Baking ambient occlusion maps for terrain in Blender

[digimikeh]

Hio Quake3bits,, i noticed you did not use UV Lightmap pack in unrwap menu, i´m going to try your method, one time i have the ao map, do you know how to mix ao with diffuse in one texture?... thank you!

[Quake3Bits]

Easiest way to mix is to combine the two in a photoeditor app and then use that as the diffuse in game.

The only issue I've found with lightmap packing are the borders, they sometimes show black spots where AA hasn't kicked in.

[digimikeh]

i´m using Gimp, what program do you use to mix them up,?,

Oh yes!, i noticed that too, Uv lightmap pack is not so good than the method you are showing us, i tried yours, and i got a great lightmap, thank you !

[Quake3Bits]

Corel Photopaint. GIMP has layers so all you need to do is add the AO over (or under) the diffuse and then use one of the blend mode.. softlight or some such is usually a good one.

[digimikeh]

perfect man, going to try it out with gimp, thank you !!

[keeprighton2007]

Do you have any advice on how to create a large (an area of a few hundred km) terrain? I have a satellite greyscale heightmap but I am unsure which program will allow me to accomplish it... Thanks.

[Quake3Bits]

E-mail me some details of what you're trying to (see links opposite). Basically Blender should be able to handle anything you throw at it; your issues will be scale relative to its destination.

[runedawn]

Ok a question :p

I modeled a cool looking map but when i opened the quake map file (you can export that in blender)

In a radiant It looked messed up o.O

How does this come?

Ive tried doing it with making it out of seperate cubes and that works. The only problem is ingame is that you can glitch massivly. You got any idea how i can use a normal model as map?

[Quake3Bits]

You're in luck. Go to Katsbits . com and find the "model to map" tutorial in the tutorials section, that has what you need.

[XPSChaos]

Damn it all these cool tutorials don't have sound

[Quake3Bits]

Yeah, sorry about that.. decent audio takes a lot of time and effort to sort out and record (not to mention HD space), especially if you don't want a lot of "ermmm", "hmmmm", "ok, that wasn't supposed to happen" etc. comments in them ;o)

[SUPERREDproductions]

how do u mix textures together in blender with like grass and rock??

[Quake3Bits]

Basically two ways;

1) Stencils (layered materials)

2) 'painted' textures (blend is part of the physical texture mapped to an object)

Stencils allow better quality as the stencil (mask cut out) that's used by the material to give the appearance of blending can be done independant of the underlying textures size, resolution and quality.

Using 'painted' textures can't, a grass and rock 'blend' would have to be done in photoshop + use huge images to get good quality results.

[SUPERREDproductions]

could u make a stencil tutorial? ive seen sum and there so complicated and not clear at all...

[Quake3Bits]

Can't promise anything but I'll see what I can do. May be some time before it's done though so I'd work on some other things in the meantime.

[ToxicRainDrop]

umm this is awesome but when I do full render, my image turns all black..? I have texface selected. How do you get an image to be backed. thanks

[Quake3Bits]

Are you doing a "Full Render" or and "AO Bake"? The two are different and may be one reason. The other is the texture buffer not clearing or being written to properly so save the file, then reopen it to 'refresh' the data. Try rendering again.

[grimangel120]

nice but how to u get a background for it so if u play the game it would be just a black background

[Quake3Bits]

You mean adding a sky? That depends on what game engine the terrain model and textures are going to be put into; most have some form of sky 'box' system that use materials and the same basic principles of a sky texture 'projected' onto a simplified background surface (often nothing more than a big box).

[TylerTroute]

im making a game i need a landscape deisigner and you would be perfect

[TylerTroute]

did you make this yourself

[Quake3Bits]

Yes, models, textures etc.. don't use other peoples work as it's too much hassle to get copyright clearance ;)

Why?