Chapter 11: Structural Material Textures

Download CD Content

Overview

In earlier chapters we encountered textures used to enhance the 3D game environment in the resources included with the Emaga sample game. We only caressed the topic with the most feathery of touches. As the book progresses we'll explore the topic in depth from many different angles. In this chapter we'll look at one aspect of 3D game textures—those used to define 3D structures, like buildings, walls, sidewalks, and other virtual world artifacts.

You can judiciously and creatively use textures in several important ways. We'll use a pre-built scene with a few basic and more complex structures to illustrate some of these principles, including the following:

• Project information. One of the most basic uses of textures in a 3D game is to define the object containing the textures. A simple box shape can become an electrical transformer, a house, a crate of weapons, or an air conditioner, merely by applying different textures to the shape.

• Convey mood. We can set a mood in a scene using different styles of textures. The amount of subtlety is up to the designers; a somewhat unremarkable and neutral air vent high on a wall can become an ominous clue to an unseen threat by adding a graphic of slime or other unmentionable stuff oozing from its louvers.

• Establish space and place. A cramped machine room full of noise and whirling parts might have shapes built with textures jammed with pipes, wires, knobs, and other mechanical items. The machinery shapes would probably be busy-looking affairs, even in static form. On the other hand textures for the walls in a high-ceilinged, multistory hall might have only vertically oriented lines and long, thin curves, with high-contrast shading.

During this chapter you will be directed to use Paint Shop Pro from time to time, so it's a good idea to have it open and ready for use.