3ds Max, texture layers (color & dirt) for buildings. ED Tutorial?

[Ghostrida9]

Hey Folks,

i figured that ED is doing Building textures way way different then me so i started to think about how i can improve my texturing and came quickly to my limits. I checked how ED's textures look, and figured they are way different- They have textures that i've never seen before but I'm also not sure if i need to do it the same way. (splatmaps etc.)

I know how:

- Lights works (so that they illuminate too)

- self illuminating textures

- the correct color on my Specular maps so windows for example reflect the enviroment

- how to create bump maps (normal) and i slighty understand the AO (Ambient Occlusion) textures.

- Collision sheels

 

but what i don't understant is, how can i create layer textures in 3ds, like in photoshop?

Do i need mental ray?

Is it even possible to create a color layer above all my textures, so bump and everything will work correctly?

For example i have my maps (textures) for lets say 2 or 3 different type of walls (Diffuse, AO, normal and spec) and i want to create a dirt type layer, I'm sure it needs alpha channel since this one should not go to one face but rather cover my whole object, same goes for a color map, so i can stay with one wall texture but just need a small lets say 128 x 128 texture (map) with a color to change the whole wall into a different color without creating a whole new detailed wall texture that might have 1024 x 1024

I got a few nice materials from this page https://freepbr.com/

Is there a step by step tutorial somewhere how ED is doing textures? It also seems like that they render textures out of 3ds max, which i've never done and not understand since i can't find much about it.

This in-game shot should explain it better, it's from an ED building. The light part seems to be the main texture (cement, wall..whatever) the darker spots seem to cover the whole object, not only placed on one face. This is what i try to achieve.

Sorry, alot of questions but hope someone can help, or maybe someone from ed can shed some light how it's done.. most important is the layering textures

All the best

Edited November 1, 2021 by Ghostrida9
missing image

[freebirddz]

Hello, need Composite Layers like showed in the picture in addition of Illumination and Bump layers.

[Ghostrida9]

Thanks @freebirddz , that helped. but still some questions left about Composite layers.

• DCS don't seem to accept the "Opacity", the Bitmap is always fully visible, no matter if i change the value to 20.0 or 90.0 in 3ds MAX (Is there a different way to change the Opacity or do i need to change the Alpha channel of my "Decal" texture (Bitmap) ? which would be much much more work
• Am I corrent when I say that DCS only accept "Bitmaps" (3ds MAX) ?
• Am I corrent when I say that DCS only accept "Normal" (3ds MAX) ?, not any other value like "Darken" or something else?

I keep it all as "Default" (EDM Tools), since i don't work with glass or something else, hope this is correct

Thanks

 

Edited November 5, 2021 by Ghostrida9

[SVKSniper]

Ghostrida9 i think this can help you....if you open Matt Wagner youtube channel scroll to DCS terrain tool and you can see more video....

[Ghostrida9]

Thanks alot @SVKSniper, this helped and explained alot...

I still have a lot of trouble with the Ambient Occlusion (AO) map, texture whatever you wanne call it.

I've done everything according to this video but still, the mapping is wrong, no matter what i do, the mapping is not correct after reimporting the bmp AO texture into 3DS Max 2020

also the mapping on the faces is changing when i switch between High Quality and Standard on top of the main editing window.

Way more strange is that after a few tests and different renders with the AO map rendered and placed into layer 4 (in all available composite layers, window, wall, roof) (also all set to Map Channel 4) the AO map was not visible at all inside DCS after rendering my simple test model to edm. All textures are set to "default" (edm tools). I could see my wall textures placed to the faces that i've choosen, also my roof texture on the right faces, bit no sign of the AO texture.

To figure out where the culprit is can be easy for someone with experience but to me it's difficult and i can't find it. I tryed "Reset UVW's" on the Unwrap UVW tab before entering the UV editor and baking the texture afterwards, one time i tryed it without clicking "Reset UVW's". Inside the UV Editor i go to "Mapping->flattening... then render texture (Baking). I added some screenshots of the stuff i've done. I attached Box1 to Box2 to make 1 object out of my "testobject" before i started to add textures. Otherwise without attaching, 3DS is baking 2 different AO textures, one for each object

 

[freebirddz]

Hi, we do use PBR textures to our project !

This is 3D max Node :

 

The texturing was done and exported from Substance Painter, below the PRESET :

 

[SVKSniper]

Here is tutorial from Skate how to render AO map.....

 

[Ghostrida9]

Thanks, my reply comes a bit late but i figured it out. I had to unwrap the "baked" AO map again after importing it, simply unwrap UVW and "flatten" and voila, the texture covers the object perfectly.

Now it's a bit about finding out if textures should be 8bit, 24bit.. and how to render them, my normal maps still getting those ugly pixels. Anyway I should figure that out sooner or later, seems like DXTbmp and "extended Bitmap" is doing a good job here.

One