading -
NGLE- UVrotate texture
modification. Or you can use the textures included with
this tutorial (see above left for download link).
It also requires care when placing the
textures into the tga map and setting the animation ranges.
I will describe how to set up a TR3 style waterfall, the
Angkor Wat waterfall and normal water textures as seen in
the picture at the beginning of this tutorial.
Your first scrolling textures should be
placed positioned as the 6th texture onwards in the map. All
Tr4 scrolling textures should be come first, then any TR3
waterfall textures and finally the normal water textures.
The
picture below shows how the textures are arranged. The TR3
textures are arranged as 2 blocks of 4 textures.
The textures are applied to the level as
described in the previous section, and TR4 textures will
require the Uvrotate line in the script for your level.
But
setting the animation ranges is a bit more involved.
Click on
the animating ranges button at the bottom of the texture
panel to open the ranges setting panel. Click on the “R”
button to delete any existing ranges.
Highlight your first set of animating
textures by right click & dragging. Set the nUV Ranges box
to 1, click the assign & ok buttons.
Open the animation ranges panel again, the
first texture set will have a green border around it.
Highlight the next set of animating textures and set the nUV
ranges box to 2, click the assign & ok buttons.
Repeat this process for the normal water
animating texture set, but this time do not change
the nUV Ranges box.
Your
animating ranges are now set, if you open the animation
ranges panel again each set of animating textures should
have a green border around it.
You should
now have animating textures in game.
NGLE-
UVrotate texture modification
If your graphics program has a grid option
set it to 128 x 128 with 2 subdivisions, also enable the
snap to grid option this will make the process easier and
more accurate.
Starting with a 128 x 128 pixel texture
1)
Compress the texture until it’s 128 x 64 pixels as shown
here.
2)
Select and copy the new 128 x 64 pixel section of the
texture as shown below.
3)
Paste the selection back again and position it below the
copied texture as shown here.
Repeat
steps 1- 3 above for a second time; your texture is then
ready to use.
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