That other kind of map
Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Beginners Area/That other kind of map
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| I'm pretty sure I understand the concept, but how exactly do you make and/or use a lightmap, heightmap, alphamap, etc.? Do you just cycle through the points and create lights, etc.? |
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| They are all different things. A height map is simply a grey image (usually grey) which is often used for determining which parts of a terrain is high and which parts are low. A heightmap can be made in any image tool , even MS Paint but something like Terragen or Vue or any of the many terrain editors should have the ability to do this. A light map is a texture which is applied as a second texture blended with the one underneath to make parts of the mesh look dark and parts look bright. Usually light maps are multiply or multiply x2 blended with the base texture. If it is simply a 'multiply' blend then the lightmap acts in such a way that any texel in the lightmap which is 'less bright' than white (rgb = 255,255,255) appears darker when blended with the original texture. If it is multiply x2 blended then the lightmap can brighten regions (rgb>128,128,128) or darken it (rgb < 128,128,128). You could also use additive blending which will simply make regions brighter by adding the red,green,blue components of the lightmap texture to the base texture. There are plenty of examples of lightmapping on the internet (flipcode used to have some good ones if it still exists). A lightmap is made in a lightmapping program usually, such as [g]iles or slim shady or 3d world studio or a host of other applications. An alphamap is usually a greyscale image which is used to determine where a texture should be transparent and where it should be opaque (or anywhere in between). An alphamap can be made in any image editing program. Another free one which is fairly easy to use is Ultimate Paint in the Links section above. |
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| Lightmaps: http://www.flipcode.com/articles/article_lightmaps-pf.shtml |
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| Thanks. |
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