The Stamp Tool

[General.Jung]

Hello Forum,

in the id tech 5 preview was a stamp tool. With that you can easyly set some little stamps in the texture. Works the Stamp Tool for Enemy Terriory: QUAKE Wars similar to this.

Source: http://mirror2.quakeunity.com/pub/quake4/movies/quakecon07_id_tech5_preview.wmv

[Slade05]

I got it.
He`s Yoda!

[[]v[]]

Yes Jung there is a stamp tool for the Quake Wars World Editor.

[General.Jung]

Hello []v[],

v[];113564']Yes Jung there is a stamp tool for the Quake Wars World Editor.
thanks for your reply. I know that. I want to know if it works similar to that in the new id Studio.

[MoP]

Yes, it works in an almost identical way. You have a set of "stamp" brushes in an editor window, you can select any of them and just apply as many as you like to the MegaTexture in the game.

[General.Jung]

Hello MoP,

thanks for you reply. Thats sounds really good. Thats saves really lots time.

[Fluffy_gIMp]

To clarify, the version of the stamp tool in ETQW is an earlier iteration of the one you saw demoed in id tech 5. As such, it does not have 'all' the functionality; in that you can't currently do things like mouse-over select existing stamps and remove them from the scene. The core functionality remains relatively the same, albeit through a slightly different interface.

[[]v[]]

How easy would it be to add our own textures for use in this function?

[Hoffa]

v[];115156']How easy would it be to add our own textures for use in this function?

Very easy, You define a diffuse, local, and mask image in a stamp material file (similar to a standard material file)

[General.Jung]

Hello Forum,

thanks for your replies. This is really great feature! Can make own stamps? Is the megatexture editing in the world editor like in the id Studio? Does it also supports megatextures till 280k^2?

[cptincognito]

To clarify, the version of the stamp tool in ETQW is an earlier iteration of the one you saw demoed in id tech 5. As such, it does not have 'all' the functionality; in that you can't currently do things like mouse-over select existing stamps and remove them from the scene. The core functionality remains relatively the same, albeit through a slightly different interface.

What happens when you drop a stamp using this tool- does it copy pixels into the huge bitmap or does it store the projection into a list that bakes into the megatexture at output? (I assume this is how rage gets its select/undo functionality with the red highlighted stamps)

[jRAD]

Hello Forum,

thanks for your replies. This is really great feature! Can make own stamps? Is the megatexture editing in the world editor like in the id Studio? Does it also supports megatextures till 280k^2?

You can create your own stamps. All you need is the images and a simple material file describing how to apply them to the MegaTexture.

We theoretically support a 280K^2 MegaTexture, but the disk space requirements would be quite large. Diffuse + Normal rendered would be 512GB, plus 256GB for an intermediate step plus the actual compressed MegaTexture which be probably be well over 10GB.

What happens when you drop a stamp using this tool- does it copy pixels into the huge bitmap or does it store the projection into a list that bakes into the megatexture at output? (I assume this is how rage gets its select/undo functionality with the red highlighted stamps)

Bingo, it's saved as a list of stamps that are baked in during the compile. The stamp is also uploaded into the section of the MegaTexture that you're working on at the time, but that's not saved back to disk; it's just a preview for your reference (it keeps things from getting slow as you add more stamps.)

[reyalp]

We theoretically support a 280K^2 MegaTexture, but the disk space requirements would be quite large. Diffuse + Normal rendered would be 512GB, plus 256GB for an intermediate step plus the actual compressed MegaTexture which be probably be well over 10GB.

If you did want to make an obscenely huge megatexture, could you arrange for large parts of it to be highly compressible while still having detail in some areas ?

Also, does an MT have to be square, or can it be any power of 2 rectangle ?

[MoP]

If you did want to make an obscenely huge megatexture, could you arrange for large parts of it to be highly compressible while still having detail in some areas ?

Also, does an MT have to be square, or can it be any power of 2 rectangle ?

I believe it's possible to variably compress a MegaTexture using a greyscale mask (eg. black for most compression, white for least compression) if you wanted to make a very large one with areas that wouldn't be as accessible/detailed as the main areas.

Not sure about the rectangle thing, I'm fairly sure it has to be square but I don't know for certain since we've never tried making a rectangular one :)

[General.Jung]

Hello Guys,

thank your for replies. The Stamp is really an interesting thing. I made a screenshot from above with r_showTris on. I think the square is the megatexture! Where does the megatexture ends?

[marmil]

To me it looked like the megatexture ended at the edge of the central play area and outside of that it was tiled (or mirrored?) on the surrounding terrain mesh. Fly back down a bit closer and you will be able to recognize parts of the metatexture from the central playable area in the outer terrain areas. You'll see the roads, the area that was painted darker under the lake area, the concrete areas by buildings, etc.

[Kamikazee]

To me it looked like the megatexture ended at the edge of the central play area and outside of that it was tiled (or mirrored?) on the surrounding terrain mesh. Fly back down a bit closer and you will be able to recognize parts of the metatexture from the central playable area in the outer terrain areas. You'll see the roads, the area that was painted darker under the lake area, the concrete areas by buildings, etc.
MoP actually said elsewhere that they reused the MegaTexture on those models. (after all, it still behaves like a material)

That is, if my memory serves me right.

[[]v[]]

Would be interesting to see how much mb's are saved by re-using the MT on the outer reaches of the map.