I’m still trying to figure things out. I understand the difference between using GLSL textures and singletextures/multitextures is that with GLSL you get some additional effects such as normal mapping, real-time shadows, etc.
But what about singletextures and multitextures? If the BGE is just blending different textures in real-time using Blend modes/types such as mix, add, saturation, etc. can’t I just do exactly the same using layers under Photoshop/GIMP and use the single output texture in the BGE?
Considering both singletextures and multitextures are for older machines that don’t support newer OpenGL versions and are probably running on lower processing power and memory, isn’t multitexture mode redundant?
Try and you will see, multitexture has normalmaps with mipmaps, and at the same time they can be animated textures, and you can has other per texture tweaks…
Single texture is the original material mode of the BGE. It supports exactly one texture layer for the BGE.
I think with 2.39 the multitexture mode was introduces. This allowed at least two textures at the same time at the same face.
Both modes should run all machines. As far as I know you can completely replace single texture mode with multitexture. But you need to make sure to configure all multitexture parameters. Otherwise the result might look a bit weird. This is because not all possible parameters are matching the same things. Beside of that yes single texture mode is redundant (as far as I know).
With 2.48 the GLSL mode was introduced. This mode is limited to GPUs with GLSL support. It allows some more effects and some more material settings.
Similar to the multitexture mode when configuring GLSL materials it does not mean you set up all parameters for the other modes as well. This can make a game (designed for GLSL only) look pretty bad without GLSL support. If you want both you should check the look with the other modes before releasing the game.
Thank you both. I was still misunderstanding what multitexture really is. Seems like I’ll need to do some more manual reading. And I’ll experiment a little when I find some time.
In “two words”…single textures is not using materials, they a just one image over one uv map. Multitexture mode is using materials, this means first you need to make a material and then apply it to an object.
Materials are complex textures blending methods.
Oh thank you haidme. I didn’t know about single textures not using materials.
I’ve never understood why the Blender interface never changes regardless of what settings I am using. I mean those different modes - singletexture, multitexture and GLSL - provide different features yet the tools you can configure in Blender are the same for the three. You switch between them using Render > Shading, right? Why can I add as many materials and textures as I want with any random settings (even when in singletexture)? And why do I see the same options in the Textures tab?
How am I supposed to know all the features that are supported by each mode? I was checking the manual for 2.5x and 2.6x and can’t seem to find anything that explain it. Even searching for “GLSL” for example doesn’t seem to return many results. Do I have no other choice but to enable and disable every checkbox and move every slidebar for every possible combination of settings? This trial and error seems really tedious…
@ManOfSteel - I was not quite honest with you, actually you can apply material to an object in single texture mode, but the only thing that will change will be the mat color and shader(lambert,pong…) so that way you can make your texture look shiny like a metal,glass etc.
@juancarlospaco - My game is using single texture mode.This mode is the fastest bge mode. You can make huge games with good performance in this mode, using GLSL dramatically decrease performance. I think single texture is not to be underestimated.
That’s EXACTLY the type of information I need. Is it documented anywhere in the manual (and for which Blender version) or elsewhere? I’m looking specifically for information regarding single and multitextures.
That’s why I am interested in non-GLSL modes! I’ve seen your screencaps and videos and I think Krum looks magnificent even though it doesn’t use those fancy - and very heavy - GLSL features.