Section 1 - Texturing Your Room

When you first loaded the tut1.prj, not only did you load the 3D model of the level, you also loaded a TGA texture file, comprised of many 64x64 pixel “tiles”. The texture tiles are located in the TEXTURE PANEL on the right side of the EDITOR INTERFACE.

Selecting Textures

1. Left-click on a tile to select it. Notice that within the red selection box there is a green triangle. Don’t worry about the green triangle for now.

2. Right-click and drag on a texture to select portions of the individual tiles in increments of 16 pixels (e.g. 16x16, 16x32 and so on).

Applying Textures

1. Make sure your room is selected. (You HAVE saved your project recently, haven’t you?)

2. Click OFF the 2D MAP button and click on the FACE EDIT button. (You won’t see the textures you’ll be applying unless this button is on).

3. Use the arrow keys to rotate the model so you are looking down at the floor.

4. Choose an appropriate tile for the floor. Refer to the demo model if you’d like. (Right clicking on an applied texture automatically selects that texture from the texture file.) Now left click on any floor square to apply the texture. If you don’t see it, you probably forgot to turn on the FACE EDIT button.

5. Now right click on the floor and drag a box over several squares. This will apply the selected texture tile over all of the selected squares.

6. If you want to texture the entire floor in one shot, use the TEXTURE FLOOR button under the EDITOR WINDOW.

NOTE: Textures applied in this manner usually look like wallpaper! You can use the TEXTURE CEILING and TEXTURE WALLS buttons to accomplish the same thing, but you will be happier with your level if you use this method sparingly, if at all.

7. Now select an appropriate texture for the walls and apply this texture to one square. You’ll see that the wall textures look stretched and blurred. That’s because a square texture tile is being applied to a rectangular surface. Ideally, you want to place a texture tile on a square surface since textures will stretch or compress to fit the height of the wall segment.

Fixing Stretched Wall Textures

Fortunately there is a solution to this stretched texture problem. Remember
the three shades of green you saw on the wall panels of the
demo model? These shaded segments are one of the keys to successful
texture mapping.

1. Turn off the FACE EDIT button to view your room without textures.

2. Right click and drag your selection over the entire wall, or go to the PLAN VIEW grid and drag select a gray wall (sorry, only one wall at a time). Once selected, the entire wall of your model should appear red.

3. Using the CEILING “-” button click 12 times to bring a line down into the panel. You won’t see any movement of the dividing line until the 9th click. The dividing line is coming down from a position 20 clicks above the floor.

4. Using the FLOOR “+” button, click 4 times to bring a line up from the floor. You now have a wall divided into three segments, three shades of green. Take a quick look at the wall panels in the demo model “First Room” to see how your model should look.

5. Now turn on the FACE EDIT button and apply textures to the remaining wall panels.

Using Partial Textures

1. The lowest of the wall panel segment will only be two clicks tall. If you apply a full texture to these the texture will be compressed and not look as smooth as the others. Instead, select and apply only half the texture. (Right click on the texture in the demo model to find the right one.)

2. Now apply partial textures to one side of the raised platform you created for Lara. Go to the appropriate texture tile. Right click to drag a selection 16x64 pixels. (Remember, the editor defaults to increments of 16 - the equivalent of one building block click - so it is easy to make accurate selections.) You will need to do the same thing for the stepped ceiling, but you need to grab one half a texture tile (32x64) instead.

Adding Additional Texture Segments to the Columns

1. Turn off the FACE EDIT button and take a look at the columns. They are taller than the walls so if you divide them into three segments, the textures will appear stretched. This is an easy fix, too.

2. Go ahead and divide the column up as you did the wall panels, but click 6 down from the top and 4 up from the bottom using the CEILING/FLOOR “+” and “-” buttons . Next, use the keyboard “R” and “F” keys (think “ROOF”) to bring another panel down from the ceiling (The “F” key brings it down, the “R” key moves it back up). You’ll need to click the “F” key 10 times.

3. The bottoms of the columns need a “kick board” effect to make the column seem like it’s sitting on a base. Use the “E” and “D” keys to bring a panel up from the floor (the “E” key brings it up, the “D” key moves it down again). Hit the “E” key 2 times. Again, if in doubt, take a look at the demo model to see what yours should look like.

Rotating Textures

You can rotate a texture by right clicking it once you have applied it to the model.

Mirroring Textures

Hold down the Control button as you apply your texture to get a mirrored or horizontally flipped image of your texture square. (If texture has already been applied, hold Control and left click to flip it.)

Checking for Untextured Surfaces

Sometimes it is easy to miss texturing a polygon, especially with more complicated models. To help you find these missing textures, use the FIND UNTEXTURED button located below the EDITOR WINDOW.

So there you are. You have the “tools”, now the texturing is up to you! Play around with the textures to create different patterns or moods. If you want your model to look exactly like the demo model, refer to it for guidance. Don’t forget the neat trick for selecting textures from the model itself. (Right click once to select an applied texture, but be aware if that texture is already selected on the texture panel, one right click will rotate it 90 degrees.)

Segmenting the Blue “Building Blocks”

It is worth mentioning here that you are able to segment the vertical sides of the floor and ceiling blocks for texturing as well, but with one break only. The “R” and “F” keys are used for the ceiling, the “E” and “D” for the floor.

TAKING A LOOK

Maybe it’s time to kick back and check out all your hard work in the PREVIEW MODE. (The next best thing to seeing it in the game.)

NOTE: It is always a good idea to save before entering PREVIEW MODE; however, the editor does save automatically when you enter this mode.