The NGLE Manual
Animating
Textures - The Basics
By Bedazzled
Note:
This tutorial applies only to the new game
engine which has opened up a whole new world of
possibilities for using animating textures in levels. The setting up of animation ranges
is also far easier than
ever before.
The main
points are listed below.
-
It is
now possible to have multiple UvRotate ranges each
scrolling with a different speed and or direction,
alongside one or more TR3 style waterfalls.
-
The
textures can now be placed anywhere in the texture map
providing that all of the textures to be used in each
range are grouped together.
-
There
is no longer a requirement for the UvRotate = line in
the script; everything is setup from within the
Animating Texture window of the editor.
-
A
previously built V49 project with all animating ranges
set and working correctly can be converted to a V50
project simply by using the map converter. And the new
project will continue to work correctly without the need
to reset the animation ranges.
As the
title suggests this tutorial covers only the basics; a
second tutorial will cover more advanced techniques
requiring use of new triggers and script changes.
I will
first describe how to setup the various types of animating
textures and then show the correct way to convert a V49
project to a V50 project.
Description of the animation
range window dropdown boxes and buttons
Notes
-
The
Reduce button only appears if a V50 project is being
used.
-
Before
setting the very first range get into the habit of
clicking the “R” button to clear any existing ranges.
-
The
Anim-type dropdown box contains several options, two of
which, the P-Frames and River-Rotate
options, are covered in the advanced animating
textures tutorial.
Basic
water textures
These are the simplest to setup. Select the
required textures by clicking and dragging and leave all
settings at their default values as shown here.
Now click the Assign button followed by the
Ok button. To check the range has been assigned open the
Animation Range window again. The range should now be
surrounded by a green line. Click ok to close the window.
It should be noted that the range settings
will not be shown. However clicking on a range will put a
red border around them and bring up the settings assigned to
that animation range. This is very useful when you have
several scrolling ranges set and want to check their speed
and direction. As long as you don’t click the assign button
again their settings will remain unchanged.
Scrolling Textures
These are the waterfall textures used in the
Angkor Wat level of TR4 and also the falling sand and Lava
textures used in TR4. These are setup in a similar way to
normal water textures but this time you must set the anim
type, the frame rate and the animation speed.
Begin by selecting the range as before and
apply the following settings.
Click the Assign button and close the window.
Additional scrolling texture ranges can be setup in the same
way and different animation speeds can be applied to them.
If you
want to adjust the speed of a previously set animation range
simply click on it. A red border will surround it and then
set the new UvRotate value and click the Assign button.
TR3
Waterfalls
It was found during extensive testing that
textures taken from a TR3 TGA set which had been downloaded
from TRSearch would not animate, probably due to the method
used when extracting them from the CD.
When
setting up these waterfalls you use two methods.
-
If you only have one waterfall in the level or just want
to use the default speed set them up in exactly the same
way as normal water textures.
-
If you
have several and want them flowing at different speeds
or have a single waterfall and want to adjust its speed,
set it up as a scrolling texture choosing the Half-
Rotate option from the Anim-Type dropdown box.
Notes
-
It is
not possible to adjust the speed or direction of these
textures when applied as transparent.
-
All
eight waterfall textures must be in your tga and they
must all be selected when applying an animating range to
them.
-
One
complete tile from the range must be placed in the level
either in an unconnected room or hidden beneath or
behind a suitable object.
Place
only a one quarter segment of the first waterfall texture
tile in your level and allow it to stretch.
Place
only the outlined segment in your level.
Converting a V49 project to a V50 project
It make
no difference if your V49 project consists of only 64 x 64
pixel textures or a mixture of 64 x 64 and 128 x128 pixel
textures the conversion method is the same.
The texture alignment used in original prj box should be set
to 64 x 64 and the target data should be set to 128 x 128.
But you should be aware that any 128 x 128 textures which
were in your V49 map will be resized to 256 x 256 during the
conversion process.
