[Solved]Cryengine like terrain painting

Game Engine Game Engine Support and Discussion
#1

Is there a way to replicate cryengines terrain painting? I don’t want to do texture painting, I mean painting models onto a mesh or terrain.

Example: I have a terrain with textures and normals applied just fine, now I created some grass billboards, I want to paint the grass models onto the terrain like in the Cryengine.

Is there a way? I tried using the array modifier and then randomization transforms, but would rather have a “paint” like feature. I know there is a way to replace particle systems with models, but albeit particles don’t work in BGE yet.

#2

Look at the add tool in the particle edit mode. Turn on hair particles, and set their render/display type to the mesh you want to paint. Then paint away.

#3

And this work in the Game Engine? Cause When render mode is in the Game Engine, particle effects show “Not Available In The Game Engine”.

#4

I found you can just use the particle hair system but you have to convert it before using it in the game engine otherwise nothing shows up. (in the modifiers section)

#5

“convert it”, I’m not a blender expert. So I assume there is a way to convert a particle system to a mesh and import it into the game engine? And even then importing a meshes is not what I’m looking for. But if that was the case I could do it kinda by hand and shit+d (or array modifier) and split the meshes in edit mode, then apply the randomize transforms. Then export the model. I want to paint a mesh onto something dynamically.

Not really what I’m looking for, I want to essentially texture paint. but without textures, and instead put meshes there. If there is no tool or add-on, I’ll implement it myself, just looking for something that might be there so I don’t waste my time on something that is already available.

#6

if your using the blender game engine then this is easy, make your terrain etc. in the blender game engine, also model the grass and vegetation that you want and put that on layer 2.

  1. name each piece of vegetation eg. “grass” or something you can recognize
  2. change render engine from blender game engine to blender render
  3. add a particle system to your mesh/terrain that you want the plants and stuff on (if your in blender render you should be able to do this).
  4. change it to hair
  5. under render tab (in the particle settings) select object, then select the object you want: either tree, grass etc. If you have more than one object group them (Ctrl+G) and under the render tab select group instead.
  6. change the particle settings to suit your needs, if the grass is sideways goto layer 2 > editmode> and rotate (usually on the y axis) 90 if that doesn’t work try out other axis’, you can also add weight paint to have more “vegetation” in some areas than others.
  7. once your happy with your results, go under the modifiers tab. The blue wrench thing, then under there you should see a particle system modifier that has been added.
  8. click convert
  9. switch back to blender game engine from blender render.
  10. if you don’t want the player to collide with the object then you have to set it to “no collision” under the physics tab.
    you probably don’t want to do this for each piece of billboard grass so select all your new “grass” with “b” or “c” then press ctrl j, and select no collision under the physics tab.

if your new to hair and particle settings you should check out some tutorials.
hope this cleared it up for you!

good luck

Thatimst3r

#7

You could use a script that reads vertex colors and generates/spawns grass-, tree-, flowerobjects etc on to their specified color areas.
Sure this will not be seen in edit phase, but these will appear in game. On the plus side, this makes editing part less heavy on computer and less messy.

#8

Thanks for clearing it up, I didn’t know you could convert to objects from the particle system like that.

I also like the last idea too. I could use weight paint or an averaged texture color to add them in dynamically; which might be the option I go for on final production. I’m more of a coder than anything lol. I still might make a brush to paint objects in also, but that will come later.

Thanks for the responses.

#9

I know the thread is solved, but I got interested in that terrain node setup - i get it how each channel is separated and controls different texture, but how is he’s putting them back together? I can’t make it with mixRGB, the video don’t show it, and the file is gone :frowning:

#10

Here you go: https://www.mediafire.com/?fb0024525nsb1gp