L3DT Users' Community

First, I'd like to say what an amazing application L3DT is. It seems as if my team has found the terrain solution that we have been looking for.

I have two feature requests, which you'll have to forgive me of, if in my ignorance I have overlooked somehow.

It would be handy if the user could opt to export up to four alpha layers into a single image file (RGBA) with a coefficient adding up to 1.0. There are several splatting effects used in realtime games that could benefit from this addition to the pipeline. Being able to export directly to a file format with this structure would definately save time for game developers, using such a method.

It would also be useful to be able to edit alpha maps after export, in external applications (in our case our map editor), and then reimport them back into L3DT for a regeneration of the texture map. This way artists could edit the layers by hand in whatever app they choose, to facilitate roads and the like, and simply bring them back into L3DT for regen.

Thanks in advance for replies and such a fantastic tool!

Hi Joshua,

Welcome to the users' group.

Joshua wrote:It would be handy if the user could opt to export up to four alpha layers into a single image file (RGBA) with a coefficient adding up to 1.0.

RGBA alpha maps are supported in L3DT Professional. If you want to register for the 6-month trial version (it's not on sale just yet), the instructions are here.

Joshua wrote:It would also be useful to be able to edit alpha maps after export, in external applications (in our case our map editor), and then reimport them back into L3DT for a regeneration of the texture map.

Sure, good idea. L3DT doesn't support this directly, but you can do what amounts to the same thing via a different route. Please refer to this tutorial:

http://www.bundysoft.com/docs/doku.php?id=l3dt:userguide:ops:am#editing_the_attributes_map

Hopefully it explains how to do what you want. However, I only just wrote it a few minutes ago, so it might be a little rough. Feedback is welcome.

Cheers,
Aaron.

Thank you for the speedy reply, and warm welcome.

I'll check out the demo and article ASAP.

I'd like to bump this topic. While L3DT pro supports export of alpha maps, it does not seem to support blending, only masking. This means when doing splatting you can see the very resolution of the alpha map in the terrain where 1 pixel is one texture and the next is another.

I'd like to see partial blending of the alpha maps so transitions and "dithered" areas look better. I am currently doing this by generating an 8X alpha map and scaling it back down. I'd like to not have to do this because the 8X takes a while and it's an extra step to convert the maps.

If L3DT would effectively do the same thing, then there's no real reason to support it, but if the effect could be achieved in a better way I'd love to see it incorporated.

Hi HK,

hunterkiller wrote:I'd like to bump this topic. While L3DT pro supports export of alpha maps, it does not seem to support blending, only masking.

Calculating non-binary alpha layers are on the to-do list for the release after next.

Cheers,
Aaron.

Thread resurrection time! (after three years?!)

hunterkiller wrote:...While L3DT pro supports export of alpha maps, it does not seem to support blending, only masking...

Smooth alpha map blending is now supported.

Best regards,
Aaron.