Menu : TEXTURE

Command: Area:Parameters

Shortcut : None

This command changes the parameters of a previously defined texture area. Before executing the command, you should select as the target object either the texture area, or the surface. If the selected surface has several textures, DeskArtes asks you which texture area you wish to alter.

The command first asks you what texturing method you wish to apply, then some texturing details depending on the style. The style alternatives are:

  • Color image - A picture is mapped on the texture area. For example, a decal of a company logo on a product.
  • Solid texture - A procedural 3D solid texture is applied on the texture area. For example, wood grain passing through an object. It does not require a texture image to be specified, only the materials and scale coefficients for the texture. Procedural textures are really mathematical formulae that take the X, Y and Z coordinates of a point in space and calculates a color. Different formulae give the appearance of different materials.
  • Bounding surface – Use this option if you wish to create a texture that spreads over several surfaces or if a surface is difficult to texture using texture areas. The texture is first defined on an invisible bounding surface, from which it will be projected onto the actual surfaces.

Depending on which of the above options you have chosen you will be asked different parameters. These are explained now.

Material, Image and Bump Mapping

These texturing choices first show a list of texture files. These textures are found either in the current model directory, or in the texture library DA_textures. You may select any one of these files for texturing. For bump mapping, though, you may first need to convert the image to a gray scale (see command FILESÞFile:Convert).

If you do not find the desired texture file in the list, you may have the wrong model directory selected, the image may be named inconsistently, or it may be in a wrong format. The file must be saved with a name ending ...pic or ...pic.Z or ...rgb or ...rgb.Z. The File Window command FILESÞFile:Convert converts most other commonly used file formats to these formats.

Next, the system asks for one or more of the following details to be specified:

  • Number of replications - This allows the texture to be repeated a number of times in the texture area's horizontal and/or vertical directions. For instance, to define wallpaper with a regular flower pattern, draw one flower and replicate the image on the wall a number of times. This saves the trouble of making a large and memory intensive picture with many flowers on it.
  • Blurring - Smoothes the borders between individual pixels in the texture image making it look more natural and less computer generated. This technique is sometimes called anti-aliasing on other computer systems.
  • Adaptive mapping – It is common for textures that have been applied to surface to become distorted due to the underlying definition of the surface. Adaptive texturing minimizes this distortion of the texture. Adaptive mapping should nearly always be used, unless intentional distortion is required for a special effect.
  • Transparent background - Controls the background color of the texture. If transparent background is chosen, the background will be rendered in the same color as the actual surface. Otherwise, the texture will be displayed on the surface with its original background color.
  • Bump depth - This parameter determines how dramatic the bump effect will be when applying bump mapping. Higher values cause deeper bumps.

Solid textures

The following solid textures are available:

Bounding surfaces

This option should be chosen if you wish to create a texture that runs over several surfaces or if a surface is difficult to texture using texture areas.

Bounding surface texturing is normally created using the special TEXTUREÞBounding:.. commands. This command may be used if you later wish to check or change the parameters.

The normal texture area parameters (whether the texture is a color image or a bump map, etc.) are defined on the bounding surface, while the actual surface(s) only hold the information on the projection direction. See commands TEXTUREÞBounding:Object and Assign for the parameter explanations.