Description:

In this tutorial you will learn how to export a landscape mesh to the diesel engine.
This is an advanced tutorial that will aid you with reference when creating new content for graw
and not a step-by-step instruction.

What you will need:

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter with patch 1.16 or later.
3D Studio Max 7 with the dieselexporter installed.
Nemons bundle extractor

Contents:

tutorial.txt - This file.
Landscape_tutorial_max7.max - Maxfile containing the mesh
data\levels\custom_levels\your_level\texture_scope.xml - Texture scope for the level
data\objects\city\custom_level\custom_level_landscape.xml - Model file
data\objects\city\custom_level\materials.xml - Material file
data\units\city\u_custom_level.xml - Units file




General workflow

This is a short summary of the workflow that this tutorial covers.

We begin in 3d studio max, here we sculpt the landscape to it's desired shape and leave holes
for buildings that you want to add inside the editor. Then we texture the landscape and add a vertex
color channel to blend between different textures. When this is done we add ambient points to provide
accurate lighting of all dynamic objects in the game. Then the landscape is ready for export.

Once exported we set up a xml and materials file for the editor, we add the object in a new units file
and lastly add the textures to the level. Afterwards we include all these files in the level bundle.


Ok. Lets get to work.

The first thing you should do if you haven't done it yet is to unbundle the whole game (bundles\quick.bundle)
with Nemons extractor, this way you reach the textures inside 3d studio and have a look at other landscapes.
This is not completely necessary for this tutorial, but is recommended.


Inside 3d studio.

Load up 3dsmax 7 and open Landscape_tutorial_max7.max. It contains the root point, the landscape
(gg_mp_land), a backdrop to the landscape (gg_mp_landscape_01_backdrop) and 155 ambient points. The file
and the editor works in metric scale so set your system units to meters.


The root point.

The root point is the main node in any scene for graw. Nearly always should all nodes have this node
as its parent. In static meshes such as these it's ususally placed on 2,5m to 2,5 m, this is so that the root
point will be placed in the center of a square in the 5*5 m grid that is used in the editor.


Modelling:

What you should keep in mind when creating a landscape is that any face of the surface that has more
than 30 degrees (default value) of elevation will be impassible. Try to avoid very steep slopes if you
want the player to be able to walk upon them. If you plan to add some buildings into the landscape you must
plan ahead for this and create holes in the gound. Most buildings are built in a 5*5 m grid so leaving holes of
10*10, 10*20 and 20*20 m and such is a good start. You can use the editor to calculate the exact dimensions of
a particular building you wish to use.

The backdrop is just another landscape which provide a further silhouette outside the landscape.

Texturing:

the textures used for landscapes are tiling in both directions so you can tile them any way you want. If you add
a VetexPaint modifier to the landscape you will see that it's colored in black and white. This is done to blend
different textures together.

There are three materials blending in this example. They are named cliff_mud, dirt_mud and dirt_grass in the material editor.

If we have a look at data\objects\city\custom_level\materials.xml we will find how these materials are defined

ex:

<material name="dirt_mud" src="landscape" decal_material="dirt">
<diffuse_texture file="gg_dried_mud_xy_df"/>
<bump_normal_texture file="gg_dried_mud_xy_bm"/>

<self_illumination_texture file="gg_dirt_xy_df"/>
<distorsion_texture file="gg_dirt_xy_bm"/> (no typo, just swedish)
</material>

The first two maps (the bump and diffuse texture) are parts of hte first component of the blending texture,
the second two is the other component. If the vertex color is white, the first component will be used and
the more black the vertex color gets the more the other texture will be seen.

note: never mind the names of the textures (self illumination and distorsion), they are diffuse and
normal textures, they are just need to be mapped like that in theis special shader

ex:

<material name="cliff_mud" src="landscape" decal_material="dirt">
<diffuse_texture file="gg_dried_mud_xy_df"/>
<bump_normal_texture file="gg_dried_mud_xy_bm"/>

<self_illumination_texture file="gg_rock_xy_df"/>
<distorsion_texture file="gg_rock_xy_bm"/>
</material>

As you can see, dired mud is used as the first two maps in both dirt_mud and cliff_mud is gg_dried_mud_xy.
What this means is that if you paint 100% white in the seam between these textures the textures will fully blend
and the seam wont be noticed.

the textures in our examples blend in this manner:

cliff_mud <-> dirt_mud <-> dirt_grass

With some creativity you can create mud paths thorugh a grass patch, or rocky parts in a muddy area. You can also
set up new materials, and create new textures and blend them in any way imaginable.