4 - Competent Add Damage Stages

[moonsense715]

Author: Di3HardNL

Skill level: 4

 

 

So you have made a building interior and/or exterior. But when you destroy it it looks exactly the same as first.

 

What we are going to do in this tutorial :

• Add damage emitters to your building
• Add damage cracks textures to your building
• Change the texture (color) look when the building gets destroyed.

In the Advanced Building Tutorial by Leaubi there was already explained how you could add damage emitters to your building, but it was not really clear how you could do it.

 

My screenshots are shown in 3DS Max, but it works exactly the same in RenX.

 

As sample I use my Airstrip interior.

 

 

1. Add damage emitters to your building

 

This is very simple once you know how to do it.

Create a box the size doesnt really matter but I use 0,3x0,3x0,3

Get this box in the position were you want to have an emitter for when the building is damaged.

Select this box and go to W3d Tools

First check the box Hide then Decheck the box Export Geometry

 

Now clone this box (Tab Edit -> Clone) as Copy

 

Name this box as the emitter you want to use. For example an existing emitter in Renegade e_19_fire1.w3d.

 

First move the box a little up, replace its color so you can see difference between the boxes. Then apply the following settings

 

Now link the box e_19_fire1 to the other box.

Click the Link button then press H and select your box. In my case box01.

 

Now you have an emitter set up.

 

Now we must indicate when it pops up.

Select your box (NOT EMITTERBOX) in my case box01. Then click on Graph Editors tab in top menu.

Then click New Track View Now add a Visibility Track

 

In 3ds Max like this :

 

In RenX like this :

 

Now you must select Add keys

In 3ds Max / RenX:

 

Now while Add Keys selected click anywhere in the graph track area. Click 3 times in different positions.

• For the first key select time 0 and value 0
• For the second key select time 2 and value 0
• For the third key select time 3 and value 1

(same screen for 3DS Max and RenX)

 

 

The stock renegade buildings have 5 stages.

Time 0 = 100 HP

Time 5 = Destroyed

 

Value 0 means invisible

Value 1 means visible

 

We selected for Time 3 value 1. So that means when the building is in the 3rd stage (nearly destroyed) the emitter will pop up.

 

Now you know how to create an emitter and how to timeactive it for buildings!

Down in this tutorial you will find how you have to export your building.

 

Tip:

If you want to use more then 1 emitter just select the 2 boxes and clone them again. The animation will be copied and it will keep linked to each other. The only thing you have to do is setting up the W3d Options (Tools) again.

 

 

2. Add damage crack textures to your building

 

I simply use an existing crack texture provided by the makers of Renegade. It has an alpha

channel which we need to keep. Open it in photoshop to see/modify it. its name is alpha_crack1.dds

 

But you need a .TGA texture. HERE is the .TGA of it. If you want to edit it, make sure when you save it again save as 32 Bit, or else the alpha channel will be gone.

 

Simply create a Plane with measurements 2 length 1 width.

Place it as close as possible against the wall for your emitters (if you have any)

 

Now put the texture on it, as we use alpha_crack1.tga now.

 

You will see its kinda stretchy

 

We can fix this by selecting the plane and go to Modifiers -> UV Coordinates UVW Map

Select the following settings to have 1 crack. After you applied this settings select Gizmo

And use the Move tool and use it by moving by the z Axis down.

 

In materials of this crack make sure you set in Pass1 -> Shader -> Blend Mode : Alpha blend

 

Now your crack texture is ready. For the trackview do exactly the same as we did for the emitter. So just scroll up and repeat the steps from Now we must indicate when it pops up

Down in this tutorial you will find how you have to export your building.

 

 

3. Change the texture (color) look when the building gets destroyed.

 

For this you need to have already existing meshes (wall, floor ceiling etc.) with textures applied.

 

I use as a sample the wall i use for my Airstrip interior.

 

This is the texture i use for the wall

 

Open the texture in Photoshop and change its color. I use CTRL+ALT+U to replace colors.

Result is this texture

 

Now get back to your modeling program select your wall mesh and clone this wall, as copy.

 

Now set your new texture to this clone. Now you have 2 meshes, but we have to indicate when they pop up again.

 

You have learned how to use the trackview now, but these two meshes have different settings, since we want the new texture to pop up when the building is destroyed.

 

Select the wall mesh for NORMAL texture and use the following settings in trackview:

 

For the first key select time 0 and value 1

For the second key select time 4 and value 0

For the third key select time 5 and value 0

 

Select the wall mesh for DAMAGED texture and use the following settings in trackview:

 

For the first key select time 0 and value 0

For the second key select time 6 and value 1

For the third key select time 7 and value 1

 

Thats it!

 

Make sure all your meshes have Physical, Projectile and Camera selected.

 

Now export as Hierarchical Animated Model Frames 0 To 7.

 

Check out your result ingame.

 

I have a video on youtube where i used these methods. Check it out here ->

 

I hope I helped some people alot with this tutorial, if you got any problems send me a message or something! markreijrink@hotmail.com

 

Happy modding!