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This tutorial is here to explain how to use the "color" value in each of your layers to add of the overall number of colors in your level. This is best used when working with a level that is either predominantly fields or has a large number of them.

The most common way level editors go about painting fields is take up 2 to 3 separate layers to create all their fields, when all you need is 1 layer dedicated to all of your fields.

Now, start by building you fields, then prep what field texture you want to use.

Be sure to play with these values, as it will greatly determine what you base texture looks like.



As you can see I picked 6/32 I also have shown 0/0 as when you apple this specific color texture it comes out blocky, and these values fix it.

0/0 on top, 6/36 on the bottom



Now that your field is panted..

Lets go to the "color" value located in the tweak bar when you select your field layer.

Select a color of your choice. I'm going with brown. Now go to your texture bar and select these values.


Now after painting you should have 2 different fields with only using one layer. You can continually change the color without effecting the others, thus allowing you have have many different looking fields.


Hope you enjoyed this tut!

You really should be painting down colour textures rather than painting down flat colours btw, you can change the colour texture for a texture layer without any consequences to the map btw since you just paint down a colour/texture to the maps colour textures

[R-DEV]Rhino wrote:You really should be painting down colour textures rather than painting down flat colours btw, you can change the colour texture for a texture layer without any consequences to the map btw since you just paint down a colour/texture to the maps colour textures

Indeed, but there are just not many choices unless you make your own, which I don't.

that's why I'm confused by this tutorial This tutorial is just an explanation how to use a color instead of a color texture no?

Only detail textures are limited by layers, color whether texture or flat can be used as you like. Maybe change the title to 'using color instead of colortexture' or something that sounds less confusing

GP_MineralWouter wrote:that's why I'm confused by this tutorial This tutorial is just an explanation how to use a color instead of a color texture no?

Only detail textures are limited by layers, color whether texture or flat can be used as you like. Maybe change the title to 'using color instead of colortexture' or something that sounds less confusing

With color textures, unless you make your own, you really only have a choice of brown and yellow, this allows you to have all sorts of different colors and variations in them, without it looking repeated all throughout the level.

well, color texture are in my opinion just much more detailed and varied. Just look at your picture and compare the both and you can easily spot a difference in detail and variation IMO. But yeah, if you are limited by what you can archive yourself with color textures then I guess this is simplest way to archive a bit of variation.

But for example for those fields something as simple as recoloring(or changing hue) the color texture would be more effective and pretty simple to learn. In my experience a basic bit of knowledge in photoshop comes in really handy while mapping! But that's personal preference I guess

gx wrote:without it looking repeated all throughout the level.

That really comes down to how you paint your map, although yes, most maps painted with tpaint have the same colour texture painted all the way though the map which gets very repetitive and boring etc and on the minimap, and even from some high places in the map or flying about over it, you can see the repetitiveness.

This is one of the reasons I don't paint my map this way, I normally use L3DT which means I can paint down more than the 3 textures tpaint dose, with loads of different options and making them all merge together. Then for touch ups ingame I paint down colour textures on top of this in areas that have mainly been affected by man.

This is how I painted Fools Road for IronTaxi and you can see in this render from L3DT the variation in colour:


I should also note there are many other programs and methods to do the same thing like GeoControl, although that in its default form, paints down solid colours which it then blends into each other but can be used to paint down textures too with combining it with Photoshop

But ye, this doesn't mean that a map or areas painted by hand using colour textures are necessarily repetitive, but you do really need to make your own in order to avoid this but it also comes to painting bits of flat colour with hardly any strength over them in order to get rid of it

But tbh, your tiling shouldn't be so small that you can see the repetitiveness

I wish I could use that, I did intend on texturing shikotan through it, but for some reason it comes out as something like 98% rock surface.

Ye you need to learn how to make custom climates in order to use it to its full potential (as well as custom textures for the climate). The default ones are not that good and never work with BF2 style maps.

Removed this from the "tutorial" section as it's basic use of the editor paint function. As Rhino and others have said, you can change the color of a layer as much as you want, to include the tiling. It won't affect what you're already done, but only what you're about to paint. Also, it's best to change the "colortexture" selection instead of changing the "color" block. That does have it's own function, for example if you want to pull up the layer in photoshop and make mass changes (but that's another tutorial altogether).

Detail Textures, however, are one per layer (max of 6)... so if you change that it will change every location that uses that layer.